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1.	Pancho and Lefty remain 2 figures in a mysterious haze
	JEFF ELDER Q. Townes Van Zandt wrote the song "Pancho and Lefty." In an interview before his death, he claimed Pancho was not Pancho Villa. This seems unlikely, and he never mumbled anything about Lefty. Who then were Pancho and Lefty? -- Jim Chamberlin

Q. Townes Van Zandt wrote the song "Pancho and Lefty." In an interview before his death, he claimed Pancho was not Pancho Villa. This seems unlikely, and he never mumbled anything about Lefty. Who then were Pancho and Lefty? -- Jim Chamberlin

"Pancho and Lefty," a No. 1 country hit for Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard in 1983, begins with the poetic lines:

Livin' on the road my friend Was gonna keep you free and clean Now you wear your skin like iron And your breath's as hard as kerosene

Few hit songs approach its poetry, but after decades of popularity, the song remains something of a mystery.

Van Zandt did say that when he wrote the song he remembered thinking to himself that the Pancho in the song was not Pancho Villa. And it's not even clear from the lyrics if Pancho and Lefty ever met.

Van Zandt's close friend, songwriter Steve Earle, liked to joke that the song is about "Billy Graham and the Guru Maharaji." But Earle also said the verse above is about the hard, rambling life that Van Zandt himself led.