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Townsend Miller is a character who should not exist in the real world, but for over a decade he was one of the unique personalities comprising the outlaw country scene that permeated Austin in the seventies. He is a throwback to a time when America was great, and dinosaurs like Hunter S. Thompson roamed the country disguised as journalists.

Townsend’s life reads like a tall tale, with one outrageous event following another. He set a world record for catching the largest long-nosed garfish (and ignited a controversy that burns to this day), but he is best remembered for reporting on Austin’s country music for the Austin American Statesman from 1972 to 1983. It wasn’t just the reporting that made him memorable, but also the way he reported. He led a double life—spending his days in an office and his nights in honky-tonks.

He was one of a kind. Things just happened to him, even when he didn’t want them to—like the months-long battle he waged against a particularly stubborn case of the hiccups. Even his death was dramatic and mysterious; his body was found one morning next to a burning car on the shores of Town Lake.