Outlaw Country's Billy Jo Shaver Charged in Texas Shooting

A man identified as Billy (Bill) Bryant Coker was shot in the face about 8:30 p.m. (March 31, 2007) on the back porch of Papa Joe's Texas Saloon in Lorena, a suburb of Waco, said John Moran, city manager and chief of police.

"Witness Michael Strickland told police that he saw Shaver shoot Coker, according to documents. Strickland said Coker exited the building first, followed by Shaver, who had a pistol. According to Strickland, Shaver asked Coker 'where do you want it?' Shaver then raised his arm level with Coker's face, and fired the pistol." —The Tennessean

Shaver is a well-respected artist who was part of the 1970s "Outlaw movement" which included country luminaries Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, David Allen Coe and others. He has released more than 20 albums.

This latest incident is seemingly just another chapter in the storied singer's life.

He married the same woman, Brenda, three times. Brenda died in 1999 after a long struggle with cancer. His mother, Victory Shaver, and Brenda's mother, also died of cancer at nearly the same time.

On New Year's Eve 2000, Billy Jo's son and guitar player, Eddy Shaver, died of a heroin overdose in a motel in Waco.

In 2005, Shaver married Wanda Lynn Canady for the second time; their first marriage was annulled.

Shaver is being represented in the shooting charge by Austin attorney Joseph Turner, who has also represented Willie Nelson and actor Matthew McConaughey. He was released from the McLennan County Jail after posting $50,000 bond.

Billy Joe Shaver never became a household name, but his songs — including "Good Christian Soldier," "Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me," and "I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train" — became country standards during the '70s and his reputation among musicians and critics didn't diminish during the next two decades.

Shaver's debut album was Old Five and Dimers Like Me, produced by Kristofferson and released by Monument (Kristofferson's label) in 1973. Along with the title track, it contained the now-classic Shaver songs "Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me" and the aforementioned "Georgia on a Fast Train." Shaver switched to MGM a year later, but no album materialized. "Raising hell" was, as he had sung, part of his lifestyle at the time, and it kept him out of sight for a couple years. In 1976 Shaver resurfaced with When I Get My Wings on Capricorn, and followed it up a year later with Gypsy Boy. Johnny Cash recorded Shaver's "I'm Just an Old Lump of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Some Day)" in 1978, a song Shaver wrote just after he chose to give up drugs and booze and turned to God for help. Religious references do crop up in his songs (including "Lump of Coal"), but they never dominate the emotions or get in the way of the earthy rhythms and melodies. —Allmusic.com

Visit Billy Jo Shaver's website.