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Honky Tonk Hero
Billy Joe Shaver was the real deal. Many agree with him that his songs are pure poetry. Shaver sang about a life that was full of hard times, wild living, and a forty-year-long passion for his late wife Brenda. His songs are raw, honest, and so true that people hear the story of their own lives in his music. No wonder, then, that his songs have also been recorded by artists such as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, George Jones, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Patty Loveless, John Anderson, Tom T. Hall, the Allman Brothers, the Oak Ridge Boys, and Tex Ritter. In this compelling autobiography written with the assistance of Brad Reagan, Billy Joe Shaver looks back over a life that some might call a miracle of survival. His father abandoned the family before Billy Joe was born. Troubles in school and in the military turned him into a fighter, and a sawmill accident claimed two fingers and part of a third on his right hand. Yet his innate musical talent and the encouragement of an English teacher set him on the road to being a songwriter―and he never looked back. Shaver recounts his long struggle to break into the music business in Nashville and the success that came when Waylon Jennings recorded his songs on the 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes , which became a landmark of outlaw country music. Shaver movingly describes his own up-and-down career as a singer-songwriter in Nashville and Texas; his bouts with alcohol and drugs; his pleasure in touring with his son, Eddy, and their band, Shaver, during the 1990s; and the pain of losing Eddy, Brenda, and Billy Joe's mother all within the year 1999–2000. As full of life, heartbreak, and drama as any of Billy Joe Shaver’s songs, Honky Tonk Hero is the story of a man who not only walked on the wild side and lived to tell about it, but also got it all down in songs that many people consider to be some of the finest country music ever written.
208 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 9, 2020
Billy Joe Shaver passed away on October 28, 2020. Seek out his music if you can. It's an oasis of calm, wonder, joy and humor in this horrible age.
Original Review
According to his good friend Willie Nelson (who normally sings one or two Shaver songs at his concerts), Billy Joe could rightly be considered the father of Outlaw music, which is most identified with Nelson, Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and, to some extent, Johnny Cash. It all started with Jennings’ album Honky Tonk Heroes, for which Billy Joe wrote the songs. Unfortunately the success of the album did little to expose Billy Joe to a wider audience.
Reading this is as close to sitting on a porch listening to Billy Joe tell about his life as you can get. Hard living, womanizing, alcohol, drugs, rootlessness, and bad business decisions all contributed to his relative public obscurity. He was never much of a husband; he had three marriages and two divorces with the love of his life, Brenda. He was never much of a father to his son Eddy, who, under the tutelage of Dicky Betts of the Allman Brothers Band, became an accomplished guitarist in own right. They reconnected when Eddy was in in early twenties and formed the band Shaver, which brought them both recording success and belated public recognition in the 1990s. That ended when Eddy died of a heroin overdose on December 31, 2003. But Billy Joe’s faith—religious, in himself, and in humanity—has pulled him through to find optimism and hope, even in times of tragedy.
Among American roots musicians, Billy Joe was—and still is—something of an earthly deity. His songs are beguilingly profound. Billy Joe, said Nelson, “has the ability to simplify it to where these broad truths are contained within 2 1/2 minute records or a 2 minute song.” His songs tell the story of his life: aspirations and disappointments; successes and failures; how he went from an imperfect wanderer to a born-again Christian who doesn’t try to shove his beliefs down everyone’s throat. He seems happy to know that he’s made a difference in some people’s lives and continues to share his humble joy of life in his concerts. I’ve seen him live a number of times and always leave his shows feeling better than when I arrived. My autographed volume of Honky Tonk Hero has a special place in my library. The second half of the book has the collected lyrics of songs written before 2005. They expose a man who is a poet of the human condition; music is his vehicle to share an artistic gospel.
