He was 81. He was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006, received the Americana Music Association’s lifetime achievement award for songwriting in 2002, wrote a memoir in 2005 called “Honky Tonk Hero,” had a cameo in the 1998 Robert Duvall film “The Apostle,” was the subject of a 2004 documentary called “The Portrait of Billy Joe,” and in all recorded 17 studio albums, most recently 2014’s “Long in the Tooth.”. Billy Joe Shaver Death / Obituary | Cause Of Death - Dead - Dies | Died - Passed Away Billy Joe Shaver Death / Obituary - It is with sadness as we learnt Shaver died on October 28, 2020, from a massive stroke at the age of 81 in Waco, Texas. Billy Joe Shaver Death. Long after he began making records in the 1970s, Mr. Shaver developed a following among fans of alternative country music. He joined the Navy at age 17 and, after completing his service, was working odd jobs back in Texas when he met, and later married, Brenda Joyce Tindell. Three of Mr. Shaver’s songs from “Honky Tonk Heroes” also appeared on “Old Five and Dimers Like Me,” his musically unvarnished, autobiographical first solo album, produced by Mr. Kristofferson for the independent Monument label in 1973. Mr. Shaver’s wife and mother both died of cancer in 1999. Billy Joe ShaverAug. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! This story has been shared 124,015 times. Taught how to play guitar at a young age by Dickey Betts, Eddy became the guitarist for his father's band at the young age of 13. Billy Joe Shaver, the Texas-based country singer/songwriter who amassed a strong body of work over the years, has died at the age of 81 following a “massive stroke” at a … Billy Joe Shaver (August 16, 1939 – October 28, 2020) was an American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist. Billy Joe Shaver, passed away on Wednesday, October 28th, 2020 at the age of 81. “Hell, I just thought I’d mention, my grandma’s old-age pension/Is the reason why I’m standing here today,” Mr. Shaver sang in a raspy drawl on “I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train.” Propelled by a headlong neo-rockabilly beat, the song revisited his hardscrabble childhood with dignity and pride: “I got all my country learning, milking and a-churning/Picking cotton, raising hell and baling hay.”. Shaver … Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Billy Joe Shaver, the tempestuous Corsicana-born singer and songwriter who helped launched the outlaw country movement, died Wednesday in Waco after suffering a stroke. Billy Joe Shaver Death / Obituary – A popular country singer, Billy Joe Shaver has died on October 28, 2020, after suffering from stroke on Tuesday morning. Shaver was said to have been staying at a hotel with his wife, Irene, who discovered him unconscious and called for an ambulance. Died: Wednesday, October 28, … In 2004, a documentary about Shaver, "A Portrait of Billy Joe," was released. Billy Joe Shaver Courtesy of Keith Case and Associates On his 2009 track “I Feel a Change Coming On,” Bob Dylan sang, “I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver and I’m reading James Joyce.” Mr. Shaver wrote or co-wrote all but one of the 10 songs on “Honky Tonk Heroes,” including the title track and “Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me” — a tribute, its unusual spelling of his first name notwithstanding, to Mr. Nelson, his friend and fellow outlaw. Billy Joe Shaver Cause of Death. Your California Privacy Rights Born John Edwin Shaver, Eddy was the son of legendary country singer/songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. Copy/paste: Gorilla Glue challenge sends this fool to the ER, ‘Gorilla Glue girl’ undergoes surgery to get out of sticky situation, Glue and improved: 'Gorilla Glue girl' gets hair unstuck after surgery, NYC-area news reporter Katherine Creag dies suddenly at 47, Cuomo coverup: Aide admits they hid nursing home data so feds wouldn't find out. Billy Joe Shaver, the Blustery, Tenderhearted Country Star Known as the “Wacko From Waco,” Dies of a Stroke After contracting COVID-19 earlier this … “The devil made me do it the first time/The second time I done it on my own,” Mr. Jennings sang ruefully over a lean but steadily chugging rhythm section. He was 81. Mr. Shaver confronted these losses, along with his struggles with alcohol and drugs and his immersion in the Christian faith, in “Honky Tonk Hero,” a memoir, written with Brad Reagan, published in 2005. He was 81. His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his friend Connie Nelson, who said he had recently had a stroke. He is survived by his sister, Patricia Rogers. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. The singer and songwriter had a penchant for writing tracks which other, more well-known country artists recorded, including “Live Forever” — which country supergroup the Highwaymen recorded in 1995 — and other numbers covered by Elvis Presley, David Allan Coe, Tom T. Hall, Patty Loveless, Doug Kershaw, Johnny Paycheck and Jerry Lee Lewis, according to Variety. Image source: Corbin Mock Facebook account He died on Wednesday 28 Oct in Waco, Texas, after suffering a stroke at the age of 81. Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash recorded his material, and Bob Dylan, in “I Feel a Change Comin’ On,” a song written with the Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, sang admiringly of listening to Mr. Shaver’s music. “Billy Joe talked the way a modern cowboy would speak, if he stepped out of the West and lived today,” Waylon Jennings wrote of Shaver, according to Variety. In 1968, after several more years of scuffling, including periodic visits to Nashville to pursue his fortunes as a songwriter, Mr. Shaver persuaded Mr. Bare to give him a songwriting job at his publishing company. Rod Aydelotte, Tribune-Herald file photos Billy Joe Shaver performs at Indian Spring Park in June 2008. A legendary Texas country music singer and songwriter, Billy Joe Shaver has died at the age of 81 following a stroke. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com: accessed ), memorial page for Billy Joe Shaver (16 Aug 1939–28 Oct 2020), Find a Grave Memorial no. Death of Billy Joe Shaver Get detailed Update of famous people funeral. They melt into your likeness, and you become a better person for it.”, Billy Joe Shaver, Outlaw Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 81. SiriusXM is sad to report that honky-tonk hero and Outlaw Country legend Billy Joe Shaver has died at the age of 81, following a massive stroke at Ascension Providence Hospital in Waco, Texas, according to a family emergency contact. Shaver died … (“I’m hearing Billy Joe Shaver/And I’m reading James Joyce.”), Mr. Shaver’s early reputation rested on his plain-spoken yet poetic contributions to Waylon Jennings’s landmark 1973 album “Honky Tonk Heroes,” regarded as a quintessential expression of outlaw country’s nonconformist spirit. Mr. Shaver in performance at the 2007 Farm Aid benefit concert in New York City. ), Mr. Shaver never got over the death of his son nearly 20 years ago. 59,918, This story has been shared 47,456 times. In 1997 Mr. Shaver had a small part in “The Apostle,” a feature film written by, directed by and starring Robert Duvall. Musician, songwriter. He pleaded self-defense and was acquitted three years later. Mr. Jennings’s version of “You Ask Me To,” by contrast, became a Top 10 country hit. Waylon Jennings put him on the musical map. His son died of a heroin overdose a little more than a year later. The Texas native became a name in country music with his 1973 debut album, “Old Five and Dimers Like Me,” now a classic of the outlaw country genre that emerged in response to country music’s commercialization at the time. Sitemap The singer-songwriter died on Wednesday following "an illness," a … The couple had a son, John Edwin, known as Eddy, in 1962. “I’m hearing Billy Joe Shaver/And I’m reading James Joyce.”, Mr. Jennings’s version of “You Ask Me To,”, “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (but I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday).”. “I’ve spent a lifetime making up my mind to be/More than the measure of what I thought others could see,” Mr. Jennings sang on his version of Mr. Shaver’s “Old Five and Dimers Like Me.”