Billy Joe Shaver may be gone, but stories about his legacy live on. And this one seems so crazy that it sounds a lot like a tall tale. But it's actually true.
The country icon once shot a man in a parking lot and then wrote a song about it. In 2007, Shaver appeared with his then wife Wanda at a small town bar called Papa Joe's. It was near South Carolina and Georgia.
The bar was apparently a pretty shady place.
He once explained, "We run across this place called Papa Joes and it's a beer joint and I've been in there and it's a scary a-- place. I mean the door actually looked like something to enter solitary confinement... we're getting our last divorce as a matter of fact. It hadn't got there yet, we're still married but we're waiting on the divorce..."
Shaver said a man entered the bar with a bottle of whiskey. He began pouring whiskey into everybody's drink. The man used a pocket knife to stir Shaver's drink and also tried to chat up Shaver's then wife.
Billy Joe Shaver Fight
The two ended up in a bit of an argument with each other. Shaver explained.
"I said 'Hey mister, if you just apologize everything will be alright.' Of course then he really unloaded on me cause he was a Texican too, about half my age... so we take it outside.
We're heading for the back door, which had been kicked down already, and I went around him because I'd been in a few fights before and I wanted to get outside first cause I don't like coming out in the dark and somebody hitting me in the head with something... so I got out there and I'm waiting for him and he didn't come out...
I looked out there. And I seen him coming across the dancefloor and old boy that was the leader of the band walks out to him. And hands him a gun... I remembered I had a little bitty popper in the old lady's car, a little .22 Derringer. I just leisurely went over there and stuck it in my pocket just in case...
All of a sudden out he comes, pow pow pow pow. He runs from about here to there shooting at me. And I just say, "You know what, it's time to return fire. So I come out with that gun, pop. Hit him right between the mother and the f-ker..."
Later, Shaver ended up writing "Wacko From Waco" with Willie Nelson. Check out the lyrics below.
I'm a wacko from Waco, ain't no doubt about it
Shot a man there in the head but can't talk much about it
He was trying to shoot me, but he took too long to aim
Anybody in my place, would have done the same
I don't start fights, I finish fights, that's the way I'll always be
I'm a wacko from Waco, you best not mess with me