Here’s a brief musical biography of sorts about Billy Joe Shaver through a few of his songs:
Old Five and Dimers Like Me
I’ve spent a lifetime making up my mind to be
More than a measure of what I thought others could see
I'm Just An Old Chunk of Coal
I’m just an old chunk of coal
But I’m gonna be a diamond some day
Tramp On Your Street
I’m just a tramp on your street
You must understand
You got my soul at your feet
And my heart in your hand
Georgia On A Fast Train
Now I thought I’d mention my grandma’s old age pension
Is the reason why I’m standing here today
I got all my country learnin’ milking and a churnin’
Picking cotton, raisin’ hell, and bailing hay…
I been to Georgia on a fast train honey
I wuddn’t born no yesterday
I got a good Christian raisin’ and an eighth grade education
Ain’t no need in y’all treatin’ me this way
Live Forever
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’ve always told you
You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone
Heart of Texas
When my sweetheart listened to the songs I played
She said, “I love you honey, but there ain’t much money in a serenade
I need a man with a real job”
Oklahoma Wind
Black man took a chance and got his foot hung in the door
He sure as hell is gonna have his day
Red man speaks his piece to gain his long long-lost dignity
And Washington just turns the other way
Blood Is Thicker Than Water (duet with Eddy recorded just before his death)
Eddy’s verse:
Can’t you see I’m down on the ground, I can’t get no lower
I’ve seen you puking out your guts and running with sluts
When you was married to my mother
Now the powers that be are leading you and me
Like two lambs to the slaughter
I need a friend, I’m your son,
And you’re always gonna be my father
Don’t you know that blood,
Blood is thicker than water
Love Is So Sweet
Love is so sweet
It makes you bounce when you walk down the street
Original Review
Billy Joe Shaver may be the best songwriter alive today.I’m not a big fan of Texas as such, but I love its musical heritage. In addition to the the king of Texas music, Bob Wills, it has given us icons like Lead Belly, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Lefty Frizzell, Roy Orbison, George Jones, Sly Stone, Flaco Jimenez, Buddy Guy, Steve Miller, Doug Sahm, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, the Gourds, and the Old 97’s (does Van Cliburn fit into this list?). With the exception of Guy Clark, in my opinion, Billy Joe Shaver stands a bit higher than all of them. So on this lazy Sunday afternoon, as I try to take a break from the world’s stresses, I figured it was a good day to visit with Billy Joe again.
-Willie Nelson
He's as real a writer as Hemingway. He's timeless.
-Kris Kristofferson
According to his good friend Willie Nelson (who normally sings one or two Shaver songs at his concerts), Billy Joe could rightly be considered the father of Outlaw music, which is most identified with Nelson, Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and, to some extent, Johnny Cash. It all started with Jennings’ album Honky Tonk Heroes, for which Billy Joe wrote the songs. Unfortunately the success of the album did little to expose Billy Joe to a wider audience.
Reading this is as close to sitting on a porch listening to Billy Joe tell about his life as you can get. Hard living, womanizing, alcohol, drugs, rootlessness, and bad business decisions all contributed to his relative public obscurity. He was never much of a husband; he had three marriages and two divorces with the love of his life, Brenda. He was never much of a father to his son Eddy, who, under the tutelage of Dicky Betts of the Allman Brothers Band, became an accomplished guitarist in own right. They reconnected when Eddy was in in early twenties and formed the band Shaver, which brought them both recording success and belated public recognition in the 1990s. That ended when Eddy died of a heroin overdose on December 31, 2003. But Billy Joe’s faith—religious, in himself, and in humanity—has pulled him through to find optimism and hope, even in times of tragedy.
Among American roots musicians, Billy Joe was—and still is—something of an earthly deity. His songs are beguilingly profound. Billy Joe, said Nelson, “has the ability to simplify it to where these broad truths are contained within 2 1/2 minute records or a 2 minute song.” His songs tell the story of his life: aspirations and disappointments; successes and failures; how he went from an imperfect wanderer to a born-again Christian who doesn’t try to shove his beliefs down everyone’s throat. He seems happy to know that he’s made a difference in some people’s lives and continues to share his humble joy of life in his concerts. I’ve seen him live a number of times and always leave his shows feeling better than when I arrived. My autographed volume of Honky Tonk Hero has a special place in my library. The second half of the book has the collected lyrics of songs written before 2005. They expose a man who is a poet of the human condition; music is his vehicle to share an artistic gospel.
Here’s a brief musical biography of sorts about Billy Joe Shaver through a few of his songs:
Old Five and Dimers Like Me
I’ve spent a lifetime making up my mind to be
More than a measure of what I thought others could see
I'm Just An Old Chunk of Coal
I’m just an old chunk of coal
But I’m gonna be a diamond some day
Tramp On Your Street
I’m just a tramp on your street
You must understand
You got my soul at your feet
And my heart in your hand
Georgia On A Fast Train
Now I thought I’d mention my grandma’s old age pension
Is the reason why I’m standing here today
I got all my country learnin’ milking and a churnin’
Picking cotton, raisin’ hell, and bailing hay…
I been to Georgia on a fast train honey
I wuddn’t born no yesterday
I got a good Christian raisin’ and an eighth grade education
Ain’t no need in y’all treatin’ me this way
Live Forever
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’ve always told you
You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone
Heart of Texas
When my sweetheart listened to the songs I played
She said, “I love you honey, but there ain’t much money in a serenade
I need a man with a real job”
Oklahoma Wind
Black man took a chance and got his foot hung in the door
He sure as hell is gonna have his day
Red man speaks his piece to gain his long long-lost dignity
And Washington just turns the other way
Blood Is Thicker Than Water (duet with Eddy recorded just before his death)
Eddy’s verse:
Can’t you see I’m down on the ground, I can’t get no lower
I’ve seen you puking out your guts and running with sluts
When you was married to my mother
Now the powers that be are leading you and me
Like two lambs to the slaughter
I need a friend, I’m your son,
And you’re always gonna be my father
Don’t you know that blood,
Blood is thicker than water
Love Is So Sweet
Love is so sweet
It makes you bounce when you walk down the street
January 31, 2013
This Is Where Country Music Comes From
Billy Joe Shaver has lived through more madness and tragedy than any one man ever should, and he has graced us with songs about it. In this book he elaborates on what he's been through, providing insight into what drove him to become a songwriter and what drove him to write so many brilliant songs. As much as people like to call him a poet, he's also honest and straightforward, never beating around the bush, and that powerful component of his work shines here.
