Billy Joe Shaver found not guilty in shooting

One of the greatest songwriters of all time, Billy Joe Shaver, was recently found not guilty for shooting a man in the face in Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon south of Waco. Shaver did shoot him, of course, but argued that it was in self defense, after the other man pulled a knife on him. From the Austin Statesman:

Shaver still faces a charge of unlawful carrying of a handgun by a license holder for bringing his gun to Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon the night of the shooting.

Earlier in the day, Shaver testified that he feared for his life when he shot Coker in the upper lip on the back patio of the bar in Lorena, just south of Waco, with a .22-caliber pistol that was smaller than the palm of his hand.

Shaver said he was nervous after Coker brandished a knife in the bar and then asked him to step outside.

“I wanted to scare him … wanted to beat him to the punch. \u2026 I feared he was going to kill me,” Shaver said.

During cross-examination, prosecutor Beth Toben tried to use Shaver’s outlaw image against him.

She suggested that he could have just left the bar if he had felt so intimidated.

That would have been “chicken shit,” Shaver replied.

Toben asked whether Shaver was jealous that Coker at the time was talking to Shaver’s wife, Wanda.

“I get more women than a passenger train can haul. I’m not jealous,” Shaver said.

During her final argument, Toben noted that several witnesses, including Coker, said Shaver fired without provocation. She also suggested he shot because he was angry that Coker told him to shut up earlier in the night.

“He may be a honky-tonk hero,” referring to the title of Shaver’s autobiography, “and he may have written a lot of wonderful songs, … but on that day, he was a honky-tonk bully.”

Perhaps the most critical testimony came from Daniel Silvas, who said he saw the shooting from his truck after he pulled into the bar.

Silvas said he saw a quarrel between two men, one of whom he later learned was Shaver. The other man then went at Shaver with a knife as Shaver backed away, Silvas said.

“To me it looked like (Shaver) was just trying to … to get away” before firing, Silvas said.

The rest.

Billy Joe Shaver’s songs inaugurated the Outlaw Country movement. In my mind, he’s up there on that top short list of songwriters with Townes Van Zandt and very few others.

He’s so good, in fact, that even Big & Rich can’t fuck up his songs.