Billy Joe Shaver - Honky Tonk Hero

BY Jerry Turner - Special to The News

Tue, May 13 2008

— I met Billy Joe Shaver in the fifth grade. We were in the same room at LaVega Elementary School in Bellmead. “Bubba” as we called him was a kid with a quick smile and equally quick temper. There were three of us in the group, but Bubba was clearly the most experienced and the most willing to test the limits of social standards. He wasn’t much of a student, but he was a “good ole boy” and quite a good athlete. But while these years seemed only to serve to fill his time, he became friends with Miss Legg, an English teacher at LaVega, who encouraged his writing. He claimed Miss Legg was the only teacher who gave a “darn about me.” These early years were precursors to the eventful life revealed in his autobiography - Billy Joe Shaver-Honky Tonk Hero published by the University of Texas Press.
Billy Joe was born near Corsicana. He had survived a prenatal attack by his drunk father. Soon after he was born, Billy Joe was cared for by various members of the family, but mostly by his grandmother. He had trouble in school and the military and dropped out of each. Billy Joe had lots of trouble growing up and into his adult years, but as he will admit, most of it was self-inflicted. When he was about seventeen, he showed up at my house, drunk as he could be, and my mother chased him off.
Later he went to work in a saw mill and in a moment of carelessness, his right hand became jammed in a saw and he lost three fingers. Shaver worked his way into song writing and eventually grabbed the attention of singing stars such as Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. His collection of songs sang by Jennings in an album called “Honky Tonk Heroes” became the foundation of the “Outlaw” movement. Today, Shaver is considered by Nelson and others in the music field as the “best songwriter alive today.”
Billy Joe after an unbelievable series of troubles: a heart attack, death of his mother, wife, and son during the course of a year 1999-2000, finally put drugs and boozing behind him and accepted Jesus as his savior.
If you like stories of good folks finally finding their way in the world despite a life of trouble, you’ll be encouraged by Billy Joe Shaver - Honky Tonk Hero, he makes no excuses, but simply tells it like it was. The book can be ordered from the University of Texas Press at 1-800-252-3206.