Billy Joe Shaver has lived through more madness and tragedy than any one man ever should, and he has graced us with songs about it. In this book he elaborates on what he's been through, providing insight into what drove him to become a songwriter and what drove him to write so many brilliant songs. As much as people like to call him a poet, he's also honest and straightforward, never beating around the bush, and that powerful component of his work shines here.
October 19, 2008
I'd give this more stars, but there's actually only about 80 pages of text here...the rest is his collected lyrics, which is cool, but I really wanted LOTS more, as his storytelling is great and his life is fascinating.
February 12, 2016
Short and incredibly sweet! And by sweet, I just mean great. Billy Joe tells his life story with no bullshit, much wisdom, and loads of laughs, and closes with his collected lyrics, which say even more.
October 13, 2020
You know, this year just keeps getting weirder and weirder, as the deaths to COVID continue to mount, and so many Pop Culture & Sports Figures & Heroes of our youth are passing away almost daily (Joe Morgan, Eddie Van Halen, Helen Reddy, Mac Davis, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Johnny Nash, Chadwick Boseman, Dame Diana Rigg, Toots Hibbert, Kevin Dobson, Justin Townes Earle, Ben Cross, Wayne Fontana, Tom Seaver, Trini Lopez, Ronald Bell, Jay Johnstone, Gayle Sayers, among many others) – and these dearly departed are only in just the past TWO months.
We also must honor and humbly mention Ms. Ruth Bader Ginsberg, whose honorable life was filled with distinction and accomplishment, and whose recent passing, is the most seismically crucial to our nation’s governorship and citizens’ rights to hit the American political scene in decades.
But all this turmoil has personally driven me deeper into the solace of some of the best friends a person can have —- Books —- The Written Word. And I mean, BOOKS. Not tablets, or laptops, or phones, etc. but BOOKS! The tangible FEEL of a physical book in your hands, or on your lap. The physical act of turning the pages with your fingertips, flipping a few pages ahead to see how far you’ve got left in a given chapter, when you decide to finally look at the pictures, the smell of the paper and the guts of the book……
At the expense of sounding like the Geek Bookworm I find myself turning into as more and more pages in THE Calendar also simultaneously flip by, my Book Friends and the physical and mental aspects of reading and consuming knowledge they provide, have brought me immeasurable joy, provided companionship in times of solitude, and have presented worlds, locales, and characters I would never have met otherwise.
And hey, I’m learning shit!
Oh, and by the way, Honky Tonk Hero is a great autobiography of the real thing, Billy Joe Shaver. A great bonus is that practically the final half of the book consists of the amazing and true poetry of Mr. Shaver’s complete songbook.
He’s right there with Townes, Kris, Guy, Tom T., Mickey, Waylon, Willie, Johnny and the Man himself – Hank.
If you love REAL Country Music and REAL American Songwriting, pick this up and you can blow through it in a couple of days.
We also must honor and humbly mention Ms. Ruth Bader Ginsberg, whose honorable life was filled with distinction and accomplishment, and whose recent passing, is the most seismically crucial to our nation’s governorship and citizens’ rights to hit the American political scene in decades.
But all this turmoil has personally driven me deeper into the solace of some of the best friends a person can have —- Books —- The Written Word. And I mean, BOOKS. Not tablets, or laptops, or phones, etc. but BOOKS! The tangible FEEL of a physical book in your hands, or on your lap. The physical act of turning the pages with your fingertips, flipping a few pages ahead to see how far you’ve got left in a given chapter, when you decide to finally look at the pictures, the smell of the paper and the guts of the book……
At the expense of sounding like the Geek Bookworm I find myself turning into as more and more pages in THE Calendar also simultaneously flip by, my Book Friends and the physical and mental aspects of reading and consuming knowledge they provide, have brought me immeasurable joy, provided companionship in times of solitude, and have presented worlds, locales, and characters I would never have met otherwise.
And hey, I’m learning shit!
