Who Was Blaze Foley?

Blaze Foley If I Could

Blaze Foley, who was born as Michael David Fuller on December 18, 1949, died less than 40 years later from a gunshot wound on February 1, 1989. The singer-songwriter never achieved the fame that some of his friends did, but Blaze Foley, as he became known, left us some beauty from his troubled life.

I ran across Foley’s name recently while reading John Prine: In Spite of Himself by Eddie Huffman. In the book about singer-songwriter John Prine, it mentioned that one of Prine’s recordings I really like was a song written by Blaze Foley. Prine is quoted about falling in love with the song before realizing that he had known the songwriter many years earlier. The story made me look up more about the man who wrote “Clay Pigeons.”

Foley also wrote “If I Could Only Fly,” a song Merle Haggard performed for decades before making it the title song on his 2000 album. Foley hung around in that Texas group of songwriters that also included Townes Van Zandt.

Foley lived an interesting, although short, life. Townes even wrote a song about Foley (“Blaze’s Blues”) as did Lucinda Williams (“Drunken Angel”).

Foley was shot dead in 1989 reportedly because he was protecting an old man from being abused by his son. Foley was only 39.

Below, Foley performs “If I Could Only Fly” at a friend’s wedding.

Movies and a Book About Foley

There are a number of resources to learn more about Foley, such as the book Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley (North Texas Lives of Musician Series), written by Foley’s lover Sybil Rosen about her experiences living with the singer. He wrote “If I Could Only Fly” about her.

There is a documentary about Foley’s life entitled Duct Tape Messiah (2011 and 2013), with the title referencing Foley’s practice of using duct tape to decorate his clothes. The movie was directed and produced by Kevin Triplett.

You may find out more about the documentary on the film’s website. There, you may also watch a short version of the film, Duct Tape Messiah.

Finally, Foley likely will be more well known soon. At the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, a movie about Foley recently garnered significant attention. The movie, Blaze (2018), is directed by and written by Ethan Hawke. Benjamin Dickey stars as Foley. Additionally, Kris Kristofferson plays his father, Alia Shawkat plays Rosen, and singer-songwriter Charlie Sexton plays Townes Van Zandt.

Although Foley never achieved the fame he deserved during his lifetime, somewhere there is a drunken angel laughing.