Billy Joe Shaver, singer-songwriter and hero of 'outlaw' country, dies at 81

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Country music singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, whom Willie Nelson once called 'the greatest living songwriter,' has died at age 81.

His friend Connie Nelson said he died Wednesday in his native Texas following a stroke.

His songs were recorded by Elvis Presley, David Allan Coe, Patty Loveless, Tom T. Hall, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Paycheck and Doug Kershaw, among others. One of his biggest songwriting successes was"I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal," a No. 4 country hit for John Anderson in 1981. His personal live was the stuff of lore and legend. He wed and divorced the same woman, Brenda Tindell, three times. He had a heart attack on stage. In 2007, he shot a man in the face outside a bar in Lorena, Texas. He was acquitted of aggravated assault after claiming self-defense and later said of the incident,"Hit him right between the mother and the f--er. Fixed him right up."

Jennings wrote of Shaver,"His songs were of a piece, and the only way you could ever understand Billy Joe was to hear his whole body of work. That was how the concept for 'Honky Tonk Heroes' came about. Billy Joe talked the way a modern cowboy would speak, if he stepped out of the West and lived today. 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. We all did.

Shaver's songs continued to be recorded over the decades. Loveless made"When the Fallen Angels Fly" the title track of her CMA Award-winning album in 1994. The Highwaymen, consisting of Jennings, Nelson, Kristofferson and Johnny Cash, recorded his"Live Forever" in 1995.

 

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Clinton’s finally got to him.

The world will miss him

Right up there with the best

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Legend

Rip🙏🏻

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