The movie's lead character, Claude Barbee, is actually named after the real life Texas outlaw who killed a Deputy in a gunfight on a west Texas ranch in the early 1900's. Barbee, whose brother was a Texas Ranger, fled before being captured, but escaped. He was pursued by Pat Garrett at one point, but gave the lawman the slip and made it out to California, where he lived under an assumed name until he died in 1949.
Loosely based on the notorious Texas train robber Sam Bass and his outlaw gang, leading up to their 1878 ambush in Round Rock, Texas.
The film's original title, "Red on Yella, Kill a Fella," is an old saying used to help people identify a potentially deadly coral snake.
Several West Texas locations from previous films were used during the movie's opening sequence, including: Fandango (1985), Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998), Assim Caminha a Humanidade (1956), Três Enterros (2005), Paris, Texas (1984) and Laredo: O Último Desafio (1995). One of the film's directors, Duane Graves, has made a hobby of photographing hundreds of movie locations around the world as they appear now.
The crew repaired 17 flat tires on vehicles during production, which journeyed them across 600 miles of rugged Texas locations.