Billy Joe Shaver is a country music singer-songwriter and a major figure in the 1970s "outlaw" country movement. Shaver was born and raised in Corsicana, Texas, south of Dallas. As a young man, Billy Joe Shaver hitchhiked to Nashville, Tennessee, and became a professional songwritier, with credits ranging from Elvis Presley to Waylon Jennings. The songs for Waylon Jenning's 1973 album called Honky Tonk Heroes were written largely by Billy Joe Shaver and became known as one of the first "outlaw" albums. Shaver's first album as a recording artist was 1973's Old Five and Dimers Like Me, now considered a classic.

He has since recorded 15 studio albums, including 2004's Billy and the Kid, featuring unfinished work by Billy's singer-songwriter son, Eddy Shaver, who died of a heroin overdose at the age of 38. Billy Joe Shaver was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

Shaver has recorded more than 20 albums to date with his more famous songs being "Georgia on a Fast Train" and "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday)." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5zZUQ3t5jU6rUGjuMRGOSl9lvLAD9EVSPM01

In 2007 Shaver was charged with shooting a man at a bar in Waco, Texas., In April 2010, a jury deliberated for4 two hours before finding the country music star "Not Guilty" of aggravated assault. During the trial, Shaver explained that the man he shot Billy Bryant Coker had been rude to both he and his wife in the bar before demanding that Shaver meet him outside. Shaver said he felt the man who had a knife in the bar, and was stirring his drink with it was going to kill him. Prosecutors claimed no one else felt Coker was violent. Shaver shot Coker in the cheek before leaving the scene and calling Willie Nelson for a lawyer recommendation. An unlawful carrying charge is still pending. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/state&id=7378223