The way I had always heard the story was that Steve tried to pitch the song for Arlo right after a show when Arlo was tired. Arlo asked Steve to buy him a beer, and agreed to listen only until he finished the beer. And the rest is history as they say.

According to Arlo that's not exactly true. What Steve actually asked Arlo to do was pitch the The City of New Orleans to Johnny Cash. Arlo did (hey, it's a great song). Johnny Cash passed on the song because he didn't want to typecast as just a singer of train songs, so Arlo recorded it himself.