All language subtitles for Tales From the Tour Bus - 01x05 - Billy Joe Shaver.WEBRip.English.HI.C.updated.Addic7ed.com

_

(country music playing)

This guy here, Billy Joe Shaver,

is one of the greatest country
music songwriters alive today.

The fact that he's alive at all

is pretty unbelievable,
given the life he's lead.

♪ I've spent a lifetime ♪

♪ Making up my mind to be ♪

♪ More than the measure ♪

♪ Of what I thought
others could see... ♪

An insider backstage,

an outsider in the business,

Billy Joe Shaver dropped acid
with the Grateful Dead,

picked a fight with Waylon Jennings,

he married the same woman three times,

divorced her after each one,

and, like almost everyone else

in this series so far,

he shot a guy.

(theme music playing)

Subtitle sync and corrections by
awaqeded for www.addic7ed.com.

Well, I first met

Billy Joe on the stage.

He was playing a song,

so I just picked up my Hobbs,

started playing with him, you know?

He said, "Oh, man."

He said, "You can... you can
play that French harp."

Then he said, "Why don't you
come out on the road with me?"

The next day, I get up, pack my
stuff, and I head to Billy Joe's.

Brenda, his wife at the
time, she answered the door

and she said, "They're
downstairs rehearsing."

So I said, "Okay," so I go downstairs.

(chuckles) And Billy looks at
me, then he looks over at Fred,

and he goes, "You know, I got
a little buzz on last night."

And he said, "I hired this crazy
Yankee harmonica player."

He said, "I can't
understand a word he said."

- He said, "We're just gonna humor him."
- (all laugh)

Mike: These guys know more
about Billy Joe Shaver

than they'd ever speak about openly.

Roguie Ray LaMontagne
played harmonica with him.

Freddy Fletcher played drums,

and Don Mealer, well...

I didn't do much of nothing

except carry drums and roadie a little.

My nickname is Poobah.

Where is that from, Freddy?

I'd... I'd go to jail.

(Ray laughs) I'm not sure
where that comes from.

I thought it came from The Flintstones.
(laughs)

Billy goes, "That damn Poobah,

he gets all the girls." (laughter)

Ray: "What's with that guy?"

Billy Joe had this van

he called Old Blue

that we traveled in,

and he had it all kind of fixed up.

There was a bed in the back,
had a couch in there.

We were in a lot of bad
situations in that van.

We was in Old Blue,
coming up to Canada,

going through the border,
pulling a stolen U-Haul

that we had rented months
and months before.

This was in, uh... Late '70s.

Yeah, late '70s, early '80s.

"We're going to Canada. No drugs."

Billy Joe made a big, big
thing about that. (chuckles)

"No drugs! You know they've
got a big checkpoint up here.

We got no drugs, right?"
That's what he's said.

"We're gonna have to pull over."

Ray: Everybody got out,

was going through their bags.

Freddy: All the sudden, all this
dope's coming out, you know,

and during those times,
cocaine was real popular.

There's guns coming out, and there's
knives and things of that nature.

And I had a belt that had a...

the buckle was actually
a knife in a sheath.

Roguie probably had some brass
knuckles or something, you know,

and Billy Joe always carried
this little derringer.

He called it his popgun.

He'd carry it in his boot.

Ray: Billy Joe says, "We
gotta hide it somewhere,"

so there was a mile marker there.

You have these mile markers
that show you where you are

and how close you're getting
to whatever destination.

So we picked a mile marker

and dug a hole
and stashed all our shit.

But then coming back,
it was like, "Oh man!"

We couldn't remember... (laughs)

...which mile marker. (laughter)

I remember going down
the road real slow,

looking... (laughs) and, you know.

Freddy: Things were hazy back then,

but, uh, if we didn't find our stash,

we headed home pretty
quick to get some more.

- (laughter)
- (tires squeal)

Mike: They drove Old Blue
all over North America,

but they always came back to
Texas, Billy Joe's home state.

He, uh, grew up with his
grandmother around Corsicana

in the middle of nowhere
in Central Texas...

pretty humble beginnings...
and loved poetry.

Some of the memories are
probably a little painful.

One of the early stories
Billy Joe told me

was that he snuck in to
see Homer and Jethro.

