Billy Joe Shaver (August 16, 1939 – October 28, 2020) was an American country singer and songwriter. He was a prominent figure in progressive and outlaw country.
Shaver joined the U.S. Navy on his 17th birthday. Upon his discharge, he worked a series of dead-end jobs, including trying to be a rodeo clown. About this time, he 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 continued to release records throughout the 1980s and 1990s; the most notable was the critically acclaimed Tramp On Your Street, released in 1993, which prominently featured the guitar playing of Eddy Shaver.
In 1996, Shaver took a part in the film 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).
After losing his wife, Brenda, and his mother to cancer in 1999, Shaver lost his son and longtime guitarist Eddy Shaver, who died at age 38 on December 31, 2000. The listed cause of death was a heroin overdose, but there were suspicious circumstances surrounding the case as his face was bruised as if he had been punched multiple times, and the daughter of an Austin police officer was at the residence at the time. Folk country artist Todd Snider wrote and dedicated his song "Waco Moon" to Eddy. Shaver nearly died 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, Shaver came back to release Freedom's Child in 2002.
In 1999, Shaver performed at the Grand Ole Opry. In November 2005, he performed on the CMT Outlaws in 2005. In 2006, Shaver was inducted in the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. He later 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. He lived in Waco, Texas.
In 2004, a documentary of his life, A Portrait of Billy Joe, was released. The documentary was directed by Luciana Pedraza. In 2006, a documentary of a concert, Billy Joe Shaver – North Carolina 2006 was released on YouTube along with a limited number of DVDs. The documentary was directed by Guy Schwartz, whom Eddie Shaver listed as a musical mentor, and was shot at the Stevens Center at University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
On April 2, 2007, police in Lorena, Texas, issued two arrest warrants for Shaver on charges of aggravated assault and possessing a firearm in a prohibited place, in connection with an incident outside a tavern, Papa Joe's Texas Saloon, in Lorena two days prior, on March 31, in which Shaver shot a man, Billy Bryant Coker, in the face with a handgun. Coker's injuries, however, were not reported as life-threatening.
In 2008, he co-starred with Bill Engvall and Billy Ray Cyrus in the made-for-TV USA Network movie, Bait Shop. In 2016, he had a cameo in the TV series Still the King, also alongside Cyrus.
He was acquitted in a Waco court on April 9, 2010, after testifying that he acted in self-defense, with friends Willie Nelson and Robert Duvall in attendance for support.
On May 22, 2014, Rolling Stone premiered the single-duet with Willie Nelson "Hard To Be An Outlaw". The album, Long in the Tooth was released on August 5, 2014, by Lightning Rod Records. After a 41-year career, Long in the Tooth became Shaver's first album to chart in Billboard's Top Country Albums, entering the chart at 19. The album also entered the Billboard 200, peaking at 157.
In an August 2014 NPR interview, Shaver said that he shot Coker because he was "such a bully" and that "I hit him right between a mother and a fucker. That was the end of that. He dropped his weapons and said, 'I'm sorry.' And I said, 'Well, if you had said that inside, there would have been no problem.'"
Comedian Norm Macdonald was an avid Shaver fan and personal friend, opening his book Based on a True Story with a quote from one of his songs, and praising his songwriting on his podcast Norm Macdonald Live. In 2018, Shaver appeared as a guest on Macdonald's Netflix program Norm Macdonald Has a Show. In addition, Shaver's song I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal, was chosen as the closing music for Macdonald's posthumous Netflix comedy release of 2022 Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special.
In 2019, Shaver received the Poet's Award from the Academy of Country Music to honor his achievements in songwriting.
Shaver died on October 28, 2020, from a stroke at the age of 81.
In 2022 a tribute album of Shaver's songs was released Live Forever: A Tribute To Billy Joe Shaver which include tracks from Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Ryan Bingham, Nikki Lane, Rodney Crowell, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Steve Earle, Nathaniel Rateliff, Amanda Shire, Margo Price, and others.
In 2023, Shaver appeared on Tanya Tucker’s critically acclaimed album Sweet Western Sound. Shaver’s voice appeared at the beginning to open the album and at the end to close the album.