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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nThe Texas legend\u2019s singular songs are inspired by \u00a0 his remarkable life\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Billy Joe Shaver\u2019s weathered Texas accent is every bit as world-weary as one might expect. After all, at 75, he\u2019s lived a full life, from a hardscrabble childhood to personal tragedy to a brush with the law. Meanwhile Shaver\u2019s formidable songwriting talent has earned respect from loyal fans including Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and many others.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out a long time ago that if you\u2019re honest, you have to write about things you know,\u201d says Shaver. \u201cSo I decided to just be honest, which made it necessary to write about the way I felt and the things that happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaver\u2019s latest album, Long in the Tooth<\/i>, is an example. With songs that delve into an array of issues, Shaver\u2019s first studio album in six years features friends Willie Nelson, Tony Joe White and Leon Russell. \u201cI\u2019m real satisfied with it,\u201d Shaver says. \u201cI wanted the material to be fresh right out of the cooker. I wanted this<\/p>\n
album to be special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaver deserves to be pleased. Raised by a single mother, he left school after eighth grade and picked cotton, joined the Navy at 17, then took a series of low-wage jobs\u2014including working at a lumber mill where he lost two fingers on his right hand in an accident. Yet when it came to his songwriting, he was focused. \u201cI knew I was good,\u201d says Shaver. \u201cI\u2019ve been writing since I was 8. When I cut my fingers off, I fell back on music. I said, \u2018God, if you help me get through this, I\u2019ll do what I\u2019m supposed to do.\u2019 I knew I could<\/p>\n
make it in music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaver hitchhiked to California to seek his fortune, only to end up in Nashville. \u201cI tried to go to L.A., but I couldn\u2019t get a ride because I guess I was on the wrong side of the road,\u201d he laughs. \u201cThe first guy that came along set me on the road to Nashville. It was just luck. Or maybe it was the will of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaver landed a gig as a songwriter for $50 a week, and in 1973 Waylon Jennings put him on the map when he recorded Honky Tonk Heroes<\/i>, comprised nearly entirely of Shaver\u2019s tunes. The album is still revered as the first example of country\u2019s \u201coutlaw movement.\u201d \u201cWaylon was great, but it was a double-edged sword,\u201d recalls Shaver. \u201cHe told Rolling Stone <\/i>that he would never cut another one of my songs because I was getting all the credit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The album opened doors for Shaver, allowing him to record his debut set, 1973\u2019s Old Five and Dimers Like Me<\/i>\u2014produced and financed by Kris Kristofferson. \u201cI still don\u2019t know if it shook the world, but it\u2019s solid,\u201d Shaver says.<\/p>\n
Despite the early triumphs, life challenges continued. Shaver married wife Brenda three different times and divorced her twice. In 1999, she died of cancer, months after Shaver lost his mother. The following year, his son, guitarist Eddy Shaver, succumbed to a heroin overdose. The year after, Shaver suffered a heart attack onstage and underwent heart surgery.<\/p>\n
In 2007, Shaver was accused of shooting a man following a confrontation outside a Texas bar where witnesses overheard Shaver saying, \u201cWhere do you want it?\u201d After initially fleeing the scene, he turned himself in and was later acquitted. It led him to write \u201cWacko from Waco,\u201d recounting the incident. Austin-based country artist Dale Watson was inspired to pen \u201cWhere Do You Want It.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had my moments,\u201d reflects Shaver, \u201cbut I\u2019ve taken it well. I\u2019m proud that I\u2019ve been able to stand up and carry on. There\u2019s always someone who has it worse than you. I don\u2019t feel like I was picked on or kicked down. That\u2019s just the luck of the draw. You play the hand you\u2019re dealt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BILLY JOE SHAVER The Texas legend\u2019s singular songs are inspired by \u00a0 his remarkable life\u00a0 Billy Joe Shaver\u2019s weathered Texas accent is every bit as world-weary as one might expect. After all, at 75, he\u2019s lived a full life, from a hardscrabble childhood to personal tragedy to a brush with the law. Meanwhile Shaver\u2019s formidable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[4770,7660],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14695,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14693\/revisions\/14695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}