Oh, and by the way, Honky Tonk Hero is a great autobiography of the real thing, Billy Joe Shaver. A great bonus is that practically the final half of the book consists of the amazing and true poetry of Mr. Shaver’s complete songbook.
He’s right there with Townes, Kris, Guy, Tom T., Mickey, Waylon, Willie, Johnny and the Man himself – Hank.
If you love REAL Country Music and REAL American Songwriting, pick this up and you can blow through it in a couple of days.
July 9, 2017
You could credit Billy Joe Shaver as the songwriter who started the Outlaw movement in Country music, since Waylon Jennings' widely influencial 1973 Honky Tonk Heroes record (including the title track) was made up almost entirely of his songs. He also wrote for Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, hung out with Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, Kinky Friedman, Rosie Flores, and movie stars Robert Duvall and Harry Dean Stanton. He won the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement award for songwriting in 2001, the only conventional award he ever won. He was a misfit, a brawler, drunk, and drug-taker, who always seemed to blow or miss entirely his chances for mainstream success, but through it all he kept writing the songs which have made him legendary and a surprising faith in both himself and a God, who certainly (if he existed) wouldn't have approved much of the way he lived his life. His book is unconventional, too. The photo section is in the introduction at the very beginning. The story of his life, told in his own words, is short: only 72 pages, but packed with stories and the flavor of his life. The rest of the space is taken up by his songs, which after all are what he'll be remembered for: the bulk of the books's 191 pages. It's a book as uncommon as the writer and as powerful. A little strange but utterly unforgettable! - BH.
January 2, 2023
Here is the thing. I give the first 100 pages or so five stars. Hearing about Billy Joe's life as a kid up through his wife and son dying, really helped me to better understand him. I even feel like I have known dozens of fellows just like him, or at least close enough to make me feel like he and I could have been friends. The problem is, the whole second half of the books is nothing but 100 pages of song lyrics. I already know all of his songs, I did not buy this book to see 100 pages of lyrics.
It feels like whoever was interviewing Billy Joe, ran out of material, especially after Brenda and Eddie died and decided to use the song lyrics to fill out the rest of the book to add some heft to it. The first part is excellent, but the song lyrics made the book feel like a gimmick. I am going to send this book to the man who introduced me to Billy Joe's music, but I am so disappointed in the back half of the book. There is no doubt enough material in Billie Joe's life to have written a full book.
Just be warned, you are only receiving half a book when you buy this.
It feels like whoever was interviewing Billy Joe, ran out of material, especially after Brenda and Eddie died and decided to use the song lyrics to fill out the rest of the book to add some heft to it. The first part is excellent, but the song lyrics made the book feel like a gimmick. I am going to send this book to the man who introduced me to Billy Joe's music, but I am so disappointed in the back half of the book. There is no doubt enough material in Billie Joe's life to have written a full book.
Just be warned, you are only receiving half a book when you buy this.
September 23, 2025
The compelling autobiography of outlaw country musician, songwriter, and poet, Billy Joe Shaver. Written in the same unadorned, straightforward style as his lyrics, it details the incredible, almost unbelievable ups and downs of his music career and life. Honest and Hemingway-esque in his approach, this is a must read for fans of Shaver and highly recommended for fans of wild musician autobiographies or of 1970s country music.
December 11, 2021
This autobiography is only 70 pages long. This is the funniest amount of pages an autobiography can be. That being said, I loved this book. What a WILD life and a great story teller. There’s also lyrics to many of the songs he wrote which were incredible to read.
October 20, 2022
Short and Sweet. No filler, No BS added. Billy Joe tells the story of his life from his rough infancy/childhood into his music career and life struggles. I really enjoyed this book and plan to reread it again soon, I also enjoyed the collected lyrics on the back half of the book. 10/10
May 26, 2020
Concise and precise, filled with stories and personal truths - would that every autobiography were written so.
June 29, 2021
Really enjoyed this story. The lyrics at the end were a nice touch
July 14, 2021
short, but smart. one helluva life. and bonus, the poetry that is all his song lyrics.
November 13, 2021
Short, funny, violent, sad with a sprinkle of Jesus- like any good country song.
December 31, 2011
I am a big fan of his writing, singing, and playing. I have seen him a few times and met him a couple of times. He is one of the best country music singer/writers I have ever heard or loved. The book was good, and emotionally compelling and draining. Still, it was so short, it left me wanting more.
December 22, 2012
Too slim and non linear to really be a 4-star book, but if you have nay interest in Billy Joe and/or outlaw country, it's a must read and fully engaging and enjoyable.
July 27, 2016
Great high level look at his life by the man himself. Someone needs to write a much more detailed and updated version.
September 1, 2012
Awesome read!
November 26, 2018
short and sweet. Be true to who you are
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews