Billy Joe's Blues

As he kicked his habits cold turkey, living off random royalty checks and wasting away, Shaver got a call out of the blue that would put him back on track. It was from Willie Nelson, whom he'd known since the late-'50s honky-tonk circuit. Nelson and Emmylou Harris were about to start a tour of arenas, and although there wasn't time to put his name on the bill, Shaver could open the shows and make a few hundred bucks a night.

"I can't tell you all the times Willie's bailed me out of situations, but that was a big 'un," Shaver says. "I wasn't sure if I'd ever get up on a stage again."

Thunder Image Group

These past three years Billy Joe Shaver has walked a mighty hard road.

Billy Joe and Eddy, back in the Justice Records days.

Details

Friday, July 27; 713-862-8707

Dan Electro's Guitar Bar, 1031 East 24th Street

Related Content

• Billy Joe Shaver
  September 22, 2011
• Billy Joe Shaver
  May 12, 2011
• "Whacko From Waco" & 10 Other Batsh!t Texas Songs
  March 2, 2011
• Last Night: Willie Nelson at Arena Theater
  November 14, 2011
• 5 Artists Whose Second Acts Surpassed Their First
  March 30, 2012

More About

• Billy Joe
• Billy Joe Shaver
• Willie Nelson
• Waylon Jennings
• Waco

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

It was a call from Nelson on the morning of December 31, that helped Shaver get through his most difficult day. "When Eddy died, Willie said I needed to be among friends," he says. Shaver had a New Year's Eve gig scheduled at a club near Nelson's Pedernales ranch outside Austin, and Billy Joe was finally able to convince himself that Eddy would want the show to go on. It was, Billy Joe says, the toughest gig of his life, the memories flooding each song until Nelson and pals had to take over. But he got through the night, thanks to some advice from Nelson, who lost a son to suicide several years ago. "Willie told me that there are just some thoughts that I'm gonna have to learn to let go, like 'What could I have done differently to save him?' "

At Eddy's grave, Billy Joe picks up a little Texas flag that somebody stuck in the dirt. "You will always be around," it says. "That's from 'Live Forever,' that song we wrote together," Billy Joe says. "Eddy had that beautiful melody and the guitar part, and after he played it for me, it just stuck in my head. I thought, 'Man, I gotta really come up with something special for this one.' "

A few months later, Billy Joe was driving the band back from a gig one night -- he always drives -- and he started thinking about how some songs seem to have lives of their own. With Eddy's melody in his head on that long drive home, Billy Joe came up with the verse that brings context to the crazy life of a drifter with a sack full of cowboy songs.

"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."