The only thing you will leave this world with that you didn't have when you got here is your name. Billy Joe Shaver will indeed live forever because he has written his own place in music history, always staying true to himself by expressing his singular take on life in a sparse, poetic style all his own. If you don't know Billy Joe Shaver by his name or by his face, you will know him by his songs. They are his legacy to the world, simple truths set to music with unforgettable words. If art is the tool man uses to express himself, then Billy Joe Shaver says it better than just about anybody else can.

"Nobody here will ever find me, but I will always be around. Just like the songs I leave behind me, I'm gonna' live forever now."

Born August 16, 1939 into humble origins, Billy Joe claims Corsicana, Texas as his birthplace. He was actually raised in nearby Emhouse, Texas but Billy Joe says, "I got tired of explaining that I said in Emhouse, not in a henhouse." His mother's name was Victory Odessa Watson Shaver, and Billy Joe says she was "a kinda' honky tonk gal." He characterizes his father, Virgil Lee Shaver, as "a pretty wild old boy who run moonshine and all kinds of stuff." His father left Billy Joe's mother before Billy Joe was born, leaving her to raise both Billy Joe and his older sister Patricia on her own.

Those years during the tail end of the Great Depression were a hard time to make a living in rural east central Texas. Looking for less back-breaking work than picking cotton, Billy Joe's mother left him and his sister in the care of her mother, Birdie Lee Watson. She went to nearby Waco, Texas where she got a job working at a honky tonk. She made more money serving drinks to the roughneck crowd who frequented the place than she ever could picking cotton.

"The honky tonk where she worked was named Green Gables," Billy Joe says, "and it was owned by an old gal named Blanche." Sometimes on visits to his mother during the summer, Billy Joe would tag along with her to work at the Green Gables. He would dance and sing with the music on the jukebox, earning pocket change when somebody would occasionally toss a coin his way. These early memories are immortalized in Billy Joe Shaver's autobiographical, pivotal song, "Honky Tonk Heroes."

"Piano roll blues danced holes in my shoes. There weren't another other way to be. For lovable losers, no account boozers and Honky Tonk Heroes like me."

While picking cotton back at the farm, Billy Joe listened to the songs of the black people working alongside him in the fields. Their music made an indelible impression on young Billy Joe. He started making up his own songs, telling stories the way he thought they ought to be told while singing them to the music he heard from inside himself. He literally sang for his supper atop a cracker barrel at the general store in Emhouse, hoping that the owner would extend more credit to stretch his grandma's old age pension. "I guess I started performing when I was about five or six years old," Billy Joe recalls.

"Well I'd Just thought I'd mention, my grandma's old age pension is the reason why I'm standin' here today."

Billy Joe tells of another early memory which had a great impact on his growing talent for song writing. "I used to walk barefoot the five miles or so down the train track into town and manage to get into the Wonder Bread Company and listen to such acts as the Light Crust Doughboys and Homer & Jethro. Once I even heard Hank Williams play." Nobody seemed to notice the then unknown musician on stage, nor did they pay much attention to Billy Joe. "They was too busy drinkin' and gambling and such. I had to shinny up a pole so I could see him. When he seen that I was watching him, bug-eyed, he sang lookin' right straight at me. He sang two songs, and there wasn't much hubbub about it. He got down off the stage and left, without anyone except me taking much notice. After he got through playing, I slid back down the pole, and I left too. I had stars in my eyes. I was struck. And I walked the five miles back down the railroad tracks to home."

"A long time ago, no shoes on my feet. I walked ten miles of train track to hear Hank Williams sing."

Billy Joe would carry the songs he heard Hank Williams sing that night home with him, later singing what he remembered and improvising what he didn't. He had no musical training and no instrument to play, but still Billy Joe sang his heart out. He scarcely remembered the words, much less understood them. Billy Joe does recall with great clarity, however, the "whopping" he got when his grandmother caught him sneaking out. "I was always takin' off somewhere, every chance I got," explaining that from very early on in his life he was constantly going somewhere else. "I always reserve the right to leave anywhere and anyplace at any time," Billy Joe declares.

Billy Joe credits the good Christian values that have helped him throughout his lifetime to both his grandmother and his mother. "My mother worked in honky tonks in both Waco and Dallas, but later on in her life she was a good Christian lady," he explains.

"There's an old familiar hillside overlooking Emhouse, Texas, where I left some childhood memories layin' round. I can almost hear the singin', I can still remember praying, at them old campground meetings eatin' chicken on the ground."

