Outlaw Country Icon
Billy Joe Shaver
Dead at 81
His songs were recorded by Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson
- Photo: Giovanni Gallucci
- Published Oct 28, 2020
Billy Joe Shaver
— an American singer and songwriter whose work popularized the outlaw country movement— has died.
Shaver passed away today in Waco, TX, after suffering a stroke.
He was 81.
Shaver is recognized as one of country music's original outlaws, penning songs that would go on to be recorded by Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Elvis Presley and more. The late artist wrote or co-wrote every song on Jennings' formative 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes,
was counted as a favourite writer of Johnny Cash,
and was called "the greatest living songwriter" by Willie Nelson in 2010.
Born in Coriscana, TX, on August 16, 1939, Shaver was raised by his mother, Victory Watson Shaver, and first discovered country music through accompanying her to her job at a local nightclub.
At 17, he joined the U.S. Navy and would return to Texas upon being discharged. A job at a lumber mill saw Shaver lose most of two fingers on his right hand, and he learned to play guitar in spite of the missing digits upon his recovery.
After Shaver's return from the navy, he met and married Brenda Joyce Tindell,
whom he would divorce and remarry several times. In 1962, the couple had one son, John Edwin "Eddy" Shaver, who would go on to play guitar alongside his father.
Shaver would soon hitchhike to Nashville in 1966 and was invited to pitch his work at RCA by singer-songwriter Bobby Bare.
"I didn't want your normal Nashville songwriter, and Billy Joe came in one morning and he sang me some songs and I thought, 'That fucker's crazy,' " Bare recalled to the Washington Post in 2018. "Then I got to thinking about it and I said, 'Hell, that's what I'm looking for' and [ran] him down. And he signed up to write for me. I think I only paid him $50 a week."
Kris Kristofferson recorded Shaver's "Good Christian Soldier" for his 1971 sophomore album The Silver Tongued Devil and I. The following year, he invited Shaver to the 1972 Dripping Springs Reunion in Texas, where the songwriter caught the attention of Waylon Jennings through playing the Willie Nelson-inspired "Willy the Wanderin' Gypsy and Me."
Jennings took an interest in Shaver's songwriting, but failed to return his calls after meeting at Dripping Springs. Shaver travelled to Nashville to give Jennings an ultimatum at a recording studio. As he told the Post in 2018, "[Jennings] said, 'What do you want, hoss?' I said: 'Man, tell you what. I've got these songs like you said and you said you'd do an album of them, and if you don't at least listen to them, I'm going to whip your ass here in front of God and everybody.' "
Shaver performed a selection for Jennings including "Ain't No God in Mexico," "Old Five and Dimers" and "Honky Tonk Heroes." The last song would become the title track of Jennings' 1973 full-length, now regarded as a landmark outlaw country recording. Shaver would release his Kristofferson-produced debut full-length, Old Five and Dimers Like Me, that same year through Monument.
Not long after the release of Old Five and Dimers Like Me, Monument soon folded, leading Shaver to sign with Capricorn for 1976's When I Get My Wings and 1977's Gypsy Boy. Nevertheless, he would continue recording into 1980's, playing alongside the likes of Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, Ben Keith, Karl Himmel, Nicolette Larson and son John Edwin on his solo efforts.
Shaver lost both his mother and wife Brenda in 1999, ahead of John Edwin dying of a heroin overdose in 2000 at age 38. Shaver himself nearly died in 2001 after suffering a heart attack onstage in Texas. Upon recovering, he returned to music with 2002's Freedom's Child and continued recording and touring until his death. His final album is 2014's Long In the Tooth.
Outside of music, Shaver appeared in Robert Duvall's 1996 film The Apostle and joined him again for speaking roles in 2003's Secondhand Lions and 2005's The Wendell Baker Story. Shaver's life and work were examined in 2004 documentary A Portrait of Billy Joe.
In 2007, Shaver was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and possessing a firearm in a prohibited place after shooting a man in the face outside a bar. He was acquitted in 2010 after testifying that he acted in self-defence.
Shaver was also name checked by Bob Dylan on "I Feel a Change Comin' On" from 2009's Together Through Life.
Dylan sings, "I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver / And I'm reading James Joyce / Some people they tell me / I've got the blood of the land in my voice."
