I thought that Billy Joe Shaver had finally settled down. Here was a man who’d cut off two fingers in a lumber mill accident, had lost his son to a heroin overdose, who’d had a heart attack—you’d think someone was trying to tell him to let his old, rowdy ways fall away. But there’s a relentless spirit inside of Shaver; the same spirit that led him to define the “outlaw country” movement by penning songs for Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. The same spirit that led him to write the incredible album Honky Tonk Heroes. The same spirit, unfortunately, that led him into a 2007 dispute outside Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon in Lorena, Tex., which ended by shooting a man in the face. Both lived to tell the tale—one in court, and Billy Joe Shaver, outlaw extraordinaire, on Friday, Oct. 2, at the Rancho Nicasio. Town Square, Nicasio. 8:30pm. $25. 415.662.2219.Gabe Meline
.Billy Joe Shaver at the Rancho Nicasio