Billy Joe's mother remarried, and her children rejoined her in Waco when their grandmother died. Billy Joe was then twelve years old. The first person to offer him encouragement was a young English teacher named Miss Legg who taught at the La Vega Junior High School in Waco. She recognized the budding talent in the youngster and encouraged him to write poetry. After he moved into his stepfather's house, Billy Joe really got to taking off because he recalled, "nobody really cared whether I went or stayed anyway." Billy Joe left school after he finished the eighth grade and was passed along from one uncle to the other to work on their farms. He would sporadically return to school so that he could play sports, football in particular.

Billy Joe enlisted in the Navy on the day he turned seventeen in 1956. He continued to write his poetry, although secretive about it, "because I did not want people to think I was a sissy." Many of his early poems are dedicated to Miss Legg, the young teacher who first extended him a helping hand.

"I been to Georgia on a fast train, honey, I wuddn't born no yesterday. Got a good Christian raisin' and a eighth grade education, ain't no need in y'all treatin' me this way."

The Navy sent Billy Joe to California for training as a medical corpsman. Elvis Presley, coincidentally, was on that same flight with Billy Joe. Elvis would later record "You Asked Me To," a song co-written by Billy Joe Shaver and Waylon Jennings. "Because I was a songwriter, I had an open invitation to visit Graceland, but I never did. I wish now that I had," Billy Joe says. Ironically, Elvis Presley died on Billy Joe's birthday August 16th, in 1977.

After he was discharged from the Navy, Billy Joe returned to Texas and a series of low-paying, dead end jobs. He tried his hand at bull riding and did "just about everything you can do with cows and horses." Many of his songs contain references to cowboys and his rodeo days, but much of that is only poetic license. Billy Joe says, "The truth is that I only rode one bull in my life. I got on a bunch of them, but I only rode one."

"Hey ride me down easy Lord, ride me on down. Leave word in the dust where I lay. Been a rodeo bum, a son-of-a-gun and a hobo with stars in my crown."

About this time, Billy Joe met a beautiful young woman, Brenda Joyce Tindell. She was a tall, slender brunette, just sixteen years old and still in high school. A prize-winning horse rider and barrel racer, Brenda was a genuine rodeo cowgirl. After a brief courtship, the young couple married. Their only child, John Edwin Shaver, better known as Eddy, was born on June 20, 1962. Billy Joe and Brenda over the years would share a tumultuous off and on again relationship, marrying and divorcing several times.

"And I recall the first time ever I did see her, she was walkin' with her school books in her arm. And when I finally figur'd out a way to meet her, well I was shakin' so I could not even talk."

Billy Joe had gotten a job at a lumber mill. One day an accident occurred there which forever changed his life. His right hand got caught in the saw he was operating, and it took the better part of two fingers off his hand and mangled a couple of the others. A serious infection almost cost him the rest of his arm and his life. He was twenty-six years old at the time. He decided that he was going to make a living "doing what I was meant to be doing." Billy Joe is right-handed, but ignoring his lost fingers, he taught himself to play the guitar.

"My hands is both calloused and worn, they's some fingers that's a gone off a one. I'm a rough as a cob, but I do a good job, yeah I am a hard workin' man."

This event made Billy Joe determined to try his hand at a music career. He figured that in order to sell his songs, he would have to go elsewhere. Billy Joe decided to try Los Angeles, California and set out to hitch a ride there on the highway. When he couldn't get a ride going west, Billy Joe caught one heading east, settling on Nashville, Tennessee as his destination. This ride took him all the way to Memphis, Tennessee. Billy Joe would finish his journey to Nashville riding in the back of a cantaloupe truck.

"Can you hear the music ringing? Can't you hear the singers singin'? Can't you hear somebody humming on a homemade melody? The lost and found are searching here, some new face from everywhere, has come to capture Music City U.S.A."

Billy Joe stayed around Nashville for a couple of years or so making the rounds of the publishing houses, trying to get somebody to listen to his songs. When his efforts yielded no results, Billy Joe would return to Texas and work at odd jobs there for awhile. Then he would turn around and return to Nashville, making the rounds of the publishing companies once again. During one of those return trips back to Texas, Billy Joe worked as a roofer and literally broke his back when he fell from a roof working a job. Billy Joe took this incident to be "another sign from God." When his back healed, Billy Joe returned to Nashville, even more determined than ever to succeed.