. He was 81. Billy Joe Shaver was one of outlaw country music’s little-known but highly influential stars. Shaver was a Texas native who made his way to Nashville to further his country music career. He eventually developed a following among fans of alternative country music with albums like “Tramp on Your Street” (1993) and “Unshaven: Live at Smith’s Olde Bar” (1995). Billy Joe Shaver, the Texas singer-songwriter whose trenchant, vivid compositions helped launch country music’s outlaw movement in the 1970s, died on Wednesday in Waco, Texas. Your Ad Choices He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, the same year “The Portrait of Billy Joe,” a documentary about his life and music directed by Luciana Pedraza, was released. Oct. 29, 2020 Billy Joe Shaver, the Texas singer-songwriter whose trenchant, vivid compositions helped launch country music’s outlaw movement in the 1970s, died on Wednesday in Waco, Texas. Billy Joe Shaver died on October 28, 2020, at Waco, Texas’ Ascension Providence Hospital, at the age of 81. Country music singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, whom Willie Nelson once called “the greatest living songwriter,” died Wednesday in his native Texas at the age of 81. “Black Rose,” a monument to self-recrimination and regret, featured one of Mr. Shaver’s typically hard-hit but also self-aware narrators. He was pronounced dead at 2:58 a.m. Sunday at a … Billy Joe Shaver’s cause of death was a massive stroke. Thanks for contacting us. Shaver dropped out of high school, married and divorced one woman three times, another woman twice, had a heart attack on stage, shot a man in the face outside a bar (for which he claimed self-defense and was acquitted), lost chunks of three fingers in a sawmill accident and lost his son to a heroin overdose. His biggest success as a songwriter in the post-outlaw era came when the neo-traditionalist singer John Anderson had a Top 10 country hit in 1981 with “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (but I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday).”. The sound clip is from 2012 when Shaver and Jamey Johnson called into his radio show, Willie’s Roadhouse. Terms of Use Connie Nelson, Shaver’s friend, confirmed his death to … He sometimes accompanied his mother to the nightclub where she tended bar, sparking an early interest in writing and playing music. Billy Joe Shaver Net Worth. This story has been shared 124,015 times. He was known for writing and performing his 1973 hit single "You Ask Me To. Pic credit: Music City Roots/YouTube. We've received your submission. Mr. Shaver dropped out of school to work in his uncles’ cotton fields before completing eighth grade. Eddy died New Year's Eve in Waco, Texas, of an accidental heroin overdose. Details of death: Died from a stroke at the age of 81, confirmed to Rolling Stone by his friend Connie Nelson. Privacy Notice Reflecting on this disparity in a 2014 interview with the NPR program “Morning Edition,” Mr. Shaver admitted that he always believed he would never be as popular an artist as the stars who made his songs famous. Friday, October 30, 2020 WACO, Texas (KTRK) -- Billy Joe Shaver, an outlaw country music firebrand known for a string of hits and a career that spanned decades, has died after suffering a … Billy Joe Shaver, who died Wednesday at 81, was considered the father of outlaw country music. “The songs were so big, they were too big for me,” he said of the material he wrote during the heady early days of the outlaw movement. In the wake of Billy Joe Shaver’s death yesterday, Willie Nelson offered his condolences on Twitter with an audio file. Shaver died of a stroke at Waco, Texas’ Ascension Providence Hospital, Variety reported. October 28, 2020 | 1:27pm | Updated October 28, 2020 | 4:50pm. (Jerry Jeff Walker, another rough-cut Texas singer-songwriter, died last week. Mr. Shaver recorded steadily, but with little commercial success, from the 1970s on. 217776542, citing Waco Memorial Park, Waco, McLennan County, Texas, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave . 124,015, This story has been shared 59,918 times. Billy Joe Shaver was the outlaw country music pioneer who wrote some of the genre’s most famous songs. Sometimes, after finishing a song in concert, he was heard to utter from the stage, “I love you, Eddy.”, “His spirit’s still with me,” Mr. Shaver said of his son in his 2014 NPR interview. His songs were an expression of outlaw country’s nonconformist spirit. Shaver died of a stroke at Waco, Texas’ Ascension Providence Hospital, Variety reported. Mr. Shaver’s grandmother, Birdie Lee Watson, helped raise him; when he reached adolescence he and his older sister, Patricia, moved in with their mother and her new husband. Outlaw country legend Billy Joe Shaver died at 81 after a stroke. Success eluded him until five years later, when “Honky Tonk Heroes” elevated him to the ranks of unfettered, imagistic country tunesmiths like Mr. Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury and Guy Clark. MTV’s ‘Real World: New York’ wraps filming with original cast, new series likely, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, fired by Trump, working on a tell-all book, ‘Bachelor’ star Rachael Kirkconnell apologizes: ‘My ignorance was racist’, © 2021 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, NFL reporter dead at 37: 'We are shocked', NYC theater district restaurant icon dead at 87, Read the column the New York Times didn't want you to read, North Face gear 30 percent off during massive Winter Sale, Sling TV offers free trial for limited-time anniversary deal, Best Presidents Day sales 2021: 28 huge deals from top brands, 23 thoughtful last-minute Valentine's Day gift ideas for him and her, Top antivirus software Malwarebytes extends 25% holiday discount, North West's oil painting verified by TikTok user. 47,456, © 2021 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved Country music star Billy Joe Shaver has died at the age of 81, Fox News can confirm. Billy Joe Shaver was a legendary outlaw country singer-songwriter whose songs were recorded by Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. Billy Joe Shaver, a contributor to the 1970s “outlaw country” movement and the man Willie Nelson once called “the greatest living songwriter,” passed away Wednesday. Billy Joe Shaver was born on Aug. 16, 1939, in Corsicana, Texas, and grew up in Waco. Shaver died Wednesday in … Billed simply under the name Shaver, both albums reflected Eddy Shaver’s increasingly prominent role in his father’s band, with which he had been playing since he was a teenager. Billy Joe Shaver, a contributor to the 1970s “outlaw country” movement and the man Willie Nelson once called “the greatest living songwriter,” passed away Wednesday. He wed and … 16, 1939 - Oct. 28, 2020Billy Joe Shaver, 81, a resident of Waco, Texas, passed away Wednesday in a local hospital after a brief illness. Mr. Shaver wrote songs for many of the major outlaw figures, including Willie Nelson, Bobbie Bare and Kris Kristofferson. Songs like “Georgia on a Fast Train” feel almost larger than life, and yet both that song and “You Ask Me To,” another 1973 single, barely broke into the Top 100 of the country chart. Billy Joe Shaver’s son Eddy was also an accomplished and renown musician and guitar player, who comprised the backbone of Billy Joe’s touring band, and co-wrote one of Shaver’s signature songs, “Live Forever.” When Eddy died of a drug overdose in 2000 at the age of 38, Billy Joe Shaver reaffirmed his religion. Billy Joe Shaver in Chicago in 1980. Billy Joe Shaver, one of the most colorful country songwriters of the 1970s and beyond, died Wednesday (October 28) in Texas following a stroke.He was 81. Do Not Sell My Personal Information, Your California Privacy Rights Shaver died Wednesday in Waco after a stroke. He rose to further prominence after Kris Kristofferson recorded his song “Good Christian Soldier.”. “He had a command of Texas lingo, his world as down to earth and real as the day is long, and he wore his Lone Star birthright like a badge.”. At around this time Mr. Shaver took a job in a sawmill, where he lost the index and middle fingers of his right hand in a work accident and had to relearn how to play the guitar. Oct. 28, 2020 Updated 2:18 PM PT Billy Joe Shaver, a pivotal figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, died Wednesday after suffering a … “I do believe that when people pass away, the goodness, the good things they did, it seems like they melt into your likeness. In 2007, six years after suffering a heart attack onstage, Mr. Shaver was involved in an altercation outside a bar in Lorena, Texas, in which he shot a man in the face with a handgun.