Billy Joe Shaver
(born August 16, 1939 in Corsicana, Texas) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Shaver's 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me
is a classic in the outlaw country genre.
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BILLY JOE SHAVER TICKETS
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Biography
Shaver was raised by his mother, Victory Watson Shaver, after his father Virgil left the family before he was born. Until he was 12, he spent a great deal of time with his grandmother in
Corsicana, Texas so that his mother could work in
Waco. He sometimes accompanied his mother to her job at a local nightclub, where he began to be exposed to country music.
[1]
Shaver's mother remarried about the time that his grandmother died, so he and his older sister Patricia moved in with their mother and new stepfather. Shaver left school after the eighth grade to help his uncles pick cotton, but occasionally returned to school to play sports.
[2]
Shaver joined the
U.S. Navy on his seventeenth birthday. Upon his discharge, he worked a series of dead-end jobs, including trying to be a
rodeo cowboy. About this time, Shaver met and married Brenda Joyce Tindell. They had one son,
John Edwin, known as Eddy, who was born in 1962. The two divorced and remarried several times.
Shaver took a job at a lumber mill to make ends meet. One day his right hand (his dominant hand) became caught in the machinery, and he lost the better part of two fingers and contracted a serious infection. He eventually recovered, and taught himself to play the guitar without those missing fingers.
Shaver decided that life was too short to do something he didn't enjoy, so he set out one day to hitchhike to
L.A.. He couldn't get a ride west, and ended up accompanying a man who dropped him off just outside of
Memphis, Tennessee. The next ride brought him to
Nashville, where he found a job as a songwriter for $50/week.
His work came to the attention of
Waylon Jennings, who filled most of his album
Honky Tonk Heroes
with Shaver's songs. Other artists, including
Elvis Presley and
Kris Kristofferson, began to record Shaver's music. This led to his own record deal.
Unfortunately for Shaver, the first few recording companies he signed with soon folded.
He was never able to gain widespread recognition as a singer, although he never stopped recording his own music. On his records, he has been accompanied by other major rock and country music musicians like
Willie Nelson,
Nanci Griffith,
Chuck Leavell and
Dickey Betts (of the
Allman Brothers),
Charlie Daniels,
Flaco Jimenez, and
Al Kooper.
After losing his wife, Brenda, and his mother to cancer in 1999, Shaver lost his son and longtime guitarist Eddy, who died at age 38 of a
heroin overdose on
December 31,
2000. Shaver nearly died himself the following year when he had a heart attack on stage during an
Independence Day show at
Gruene Hall in
New Braunfels, Texas. After successful heart surgery, Billy Joe came back to release a new album entitled
Freedom's Child
in 2002.
In 1999, Shaver was invited to perform at the
Grand Ole Opry. In November 2005, Billy Joe Shaver performed on the
CMT Outlaws 2005. In 2006, Shaver was inducted in the
Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. He recently served as spiritual advisor to Texas independent gubernatorial candidate
Kinky Friedman. For his efforts, the
Americana Music Convention awarded him their Lifetime Achievement Award in Songwriting.
[3] He currently lives in
Waco, Texas.
Shaver sings the themes to the Adult Swim Television show,
Squidbillies.
Most notable records
Billy Joe Shaver's debut album was
Old Five and Dimers Like Me
(1973). Almost every song on the album has become a classic (particularly the title track, as well as "I Been to Georgia On a Fast Train" and "Willy The Wandering Gypsy and Me"), many being performed by other artists such as
David Allan Coe.
When I Get My Wings
(1976) included "Aint No God In Mexico" (also a hit for Waylon Jennings).
Gypsy Boy
(1977) included "Honky Tonk Heroes".
Shaver is also known for his hit "Live Forever", co-written by his son Eddy, which was also performed by
The Highwaymen. Shaver also wrote numerous songs for artists such as
Patty Loveless and
Willie Nelson.
Shaver continued to release records throughout the 1980's and 1990's; the most notable was the critically acclaimed
Tramp On Your Street,
released in 1993, which prominently featured the guitar playing of Eddy Shaver.
Billy Joe Shaver's most recent album, 2007's
country gospel style
Everybody's Brother
was
Grammy-nominated. Many of the songs are duets with artists such as
Johnny Cash,
Kris Kristofferson and
Tanya Tucker. Musicians playing on the album included
Randy Scruggs,
Laura Cash and
Marty Stuart.