"I come up here from Waco on a u-haul-it freight. In my mind Tennessee to me was just another state. Now I weren't tryin' to get into, l'z just swingin' on your gate."

In 1969 things changed for Billy Joe Shaver. Back in Nashville, Billy Joe had gone into the office of singer Bobby Bare who spoke with the young songwriter. Bobby Bare agreed to listen to Billy Joe's tapes. Billy Joe told him "I don't have no tapes. My songs are all in my head," and started to leave the office. "He must'a felt sorry for me or something," Billy Joe remembers, "because he agreed to hear one of my songs. When I finished the first one he asked me if I had any more." Bare listened to more of the songs and quickly hired the then unknown Billy Joe Shaver to write songs for his publishing firm, Return Music Company.

Billy Joe became a genuine songwriter for the wage of fifty dollars a week! Bobby Bare's small company had an office in the RCA Building, and Bare allowed Billy Joe to sleep there because Billy Joe had nowhere else to go. Billy Joe credits him for much of his later success. "I will always admire Bobby Bare," Billy Joe states, "for having such good taste!"

"Ride Me Down Easy," a song written by Billy Joe, became Bobby Bare's first number one hit. Many of Billy Joe's early songs were recorded by Bobby Bare on the Mercury Records label, and some are included on THE MERCURY YEARS, a hard to find three-CD compilation of Bobby Bare recordings. Few of these songs have ever been recorded by Billy Joe Shaver himself and remain the property of Return Music Corporation.

One of Billy Joe's early songs, originally titled "Black Rose" and later titled "The Devil Made Me Do It The First Time," touched on the then taboo subject of interracial relationships. "There was a girl I knew, and she was a black girl and her name was Rose. So you can take it from there," Billy Joe explains. This is the song that best exemplifies Billy Joe Shaver's unique understanding of the universal relationships between people, without regard for the barriers of age, station or color. His message is one of tolerance. Nashville did not take much longer to realize that there was a powerful new talent in town.

"The devil made me do it the first time. The second time I done it on my own."

Billy Joe Shaver's own career as a recording artist began in earnest in l972 when he was invited to play at the Dripping Springs Reunion near Austin, Texas. This is the event that is considered by many as the fountainhead of the "Outlaw Movement" in country music. It was also the event at which Billy Joe Shaver made his first appearance in front of a large audience. One of the songs he sang was "Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me." This is a song that Billy Joe first wrote about six months before he actually met Willie Nelson, but it was inspired by Willie's reputation. Waylon Jennings first heard the song when Billy Joe sang it for him during a bus ride together. Waylon immediately asked Billy Joe to hold the song for him.

Billy Joe, who often seems shy in his personal life is completely at ease singing for people. His voice has a unique sound, instantly recognizable and equally unforgettable. If Gary Cooper had ever sung, he would have sounded like Billy Joe Shaver. Billy Joe's performance certainly surprised a lot of people lucky enough to be at Dripping Springs that memorable day, including Billy Joe Shaver himself.

"Willy you're wild as a Texas blue norther', ready rolled from the same makin's as me. And I reckon we'll wander 'till hell freezes over, Willy the Wanderin' Gypsy and me."

Tom T. Hall also heard "Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me" sung at the Dripping Springs Reunion that day, and he included it on his next album, THE STORY TELLER, which was released on the Mercury label in 1972. This made Waylon angry, and according to Billy Joe, "makin' Waylon angry was a scary thing." Waylon told Billy Joe that he was going to do an entire album "of his damn cowboy songs." In typical Waylon fashion though, he made Billy Joe wait. The story goes that one day Billy Joe ran into Waylon and yelled out to him, "When you ever goin' to do that album of my songs?" ready to start a fight with Waylon to prove his point. Finally Waylon asked Billy Joe to step outside with him and declared, "I sure don't like you, but I sure do like your songs!"

The two worked together on the album in the studio and almost came to blows many times over Waylon's interpretations of Billy Joe's songs and melodies. They finally made peace with each other long enough to finish the album, HONKY TONK HEROES. Waylon and Billy Joe remain friends to this day, although they do like to tease each other about the tension between them over this recording.

"Lowdown leavin' sun done did everything that needs done. Woe is me, why can't I see I'd best be leavin' well enough alone. Them neon light nights couldn't stay out of fights, they keep a-hauntin' me in memories. There's one in every crowd for crying out loud, why was it always tumin' out to be me?"

