Guy Clark nasceu o 6 de novembro de 1941 em Texas, EUA. Foi casado com Susanna Clark e Susan Spaw. Morreu o 17 de maio de 2016 em Nashville, Tennessee, EUA.
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.