Blaze Foley, Soap Creek Saloon, 1983, by C.P. Vaughn. Courtesy Layna Vaughn The collected stories of Blaze Foley 1. Tried for a long time but I think I can’t win “He’s only gone crazy once,” Townes Van Zandt said. “Decided to stay.” Blaze Foley was thirty-nine years old when he was shot and killed with a .22-caliber rifle, seven years younger than I am now, though as far as I can tell he looked a good deal older than I do now every day of his life.