We just know two songs, and we
already sang one of 'em first...

- (laughter) - ...so we'd like
to do the other one right now.

We're gonna... we're gonna
do one here called,

"I Miss My Wife's Cooking
Whenever I Can."

Mike: Henry "Homer" Haynes
and Kenneth "Jethro" Burns

were known as the Thinking
Man's Hillbillies,

a mantle Billy Joe
would one day inherit.

As a kid, they were the
first act he went to see.

I was about eight or something,

Homer and Jethro were down
at the Miracle Bread Company,

and so I decided,
"Well, I'm gonna sneak out

of the house at night
and go down there."

And I'm barefooted, got little
old overalls on and no shirt.

But I got there, and, uh, there was

a crowd of guys, smoking and drinking.

And I got in there, and
I'm having to jump around

to keep people
from stepping on my feet.

And I decided, "Well,
I'll shimmy up this pole,"

and that's when they
introduced Hank Williams.

♪ Came in last night at half past ten ♪

♪ That baby of mine
wouldn't let me in ♪

♪ So move it on over ♪

♪ Move it on over ♪
♪ Move it on over ♪

- ♪ Move it on over ♪
- Hank: ♪ Move over little... ♪

He just sang right straight to me,

and when he sang straight
to me, it lit me up.

♪ Changed the lock on our front door ♪

♪ And my poor key don't fit no more ♪

♪ So get it on over... ♪

Went on home,
got the beating of my life.

My grandma, like, half...
beat me half to death,

but I knew then what I was gonna do.

A lot of what he drew
from was his experiences.

There's one song called

"I'd Walk Six Miles of Train Track

to Hear Hank Williams
Sing." It's a true story.

Mike: Billy Joe was gonna write songs,

and to do that, he needed to experience

a little more of the world than
what he had there in Corsicana.

Oh, I was about 15 or
something like that.

I went over to Boys Town
there in Matamoros.

Mike: Matamoros is just
across the border in Mexico,

about 30 miles from Brownsville.

Boys Town is in La Zona Roja,

the red-light district.

As a kid and being a Texan,

I think all the boys ended up,

at one point or another,
going to Boys Town.

There's girls, there's drugs...

basically anything you want.

You never leave with a good feeling.

It's lots of fun. I went into
this one particular joint.

I'm setting there
at the table, drinking,

and all of a sudden, a
bottle whizzed by my head.

So, I started throwing
my bottles at them, too.

(people shouting)

Billy Joe: And there's
bottles flying everywhere...

- (sirens blare)
- ...and about that time though,

the policia come in

and they grab me, of course, right off.

He was thrown in jail in Mexico

at probably 15 years old.

Billy Joe: I asked this
guy next-door to me,

"Man, I sure could do with a smoke."

He said, "It's a dollar."
So I handed him a dollar,

and then I realized
I didn't have no matches.

He sold me one match
for a dollar again,

and I go to light it,

and he said, "Don't do that.
You'll ruin it.

You gotta have a piece of this here
envelope thing that it came in."

I said, "Well, man, come on.

You-you... you mess
with me long enough."

He said, "Well, this'll be it."

And I handed him my dollar.

And, boy, it was the best cigarette

I ever smoked in my whole life.

Anyhow, I got out.

Mike: Billy Joe made
his way back to Texas

and found a job at Cameron Mills,

a lumber mill
about an hour south of Waco.

And that's where I got
these fingers cut off.

It was a double-end machine,

and on the side there was steel deal

with razor blades
all in it, just flying.

You couldn't even see it,
it was going so fast.

My glove got hung in there, and
it didn't have no safety switch,

and I put my foot up
against the darn thing.

I scooped my fingers up,

and it was so strange,
because I'd just read a...

a deal about these Japanese people
sewing the fingers back on.

I got in my pickup

and went over to the doctor's office.

I handed him my fingers.

I said, "Can you sew
these fingers back on?

- He said, "What?"
- "They do it in Japan."

And he said, "This is Waco, Texas!"

(laughs) Did one of those deals on me.

And the nurse there, she looked at me,

and she said, "Mr. Billy,
can I have them fingers?"

She came out with a Mason jar...

I swear, it already had the
formaldehyde and everything in it...

and she just dropped
them fingers down in there.

