Mike Judge Presents: Tales From the Tour Bus

By all accounts, Billy Joe Shaver should never have made it in country music. A poor Texas kid from a broken family, he lost three fingers in a sawmill accident before ever writing a song. Despite his physical challenge, Shaver landed in Nashville as a singer/songwriter with hard luck songs about real life. A chance meeting with Waylon Jennings in the back of a peanut trailer led to the breakthrough 'Outlaw' album Honky Tonk Heroes, featuring Waylon singing songs written by Billy Joe. A decade later, Shaver made a name for himself after shooting a man at a roadside tavern for allegedly talking to his soon-to-be ex-wife. The gun play led to a celebrity trial and a shocking verdict. And, of course, Billy Joe wrote a song about it.

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and Billy Joe always carried this little derringer.

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...which mile marker.

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in the middle of nowhere in Central Texas...

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Henry "Homer" Haynes and Kenneth "Jethro" Burns

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

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♪ Move over little... ♪

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There's one song called

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Boys Town is in La Zona Roja,

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

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

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And, boy, it was the best cigarette

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

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Did one of those deals on me.

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He doesn't write any fanciful stuff.

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Kinky Friedman has known the man almost all his life.

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

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

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

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Singer Bobby Bare met Billy Joe

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

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

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

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see how it affected him.

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

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...and he had a big roll of toilet paper.

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

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It was the weekend of the Dripping Springs Reunion,

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

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

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which turned out to be Honky Tonk Heroes.

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♪ Low down leaving sun ♪

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Record company was happy,

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

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

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And they were pointing to the center of the casino.

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and then on three, wham."

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

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It's just one of those places

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

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So we head for the back door,

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

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and none of that would have happened.

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He said, "What do I do?"

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

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and this lawyer convinced Billy Joe to turn himself in.

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He ended up with Texas legal legend, Dick DeGuerin.

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at Chinga Chavin's wedding in Las Vegas.

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so had standing room only

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

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

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