Guy Clark wurde am 6 November 1941 in Monahans, Texas, USA geboren. Er war mit Susanna Clark und Susan Spaw verheiratet. Er starb am 17 Mai 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
In the late 1960s, he went to Houston, where he played folk music on a club circuit that included contemporaries Van Zandt and Eric Taylor as well as blues legends Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb. He spent time in San Francisco and Los Angeles which inspired his songs "Madonna w/ Child ca. 1969" and "L.A. Freeway," before moving to Nashville in 1971.