Billy Joe Shaver tips his hat to the crowd at the Palace during a 2007 performance .
FILE photo | Explore Corsicana
14 Explore Corsicana | Fall 2022
He was all denim and worn cowboy boots , with no qualms about using his human failings as artistic fodder . He sang autobiographical songs about seedy honky-tonks and heartbreak , missed opportunities and bad decisions , and freely admitted to ingesting a cornucopia of drugs and chasing them with a torrent of booze . He was an unrepentant drifter who washed out of the Navy , married and divorced the same women three times and who , yes , once shot a man in a Lorena , TX , bar for telling him to shut up .
No , that ’ s not exactly the image most city councils embrace . They ’ d understandably rather opt for someone like Lefty Frizzell , a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee with a relatively cleancut façade . And that ’ s okay .
Because no less an authority than Johnny Cash once called Shaver his favorite songwriter , and Bob Dylan has been known to cover Shaver ’ s “ Old Five and Dimers Like Me ” in concert . And then there ’ s the legion of Shaver acolytes , those of us who either blew our chance or never had one to begin with , and who see a little of ourselves in Corsicana ’ s forgotten son . Surely that ’ s worth more than any amount of establishment acceptance .
Still , it would be nice to have a totem to Billy Joe Shaver – some little alter for us rebels and burnouts to kneel before and pay tribute to the man who sang for us .
To that end , Mark Watson has raised about half of the $ 30,000 or so needed to erect a bronze statue of Shaver in Corsicana . To drum up the rest of the money he ’ s selling handmade saddle cinch belts like the one Shaver famously wore , and he ’ s contemplating another fundraiser this year like the street dance he held in Corsicana in 2021 .
Billy Joe Shaver mostly told the truth in his songs , but he did misfire on occasion . In “ Hardworkin ’ Man ” he sang , “ On the day that I lay down and die , there ain ’ t too many folks gonna cry .”
How wrong he was . But , then again , Shaver was a poet , not a prophet , even if he is without honor in his own town .
To contribute to the Billy Joe Shaver statue fund , visit billyjoeshaverstatue . com or search Billy Joe Shaver Statue Fund on Facebook .