And she was pretty, too, man.

I figured, "Well, this
is an in, you know?

I'll go to the hospital, then
I'll come back." (laughs)

Kinky Friedman: Every story
Billy Joe tells is true.

He doesn't write any fanciful stuff.

And the idea

that a guitar player like him

would lose his fingers
in a sawmill accident

and have such a great
sense of humor about it...

He always waves to the audience
with that hand, you know.

I mean, that'd be enough
to stop most people.

Mike: Singer, songwriter, politician,

and close friend of Billy Joe Shaver,

Kinky Friedman has known the
man almost all his life.

- I just remember me and Billy Joe scratching
around in Nashville. - (dog barking)

Want the dogs barking out there?
Yeah, okay. (spits)

That's part of the ambiance?

Well, I tell you what,
we'll put that dog

- to sleep, okay?
- (barking continues)

Billy Joe adopted a
three-legged dog from us,

from our rescue ranch for animals.

I knew he would take that dog,
uh, for a lot of reasons.

We always say, "May the
Lord take a liking to you,"

but the Lord has taken
a liking to Billy Joe.

In spite of all
the tragedy in his life,

almost all of it self-inflicted...

some of it wasn't, not when
he was in his mother's womb

and was almost kicked
to death by his father.

♪ ♪

Um, and the mother... after
he was born, the mother...

the next day,
the mother left, took off.

She told my grandmother
when I was born,

she said, "If it's a boy, I'm leaving."

And actually, I was a boy, you know.

If you have that poverty
and miserableness

and broken-heartedness
and alcohol and drugs,

that makes for...
for a great songwriter.

Mike: Well, that brings
us to the drugs, I guess,

which really got serious after Billy
Joe decided to leave home for good.

He's got to make a move out of Texas at
some point and really go pursue this.

So he's gonna go to LA.
He's trying to hitchhike.

He's standing out there for
hours and not getting a ride.

And he went, "Well, fuck it," you know.

And he goes to the other
side of the highway...

and hitchhikes,
and ends up in Nashville.

Bill Joe was not a boozehound,

but he knew his way around drugs.

It was pills back then, uppers.

Basically, the same thing Johnny Cash had.

Mike: Singer Bobby Bare met Billy Joe

in the country music capital
of the world.

He'd just started up
a publishing company.

He came in my office
one morning on Music Row,

sang me a few songs,

and... the songs were strange.

- ♪ With a trembling hand and a bottle
of gin ♪ - Billy Joe was stranger.

♪ And a rose of a different... ♪

The first song of his I heard
was "Black Rose," I think.

♪ Well, the devil made me
do it the first time ♪

♪ The second time I done it on my own ♪

- (cheering) - ♪ Lord, put a handle
on this simple-headed man ♪

♪ Help me leave
that black rose alone... ♪

When I first got to town,
I didn't have nowhere to stay,

didn't have no car, nothing.

Mike: He landed on the couch of
another songwriter named Hal Bynum,

known for the Kenny Rogers hit,
"Lucille," among other things.

Hal was a fighter, and I got
in a lot of fights, you know.

Hal would come in at night,
usually, I'd be asleep.

I'd feel something on my neck,

and it'd be a dang rusty knife,

and he would read Alfred Lord Tennyson.

(deep voice) "Into the Valley of Death

rode the six hundred."

It sounded like something Hal would do.

I told Bobby about it. I said, "I
don't know what's the matter with me.

I don't know why I didn't leave.
I guess I liked the poetry."

He said, "No, I think you
liked the knife." (laughs)

Hal never used the knife.

He doesn't have that kind of courage.

Mike: Billy Joe was the
one who was fearless,

particularly when it came
to experimentation.

I've heard the stories
about Willie and Waylon

testing, uh, dope on Billy Joe.

I was kind of a guinea pig,
but I got a lot of free drugs.

He'd take a handful of pills,

and they'd sit back
and watch him for an hour,

see how it affected him.

I got a lot of cocaine from Waylon.

And Willie, he wouldn't do
nothing but smoke marijuana.

And, uh, Waylon would fire you if
he smelt marijuana around you.

And, uh, Willie would fire you

if he heard you were doing coke.

Mike: Both Willie and Waylon Jennings

were instrumental
in Billy Joe's career,

but his big break came in a roundabout
way from the Grateful Dead.

I went into Austin,
and I was supposed to play

in front of the Grateful Dead,

and I actually got there a day late.

And I'm walking off
across the parking lot,

and the manager,
he comes hollering at me,

say, "Hey, Billy, uh,
the Dead left you something."

And he come out with his...

purse-like thing...

you know, a man purse...

(chuckles) ...and he had a
big roll of toilet paper.

(laughs) And I said,
"What are you trying...

they trying to tell me
something or what?"

And he said, "No."

He said, "There's a hit of Owsley acid

on every square."

Mike: Owsley acid was the
street name for LSD,

nicknamed for Owsley Stanley,

the chemist who was also known as Bear,

who just happened to be
the Grateful Dead's sound man.

Anyway, went and took a hit.

♪ ♪

And later that night,
I'm all, "Whoa, man."

I'm seeing all kind of things.

I got to laying down on the cement.

I woke up and this...

this darn brown recluse
spider had bit my arm.

He laid there all night long, I guess,

just having a great time,
biting the hell out of me.

And I remember pushing
it off, and it was dead.

Mike: The year was 1972.

It was the weekend of the
Dripping Springs Reunion,

the live music event that would become

Willie Nelson's
annual 4th of July picnic.

It was totally disorganized,
but it was a great lineup,

and it was in the middle
of nowhere in Texas.

It's hotter than hell,
cowboys and hippies

and girls throwing
their blouses on stage.

From what I understand, Billy
Joe was gonna play the picnic,

but he kind of disappeared out into
the wilderness for two or three days.

I got to thinking I was Jesus Christ,

and I was gonna like,
uh, heal people and stuff.

I went wandering around, and I finally
found this little peanut truck...

not a truck, a peanut trailer.

And it don't look like you
can get in 'em, but you can.

And I got inside there,

and there was three guys
passing a guitar around.

And I started playing "Willy
the Wandering Gypsy and Me,"

and all of a sudden here comes somebody

busting out of the back, all bent over,

and it was Waylon Jennings.

And he says, "Whose song is that?"

And I said, "It's mine."

He said, "You got any more
of those cowboy songs?"

Billy Joe finally sucked,
fucked or cajoled Waylon

into recording a whole
record of his songs,

which turned out
to be Honky Tonk Heroes.

What Billy Joe did not do, was
he would not leave the studio

when Waylon was recording,
and no artist appreciates

a songwriter critiquing
every fucking thing he does.

Waylon gave Captain Midnight
a hundred dollar bill

and said, "Give this to Billy Joe,

and tell him to get the fuck
out of here and stay away."

And, uh, Billy Joe
threw it back at Midnight,

and he said, "You tell Waylon
to stick this up his ass."

♪ ♪

♪ Low down leaving sun ♪

♪ Done did everything that needs done ♪

♪ Woe is me, why can't I see? ♪

♪ I'd best be leaving
well enough alone ♪

Mike: Honky Tonk Heroes
was released in 1973.

A lot of folks say
it was the Outlaw Movement's

first true record
and maybe Waylon's best.

Record company was happy,

and Waylon's career went...
skyrocketing.

Mike: As for Billy Joe,
he went back on the road

with Old Blue and the band, playing
songs for anyone who would listen.

And he went back to Texas,
where he had family,

which brings us to Billy
Joe's relationship to women,

fertile ground for any songwriter.

He married his first wife,
Brenda, three times

with divorces in between,

and then he did the same thing
with wife number two, Wanda.

She was my triple-ex-wife.

She could drink more than I could.

That's why I married her, really.

Mike: The last ceremony was
held, fittingly, in Las Vegas.

And Billy Gibbons was,
uh... he married us.

You know, the guitar player for ZZ Top?

He's an ordained minister.

Flew from Texas to Vegas,

made it in about an hour and a half.

We arrived at the Chapel of the West.

Billy Joe walked in,
and I said, uh, "Gee, man,

I'm really kind of excited.
This is kind of a big deal."

And he said, "Oh, don't
think anything of it.

I've done it many times." (laughs)

Mike: Six times, to put a number on it.

We wound up going back to the hotel.

I said, uh, "Where's the celebration?"

They said, uh, "Oh, it's right there."