Last year, Shaver received the Poet's Award from the Academy of Country Music for his songwriting work.
Find tributes to the late songwriter from contemporaries and listeners below.
Billy Joe Shaver might've been the only true outlaw who ever made his living writing about the inner workings of his heart. The realest of them all.
— Jason IsBOO (@JasonIsbell) October 28, 2020
I'm saddened to learn that Billy Joe Shaver has passed away. Billy Joe opened for me on one of my early tours and was always amazing. His stories were captivating. He will be sorely missed. My condolences go out to his family, friends and fans.
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) October 28, 2020
One of the original outlaws of country music, Billy Joe Shaver recorded the Squidbillies theme for us in a church outside of Austin. He was a genius songwriter, had a great sense of humor and gave our show instant credibility. RIP Billy Joe Shaver.
— @Squidbillies October 28, 2020
Oh no! Man BJS was so good. I have Like 15 play lists and he's in 10 of em. Looks like his song "live forever" has come true.
❤️RT @SIRIUSXM: Rest in peace to Outlaw Country legend Billy Joe Shaver, who has died at the age of 81.— Larry The Cable Guy (@GitRDoneLarry) October 2
20
RIP Billy Joe Shaver just lost a friend & I am totally heartbroken. 💔 pic.twitter.com/A1UJxTDvpx
— JESSE DAYTON (@jessedayton) October 28, 2020
RIP Billy Joe Shaver. We opened our first show for him at Smith's Olde Bar. #legend — nathan followill (@doctorfollowill) October 2020
🎶 when my day on earth has ended and the race is overrun, I will melt into the likeness of my own beloved ones...🎶
— @WEarlBrown) October 28, 2020
Billy Joe Shaver was an 8th grade dropout; he was a roustabout always up for a fight; he was a poet. Unlike most of the roughhewn poets I've known...
When Keith Christopher was in my band, he once told me that he was w/ Billy Joe Shaver on the way to a gig & they stopped at McDonald's. Couple miles later BJS tapped Keith on the shoulder & handed him an empty McD's bag with the lyrics to Live Forever he'd just written on it.
— Aaron Lee Tasjan (@aaronleetasjan1)
Billy Joe Shaver: 'Tramp on Your Street'Zoo/Praxis 72445-11063; CD and cassette.
At a time when country music has been reduced to an arena-ready formula, Billy Joe Shaver is a blotch on the horizon.
Unapologetically raw, the 52-year-old Texas songwriter was the inspiration for Waylon Jennings's persona and created the songs for his watershed 1973 album, "Honky-Tonk Heroes."
Mr. Shaver guts feelings and strings them over taut arrangements anchored by his son Eddie's stinging guitar.
Ragged emotions are something Mr. Shaver earned through living, and that hard-won knowledge infuses "Tramp on Your Street," his first recording in 10 years.
Whether it's the roughneck bump and shuffle of "Georgia on a Fast Train," with Mr. Shaver yowling the lyrics of bumpkin protest, or the medication grass of "Live Forever," these are songs of redemption.
In his world, though, redemption takes many forms: unabashed -- and unreal -- lust ("The Hottest Thing in Town"), surrender to a higher power ("If I Give My Soul") and, somewhere between, yearning (the fragile "When Fallen Angels Fly," the eerie "I Want Some More").
Cooking: Daily inspiration, delicious recipes and other updates from Sam Sifton and NYT Cooking.Mr. Shaver once saw Hank Williams and sang of the experience: "His body was worn, but his spirit was free/And he sang every song, looking right straight at me," offering self-revelation in the process. With a gruff voice and awkward phrasing, he knows that truth isn't pretty. Still, he presents the tales and insights of a well-traveled soul wrapped in a buzzing barbed-wire guitar and a backbeat that crashes like a garden gate.
Sidestepping Nashville's slickness for the grit of stripped-bare writing and playing, Mr. Shaver is left to the jagged realities of everyday life that once made country so cutting.
HOLLY GLEASON
Truly brilliant songwriter. Another Texas music legend gone. Thanx a million for the songs Billy Joe Shaver ♥️ MI56fpcluf
— Low Cut Connie (@LowCutConnie) October 28, 2020