The Waylon Jennings' 1973 album titled HONKY TONK HEROES is regarded by many as an historical turning point in the country music industry. It was a departure from the fancy suits and flowery prose Nashville cranked out and called country music back then. It was a return to the sweat and the tears where country music really lived, down in the dust and dirt in the life of the everyday working man. Things changed when this one album was released on the RCA Corporation label. HONKY TONK HEROES also marked the beginning of Waylon Jennings' enormous popularity. Billy Joe Shaver wrote nine of the ten songs on this definitive album.

There is some confusion over the number of songs that were on the HONKY TONK HEROES album. It was re-issued in compact disc form in 1999 by Buddha Records with two bonus tracks on the CD. "Slow Rollin' Low," written by Billy Joe Shaver and the single version of "You Ask Me To," credited to Waylon Jennings/Billy Joe Shaver, are the bonus tracks included on the CD. If you count these two bonus tracks, then Billy Joe Shaver penned eleven of the twelve cuts.

 "Long ago and far away, in my old common labor shoes, I turned the world all which a way, just because you asked me to."

OLD FIVE AND DIMERS LIKE ME was Billy Joe Shaver's debut album. It was released in 1973 on the Monument Record Corporation label, and it was produced by Kris Kistofferson. There was one single released from this album, "I Been To Georgia On A Fast Train." OLD FIVE AND DIMERS would be reissued in 1996 in compact disc format by Koch International. This updated release included two additional tracks not on the original album. "Ride Cowboy Ride," which was written by Billy Joe Shaver and Danny Finley, and "Good Christian Soldier," written by Billy Joe Shaver and Bobby Bare are the two added tracks.

"I've spent a lifetime makin' up my mind to be, more than a measure of what I thought others could see. Too far and too high and too deep ain't too much to be. There's Cadillac buyers and old five and dimers like me."

In 1974 a single recorded by Billy Joe Shaver was released. "Lately I Been Leanin' T'ward The Blues" was published by MGM Records Inc. It was produced by Bobby Bare and Willie Nelson. MGM Records soon went out of business however, and the single was mostly overlooked. This version of the song would later be included on two of the compilation albums.

WHEN I GET MY WINGS, released in 1976 and GYPSY BOY, released in 1977, were Billy Joe Shaver's next two LP releases. Both were recorded on the Capricorn Records Inc. label at the Capricorn studio located near Macon, Georgia. Dickey Betts of Allman Brothers fame had brought Billy Joe to Capricorn's attention. The two had formed an instant friendship when they first met. While recording the WHEN I GET MY WINGS album, Billy Joe reportedly asked Dickey Betts, "What is there was to do around town?" "Not much," Dickey Betts responded. "You can't even get arrested in Macon." The two of them decided to go into town. They wound up spending the night in the Macon jail! Dickey Betts muses, "I think Billy Joe Shaver is one of the finest writers around. Somehow he says more than his words."

"Gonna die with my boots on, gonna go out in style. With a free wheelin' feelin' and a honky tonk style. And if the devil don't dodge me, gonna spit in his eye. When I get my wings, I'm gonna fly."

WHEN I GET MY WINGS has some well-known artists credited on a few of the tracks, such as Charlie Daniels and Bonnie Bramlett. "America You Are My Woman" was a single released from this album. On the back of the album, Kris Kristofferson is quoted, "Billy Joe Shaver, God help him, is one of us or like we'd like to think we are."

GYPSY BOY is the only album Billy Joe Shaver has ever done on which he recorded several songs written by other artists. Capricorn Records released two singles from the GYPSY BOY album. "You Asked Me To," a duet version Billy Joe sang with Willie Nelson and "Billy B Damned," sung by Billy Joe but written by Steven Rhymer, are these two singles. Both albums were pushed by Capricorn and received some commercial success, and they brought some financial reward to Billy Joe Shaver. However, Capricorn Records soon folded.

"A song on the clouds is a-rolling by slowly, while me and my pencil ain't making a scratch. This here's a hard way to go but it's all I got going. Wherever I'm going, you don't leave no tracks."

In 1978 Billy Joe reached another turning point in his life. He recalls, "I was living in Nashville with my family, but I was out chasin' women, doing drugs and chain-smokin' Camel cigarettes. I was almost dead. I got so I couldn't even put a sentence together, much less write a song. My family was goin' all to hell over it. This one particular night I had a vision of Jesus sittin' on the edge of my bed, shaking his head. There was like this white fluorescent light. It was the middle of the night, and I got in my pickup truck and went to a place out at the narrows of the Harpeth River. I went there 'cause I'd been out there with my son. He told me that this place was real spiritual. There's a bunch of trails out there that wind a lot, and there's a pretty big cliff."

"I went up to the top of the cliff, and there's like a big altar up close to the edge of the cliff. I knew there was two ways I could go, either off the cliff or down on my knees and give it up. For a long time there I wasn't sure what happened, but then it all hit me. I had my talk with God, and I asked Him to give me my life back again. As I was comin' down from that cliff I started writing the song, 'I'm Just An Old Chunk Of Coal.' That's the way I try to live my life these days. Not long after this happened I loaded up my family, and we moved back down to Houston, Texas."

"Down a dangerous road I have come to where I'm standing, with a heavy heart, and my hat clutched in my hand. Such a foolish fool, God ain't known no greater sinner. I have come in search of Jesus, hoping He will understand."

Billy Joe decided to return to Nashville in 1979, leaving his family in Houston. This time Billy Joe got a break when Johnny Cash hired him as a songwriter for the House Of Cash. Once again Billy Joe also started shopping his songs around Nashville.

I'M JUST AN OLD CHUNK OF COAL...BUT I'M GONNA BE A DIAMOND SOMEDAY was Billy Joe Shaver's next album. It was released on the Columbia CBS Inc. label in 1981. This album was recorded at two different studios, the Caribou Ranch in Nederland, Colorado and the Fireside Studios in Nashville. There were three singles released from the album. "Blue Texas Waltz", "Ragged Old Truck" and "When The Word Was Thunderbird" are these three singles. The album was also the first one which listed and credited Eddy Shaver for his electric guitar work.

"I'm just an old chunk of coal, but I'm gonna be a diamond someday. I'm gonna' grow and glow till I'm so plu-pure perfect, gonna' put a smile on everybody's face. I'm gonna' kneel and pray everyday, lest I should become vain along the way. I'm just an old chunk of coal now Lord, but I'm gonna' be a diamond someday."

Billy Joe has always had trouble tuning his guitar because of his missing fingers. When son Eddy was eleven years old, Billy Joe noticed how easily Eddy could do this. Eddy has been tuning their guitars ever since. Wanting Eddy to join his band on the road, Billy Joe went to see the principal of the school Eddy was attending in Houston. Billy Joe asked permission to take the boy out of school. "The principal said I could have him if I didn't bring him back," laughs Billy Joe.

Eddy Shaver's innate artistry with the guitar was nurtured by Dickey Betts, who early on had recognized the extraordinary talent that Eddy has. Eddy was already an accomplished picker, having taught himself to play on an acoustic guitar. Dickey Betts gave Eddy a 1954 Fender Stratocaster that Eddy still plays today, and he also gave Eddy a 335 Gibson guitar that had once belonged to Duane Allman.

BILLY JOE SHAVER, 1982's self-titled album, was released on the Columbia CBS Inc. label. "One Moving Part", "Ride Me Down Easy" and "Amtrak (And Ain't Coming Back)" were the three tracks released as singles from this album. After this album's release, five years would pass before Billy Joe Shaver would cut his last record for Columbia CBS Inc. SALT OF THE EARTH was the album, and it was released by Columbia CBS Inc. in 1987. SALT OF THE EARTH was the first album to credit Billy Joe Shaver and Eddy Shaver as co-producers.

Billy Joe and Eddy have been playing together now since Eddy was fourteen years old, with the exception of a three-year period while Eddy was the lead guitar player with Dwight Yoakam's road band. Eddy then rejoined his father. "He went from a Lear jet to a van, but he got into his own music a little more," a proud father explains. Together with Eddy's blazing electric guitar work and Billy Joe's haunting lyrics, father and son formed the nucleus of a band they named SHAVER. This mix of father with son has a wider appeal for more age brackets, and their first SHAVER album would become a success.

TRAMP ON YOUR STREET was released in 1993. This album was composed of new songs written by Billy Joe and Eddy, along with re-worked versions of the old hits, giving these songs a whole new sound. The album was released on the Zoo/Praxis label which had signed SHAVER to a multi-album contract. TRAMP ON YOUR STREET was widely regarded as the best new country music album of 1993, and it received rave reviews from many of country music's most important critics. Three of the cuts from this album, "Georgia On A Fast Train," "Live Forever" and "Hottest Thing In Town" were made into music videos. Waylon Jennings, who had joined in on this album, is quoted, "If anybody out there gave a damn, this album would be a hit." The fact that TRAMP ON YOUR STREET is also the title of an old Scottish hymn adds yet another layer to the fabric of Billy Joe's talents.

"Just a tramp on your street, you must understand. You got our souls at your feet, and our hearts in your hand."

Several appearances on national television shows such as AUSTIN CITY LIMITS and THE TEXAS MUSIC CAFE were to follow the TRAMP ON YOUR STREET release. There were also interviews on THE CROOK AND CHASE SHOW. These appearances captured the attention of the broader audience that national television reaches. SHAVER started touring in the United States, as well as in Europe and also in Australia.

Bear Family Records, Bobby Bare's German import company, released a compilation CD in 1994. Titled HONKY TONK HEROES, this import included the WHEN I GET MY WINGS album and the GYPSY BOY album. Three songs not on these original recordings were also included on this CD. "Lately I've Been Leaning Towards the Blues," "I Couldn't Be Me Without You" and "Music City USA" are the three extra tracks. This CD introduced the long out-of-print material to fans who had never before heard these Billy Joe Shaver songs.

Also in 1994, Billy Joe was honored to record another artist's material. Billy Joe Shaver's version of "Ramblin' Fever," a Merle Haggard classic, appears on TULARE DUST. This was a songwriter's tribute album to Merle Haggard, and it was released in 1994 by Hightone Records. It is a must have CD for any serious Billy Joe Shaver collector.

In 1995, Zoo/Praxis released UNSHAVEN: LIVE AT SMITH'S OLDE BAR. The album was recorded live over a three-day period in Atlanta, Georgia, and it features SHAVER at their rip-roaring best. The album has been defined as "heavy metal honky tonk music," which Billy Joe agrees is a pretty good definition. "Eddy and I have kinda' grown up together, and he plays his style while I do my style of lyrics. It just kinda' came to this." UNSHAVEN spawned a music video, the "Honeybee" cut, which was filmed live in one session at Smith's Olde Bar. Once again though, Billy Joe was dropped when Zoo/Praxis shut down their entire alternative country line shortly after the album was released.

The attention generated from these releases fueled another compilation album, RESTLESS WIND: THE LEGENDARY BILLY JOE SHAVER. This album was released in 1995 by Razor and Tie, a division of Sony Music Company. It put some of the best Billy Joe Shaver songs into the reach of younger fans, and it reminds the older ones why they were Billy Joe Shaver fans to begin with.

The next album SHAVER recorded was the metaphorically charged HIGHWAY OF LIFE, released in 1996 on the Justice Records label. HIGHWAY OF LIFE consists of songs which chronicle Billy Joe's own experiences as he criss-crosses the country on the roads he has traveled so many times during his life. It was produced differently than the way the other albums had been done. The band went into an Austin studio for a week in May and recorded the vocals first, then layered the rest. There is also a bonus soundboard track on this album, "Mother Trucker," a song Billy Joe co-authored with David Waddell.

"On a long winding road just this side of nowhere, a whip-poor-will warbles its voice in the night. There's a hungry old dog checkin' sacks in the bar ditch. It's lonesome as hell on the highway of life."

One cut from the album sounds like a demo quality tape. The song was recorded on a DAT machine at Billy Joe's Nashville apartment. "I did the song at my kitchen table," Billy Joe explains. "I just sat there with my guitar. That is what is on the tape." "The First And Last Time" really comes across with it's earnest simplicity. Another song from this album, "Comin' On Strong," was taped live at Willie Nelson's annual Fourth of July picnic, and the song was also released as a music video.

"Comin' on strong, comin' on strong. I can feel my love for you comin' on strong. Oh why did I roam, was I gone too long? I can feel my love for you, comin' on strong."

Eddy Shaver recorded an album of his own in 1996, BAPTISM OF FIRE. It was released on the Canadian label Dixie Frog. BAPTISM OF FIRE surprises with Eddy's own electric bass voice stunningly effective with his virtuoso electric guitar riffs. Both blues and rock and his own mixture of the two, Eddy wrote all but one of the songs on the album. The exception, "Good News Blues," was penned by his father. It is a very impressive first effort of a very talented musician.

Also in 1996, an opportunity to portray his considerable talents on the big screen was given to Billy Joe Shaver. He made his acting debut, appearing in THE APOSTLE, a Robert Duvall movie. The theme of this movie was centered around religion and redemption. Billy Joe played the part of Robert Duvall's best friend Joe, a reformed drunk. "It wasn't too much of a stretch for me," Billy Joe says with a grin. "The best advice Bobby," as he calls Robert Duvall, "ever gave me was to not act." A lot of people were surprised at how utterly believable Billy Joe was in the part. Robert Duvall was so impressed with Billy Joe's effectiveness that he offered Billy Joe a part in an upcoming movie.