And they were pointing
to the center of the casino.

I said, "Well, where's Billy Joe?"

"You can see 'em. They're right
down there on the floor."

I said, "Well, what are they doing?"

They're down there on the floor,

in the main bar,
in the center of the casino.

They're Indian leg wrestling.

You've seen
that Indian wrestling thing.

Everybody knows about that.

And I looked down, I said,

"Well, there's a one, and then two,

and then on three, wham." (cracks)

He popped my neck real good.

Down the road we went
to the little walk-in clinic,

and they said, "Gee,
uh, we better, uh...

we better have a look at this."
So they did a quick X-ray.

Well, he had broken his neck.

(laughs)

The guy that broke my neck,
he was my best man.

Wanda got to crying so bad...
and she can cry.

She has these tear ducts
that she has little plugs,

and she took them things out,
mascara ran all down her face.

It looked like somebody
just beat the hell out of her.

She stayed out, gone all
night long, you know.

And I... I assume Billy
consummated the marriage.

Mike: Wanda and Billy Joe
headed back to Texas

to get divorced, again.

They stopped at a watering
hole, close to home,

named Papa Joe's.

It's right on the outskirts of Waco.

It's just one of those places

you're not gonna really
pull into if you got any sense.

We go inside, and here comes this guy,

he's built like a brick shit-house.

And he comes over there to our table,

and then he got to stirring
the drinks with this here...

one of them, uh, Kershaw knives

and kind of smarting off to me.

And I noticed my wife with her
head up against his head,

and they're... they're talking.
You know, they're close.

But I didn't care. We getting
a divorce, you understand?

And it wasn't long before I got
tired of him blabbering, you know.

He turns around and tells me,
"Why don't you shut the fuck up!"

Well, I said, "I can't take this."

I said, "Look, man, you gonna have
to either apologize or something."

And then he... he gets
up out of his chair.

He said, "Apologize?
Hell, I'm gonna kill you."

So we head for the back door,

and the leader of the band
handed him a gun.

I said, "Oh shit,
what am I gonna do now?"

I knew I'd... I'd brought my
little .22 derringer with me,

you know, just in case.

He shot at me three times.

Mike: Let's stop right
here for a second.

Witness accounts, police records,

and the legal arguments
presented in the case

all depict the other man
as being armed with a knife.

(zings) Carry on.

I knew it was time to return fire.

So, I actually come out of my pocket

with that little old thing and went...

(grunts)... like that, just "Pfft!"

And it hit him right between the...
mother and the fucker.

And he dropped his weapon,
and he said, "I'm sorry."

And, uh, God, I wish
he'd have said that earlier

and none of that would have happened.

Wanda comes hopping out
like a damn kangaroo,

screaming and a-hollering,

and she finally decided to go with me,

so we took off and went
to my, uh, hiding place,

which I ain't gonna
tell you where it is.

Billy Joe called me
the night he was on the run.

He was gonna get killed
or kill somebody.

He said, "I just shot this guy."

I said, "Oh, fuck. Is he dead?"

He said, "No, I just shot
him through the cheek."

He said, "What do I do?"

Mike: Word of the
shootout at Papa Joe's

spread like wildfire
through his community.

Phone rings, and I flipped it
over, and it was Dale Watson.

Mike: Dale Watson is
a singer, guitarist,

songwriter, and good
friend of Billy Joe's.

And Dale says, "Billy, can I
write a song about this?"

And I thought, "What in the world?"

I said, "Were you there?"
And he said, "No.

I just wanna write a song about it."

And I said, "Well,
I guess so, you know."

My phone rang. I picked it up,

and it said "Billy Joe Shaver."

Mike: Connie Nelson was
Willie Nelson's third wife,

and more importantly, a close
personal friend to Billy Joe.

And the first words he said was,
"Connie, I'm in big trouble."

And I said, "Oh, God, Billy Joe."

I said, "Listen, where's the gun now?"

And he said, "It's in my
pocket." And I said, "Oh, God."

Mike: Connie contacted a lawyer,

and this lawyer convinced
Billy Joe to turn himself in.

He was released on a $50,000 bond

and managed to play a gig
later that night in Austin.

That's Billy Joe.
What are you gonna do?