Shooting in Lorena, Texas
Police in Lorena, TX about 80 miles north of Austin, issued arrest warrants for Shaver April 2, 2007 on charges of aggravated assault and possessing a firearm in a prohibited place. This was in connection with an incident outside a tavern, Papa Joe's Texas Saloon in Lorena on March 31, 2007, in which Shaver shot a man, Billy Bryant Coker, in the face with a handgun. Coker's injuries were reported as not life-threatening.
Witnesses interviewed by police report hearing Shaver saying "where do you want it?" and then, after the shot was fired, "Tell me you are sorry" and "No one tells me to shut up." Coker told police the attack was unprovoked. Shaver's attorney declared that Shaver had shot Coker "in self-defense" after Coker threatened Shaver with a knife.
[4]
After unsuccessfully attempting to surrender to police in Austin, TX, who were unaware of the warrant, Shaver turned himself in at McLennan County Jail in Waco, TX on Tuesday, April 3. He was released after an hour on $50,000 bond and gave his scheduled performance at Waterloo Records in Austin that evening,
[5] [6] where he reportedly told fans, "Don't forget to pray for me, and tell your kids to pray for me, too."
Acting
In 1996, Shaver took a part in the movie
The Apostle
, playing opposite
Robert Duvall. He had additional speaking roles in the Duvall film
Secondhand Lions
(2003) and in
The Wendell Baker Story
(2005).
In 2004, a documentary of his life,
A Portrait of Billy Joe
was released. The documentary was directed by
Luciana Pedraza.
In 2008, He co-starred with
Bill Engvall and
Billy Ray Cyrus in the made for TV USA Network Movie,
Bait Shop
.
Quotes
- "If you don't love Jesus, you can go to hell."
- "May the God of your choice bless you." (Lent to his friend Kinky Friedman for his gubernatorial campaign)
- "God loves you when you dance." (used extensively at a show in Kansas City.)
- "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. So I don't work."
- "This next tune... today's Father's Day, and my son passed away this New Year's Eve, and uh, I don't know, a lot of y'all knew him. He was a great guitar player by the name of Eddy Shaver, and this is a song that he and I wrote together and we're gonna do it here. Robert (Earl Keen) was so graciously... (Robert interrupts requesting Todd Snider's appearance) Yeah, bring Todd Snider up here, he's a good friend of ours. Thank you Robert, thank you for this cause, uh, it's Father's Day and it means a lot to me." (KPIG live performance of "Live Forever" from the Robert Earl Keen Swine Soiree in Watsonville, California in 2001 where Snider, not knowing Shaver was in attentdance, had earlier performed the song "Waco Moon" written in memory of his friend Eddy Shaver who played guitar on Snider's Debut record "Songs for the Daily Planet.")
Discography
Studio albums
| Year
| Album
| US Christian
| Label
|
| 1973
| Old Five and Dimers Like Me
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| Monument
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| 1976
| When I Get My Wings
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| Capricorn
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| 1977
| Gypsy Boy
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| 1981
| I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal
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| 1982
| Billy Joe Shaver
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| Columbia
|
| 1987
| Salt of the Earth
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| 1993
| Tramp on Your Street
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| Volcano
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| 1995
| Unshaven: Live at Smith's Olde Bar
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|
| 1996
| Highway of Life
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| Justice
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| 1998
| Victory
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| New West
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| 1999
| Electric Shaver
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| 2001
| The Earth Rolls On
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| 2002
| Freedom's Child
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| Compadre
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| 2003
| Live from Down Under
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| Sphincter
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| Try and Try Again
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| Compadre
|
| 2004
| Billy and the Kid
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| 2005
| A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver: Live
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| The Real Deal
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| 2007
| Storyteller: Live at the Bluebird
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| Sugar Hill
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| Everybody's Brother
| 50
| Compadre
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Compilations
| Year
| Album
| Label
|
| 1994
| Honky Tonk Heroes
| Bear Family
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| 1995
| Restless Wind
| Razor & Tie
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| 2007
| Greatest Hits
| Compadre
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Singles
| Year
| Single
| Chart Positions
| Album
|
| US Country
| CAN Country
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| 1973
| "I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train"
| 88
|
| Old Five and Dimers Like Me
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| 1978
| "You Asked Me To"
| 80
|
| Gypsy Boy
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| 1993
| "Live Forever"
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| 96
| Tramp on Your Street
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Footnotes
- The Austin Chronicle: Archives: 1997-1998
- Biography
- Billy Joe Shaver
- http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/pdf/04/040407shaver_affidavit.pdf
- Arrest Warrant Issued For Billy Joe Shaver
- Billy Joe Shaver in and out of jail