It was around this time that Billy Joe took Brenda to see a doctor since she was not feeling well, and the diagnosis was cancer. Billy Joe and Eddy moved back to Waco to care for both Brenda and Billy Joe's mother, who also had been diagnosed with the disease. "I have had all sorts of relationships with other women in my lifetime," Billy Joe explains, "but Brenda was the only woman I have ever loved. When a man and a woman have a child, it bonds them for life. I also realized that most of my songs were written about her."

"We are sweethearts again, here where it all began, dancing the Blue Texas Waltz. You are the one I have waited to hold, you are more precious than diamonds or gold. Now is the time all my dreams will come true, dancing the Blue Texas Waltz with you."

The family bonded, and they all pulled together to love and support each other. Billy Joe and Eddy cut back on their road trips as much as possible in order to be with both women, taking them to the hospital for surgery and supporting them through the chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Sadly, both Shaver women lost their battles with cancer in 1999 within a month of each other. Victory Shaver passed away on June 20, 1999. Brenda lost her battle with the disease July 30, 1999. Johnny Cash once said of her, "Brenda Shaver is the most beautiful woman I have ever known." Brenda had worked as a personal assistant for June Carter Cash for over twenty years. She was an expert gardener, and her flowers were much admired and a source of great pride.

"He was a honky tonk hero, and she was a West Texas rose. They met on a Saturday evening, and she made the sweet flowers grow."

VICTORY, named for Billy Joe's mother, was the next SHAVER album. It was recorded in 1998 by New West Records Inc., a Christian music label. VICTORY is different than anything else Billy Joe and Eddy have ever done. "It's been burning in me all my life to do this record. It's what I call gospel," Billy Joe says of this album. It is a spiritually charged, simply stated, deeply personal collection of Billy Joe's songs. It vividly portrays the deep Christian faith father and son share. VICTORY features Eddy accompanying Billy Joe on the acoustic guitar on some cuts. Others are sung a capella with Billy Joe's voice full of emotions and testaments laid bare. The words of these personal hymns paint exquisitely colored portraits of Billy Joe Shaver's deep spirituality. The version of "Live Forever" on this album also reflects the deep bond that exists between Billy Joe and Eddy.

"The crayon colored oceans wash into the fading sky. There to tremble in the darkness, like a bird about to die. Oh so gentle in all oneness is Creation blessed to be. Oh so fathomless in beauty, oh so physical in me."

The next SHAVER album, ELECTRIC SHAVER, was released in 1999, again on the New West Inc. label. It is also a statement of Christian faith, this time expressed with SHAVER'S unique mix of country music and heavy metal country twang. It suits perfectly the honky tonks where the band entertains crowds of loyal fans and converts new ones with their singing and preaching, sort of like Sunday School in a tavern. "I always wanted to name a child 'Electric' but the in-laws wouldn't let me," Billy Joe recounts, "so that is why I chose this name for this album." The cut "Try and Try Again" should be found in every church hymnal. It expresses perfectly the concept of stubbornness and perseverance which has brought Billy Joe to the place where he now stands, a living legend, timeless and priceless. "I'm no saint," he says in typical Billy Joe style. "I can't point no finger at nobody," gesturing with his right hand and missing fingers to make sure his meaning is understood.

In January of 2000 another album titled HONKY TONK HEROES was released on the Pedernales Records lnc./ Freefalls Entertainment label. The title has caused some confusion because of the two older albums with the same name. It is sometimes referred to as HONKY TONK HEROES 2000. This new album, a tribute of sorts to Billy Joe Shaver that is long overdue, has been years in the making. Co-produced by Eric Paul and Eddy Shaver, the album brings together Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Billy Joe Shaver. The tracks were cut at different times and in different places, but most of the guitar work on the album is done by Eddy Shaver. However on the cut, "We Are The Cowboys," Eddy was unable to be there when it was recorded because he had contracted Legionnaire's Disease at a gig in Chicago, Illinois.

"The Texans are gathered up in Colorado. The kid with the fast gun ain't with 'em today."

In September of 2000, SALT OF THE EARTH was re-issued in compact disc format by Sony Music Entertainment Inc. The CD was co-produced by Billy Joe Shaver and Eddy Shaver. There are no new tracks on this CD, but there is a new picture of Billy Joe on the back cover.

Billy Joe Shaver songs have been recorded by many different artists. Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Jerry Jeff Walker, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, David Alien Coe, The Allman Brothers, Tom T. Hall, Patty Loveless, along with many, many others have done covers of Billy Joe Shaver songs. With so much diversity of style, these songs paint universally understood word pictures sung by different artists in different ways for different audiences. Some Billy Joe Shaver songs have become top hits for other artists, but no one has ever been able to deliver a rendition of a Billy Joe Shaver song as well as Billy Joe Shaver can deliver it himself.

Although he personally has never had a number one hit or won a Grammy or a Country Music Award, Billy Joe takes great pride in the fact that he was asked to appear on the GRAND OLE OPRY in 1999. But it is the fact that Roy Acuff recorded one of Billy Joe Shaver's songs, "Georgia On A Fast Train," that Billy Joe counts as his highest honor. "That means more to me than anything else I have ever done in my life."

"You have not lived till you hear Roy Acuff sing about Jesus and the great speckled bird."

If you use commercial popularity as a measure of success, then you have to wonder why Billy Joe Shaver has never achieved the popularity of Willie Nelson or Waylon Jennings, but to Billy Joe, that's not what this is all about. His goals have been to reach out to people with the gift he understands he was given and to make himself understood. "Song writing is the cheapest kind of psychiatry there is," he is fond of saying. Billy Joe has attracted a diverse number of followers, consisting of some of the best songwriters and best known names in the industry. His fans may not be legion in number, but their devotion and love for Billy Joe and Eddy is huge in proportion.

Billy Joe Shaver explains it like this: "Sometimes you connect with the audience, and the audience connects to you. We all become like one because they understand what I am singing is for them. And that is why I keep on doing this. It has never been for the money, never for the fame, but for that special feeling when you are connected with your audience and they are connected to you."

 "If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. If all you do is lose, you better find a way to win.  If at first you don't succeed, try and try again."

Throughout his entire life, Billy Joe Shaver has had to deal with seemingly insurmountable circumstances, and he has always triumphed over them. The loss of his only child,  who was also his best friend and music partner, has been the hardest one for Billy Joe to overcome.  Billy Joe and Eddy  worked onstage together for over twenty years. Their relationship was sometimes stretched thin by the stress of daily living, but together they have given the world some of the very best music in their genre.

"You are the star in my heart, yes, you've always known. Though we are many worlds apart, I'm still your friend.  And friends we'll always be friends forever. You are the star in my heart."

Billy Joe once again has proved able to reach down inside himself to carry on and get the music out to the fans.  In early January 2001, Billy Joe went on a tour named TWO MOVING PARTS with the ever irrepressible Kinky Friedman. These two Texans have been friends for many years. Billy Joe has formed a new band with some other old friends, including  Jesse "Guitar" Taylor, who has stepped in to play lead guitar.  The band  toured nationally for most of  2001 promoting THE EARTH ROLLS ON. There have been many, many  interviews with Billy Joe published in the national press, including ones in the ROLLING STONE and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL about this tour. There have been appearances on national television, including an interview with Don Imus on the very popular IMUS IN THE MORNING show. Billy Joe has also had several live webcasts on the internet for the first time ever during 2001.

His music has found new fans who are also learning just how much influence Billy Joe Shaver has had on country music, and who are also wondering why they have never heard of him until now. Robert Earl Keen, Reckless Kelly, and Diamondback Texas have used Shaver tunes in their live shows. Billy Joe has also recorded "White Freightliner Blues" on another tribute album entitled  POET: A TRIBUTE TO TOWNES VAN ZANDT, released in 2001 on the  Pedernales Records lnc./Freefalls Entertainment label. This recording should also be part of any collector's catalog of Billy Joe Shaver music. George Jones did a cover of "Tramp On Your Street" on his album THE ROCK: STONE COLD COUNTRY released on the BMG/BNA Entertainment label in 2001.

Billy Joe will soon be back on the road with both national and  international tours scheduled for 2002. The music is different without Eddy Shaver's interpretations, but it is still unmistakably recognizable as the music of Billy Joe Shaver. There are many lessons about life and love, courage and determination to be learned from his music.
 

"The earth rolls on, the earth rolls on, through the sunshine and the rain. The seasons come, the seasons go, the seasons come and go again. Just a falling star from the heavens, with its silent disappearing light. Yes, it's true, I will love you till the earth rolls out of sight."