Fast-forward, so they indict him,

so there's this big trial
and media circus in Waco.

By the time, I'd fired
about five different lawyers,

'cause they all wanted
me to plead guilty.

Mike: He ended up with Texas
legal legend, Dick DeGuerin.

Now, Dick DeGuerin is
a very good lawyer,

if there is such a thing.

Mike: Among his many
infamous defendants,

Dick DeGuerin has represented
former Congressman Tom DeLay

and cult leader David Koresh.

Dick DeGuerin also
represented Bobby Durst,

who, uh, cut the guy's
head off in, uh, Waco.

Bobby Durst and I were co-best men

at Chinga Chavin's
wedding in Las Vegas.

Chinga Chavin, the guy who wrote

"Proud to Be an Asshole from El Paso"

and also "Cum Stains On the Pillow
(Where Your Sweet Head Used to Be)."

At any rate, Dick DeGuerin, he says,

"Never put a woman on a jury

whose lips resemble
a chicken's asshole."

(sniffs)

And that's what I was
worried about in Waco.

Billy Joe was a local boy
and very well known,

so had standing room only

in the courtroom. (clears throat)

And there were Billy Joe supporters,

for instance, Robert
Duvall came to the trial,

Willie Nelson came,

and, uh, he called me
on his cell phone.

He said, "Now, Dick, are you gonna
put Billy Joe on the stand?"

I said, "Yeah, Willie, I've got to.
He's got to testify."

He said, "Well,
you know you can't trust

"what comes out of his mouth.

(chuckles) You never can
tell what he's gonna say."

For instance, prosecutor
said, "Now, Mr. Shaver,

you could've just walked away
from there, couldn't you?"

He said, "Ma'am, I'm from Texas.

I ain't no chickenshit."

"Oh, you didn't just say that.
Oh, no, you didn't." (laughs)

There was another point in
the trial where, again,

Billy Joe's on the stand, this...

and the prosecutor was cross-examining.

She's pointing that finger
at me and said,

"You said, 'Where you want it?'"

And I said, "What?"
I said, "I didn't say that."

And they said, "We know you did,

because we heard it on the radio."

Mike: Remember Dale Watson?

Well, Billy Joe's old friend had
memorialized the shootout in a song,

which had been playing on the radio.

Dale: ♪ Billy ask him, "Son,
where do you want it?" ♪

And just about this time, I see
the judge rolled his eyes,

and I thought, "He's gonna go to prison.
Oh, my God."

Oh, yes. I was
just sitting there, cringing,

'cause there's nothing I could do.

Mike: After a three-day trial,

the jury took just two hours
to reach a verdict.

Dick: Bill Joe was very nervous.
The judge says,

"We, the jury, find the defendant,

Billy Joe Shaver, not guilty."

(cheering) The courtroom
erupted in applause.

For a guy who makes millions of
bucks doing ridiculous cases

for people who are obviously
guilty and everybody knows it,

that may have been
Dick DeGuerin's finest hour.

Billy Joe's been quoted as saying
he wanted his bullet back.

(laughs)

But the Lord blessed
Billy Joe and it ended well,

and he got a song out of it,
"Wacko From Waco."

Billy Joe: ♪ I'm wacko from Waco ♪

♪ Ain't no doubt about it ♪

♪ Shot a man there in the mouth ♪

♪ But can't talk much about it... ♪

Mike: The "Wacko from Waco"
may live a charmed life,

but he hasn't gotten away Scot-free.
No one does.

He lost one of his wives to cancer,

and his only son to an overdose.

Billy Joe himself suffered
a heart attack on stage,

both knees have given out,

and he's broken his neck three times.

Man, I'm a mess, you know,

but I'm still writing songs.

You know, you look at guy who's a poet,

that's a very high calling.

Being a songwriter is to sail
as close to the truth

as you can get
without sinking the ship.

Or as Willie Nelson says,

"If you fail at something long enough,

you become a legend."

Billy Joe: ♪ I'm gonna live forever ♪

♪ I'm gonna cross that river ♪

♪ I'm gonna catch tomorrow now ♪

♪ You're gonna wanna hold me ♪

♪ Just like I always told you ♪

♪ You're gonna miss me when I'm gone ♪

♪ 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 ♪

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(car engine revs)