A Honky-Tonk Hero

Dan Rather Talks to Billy Joe Shaver, The Biggest Country Music Star You've Never Heard Of

(CBS)  "I says, 'Oh, I'm Billy Joe Shaver. I'm the greatest songwriter ever lived. And he said, 'Well, I thought I was.' And he said, 'Well, park that thing and come on in.' We drank some whiskey and got to be real good friends."

With Howard’s help, Nashville’s biggest stars soon began listening to Shaver’s songs. His big break came in 1973, when Waylon Jennings recorded nine Shaver songs on one album, called "Honky Tonk Heroes." It became a big hit.

That album soon made Shaver the favorite songwriter of many country music stars. Elvis Presley even recorded one of Shaver’s songs three times.

"He has the face of a whatever, but the soul of a poet, this guy," says actor Robert Duvall, who's been friends with Shaver for more than 20 years. "I think he's one of, like Willie Nelson said, he may be the best songwriter alive."

Duvall cast Shaver in a small role in his 1997 movie, “The Apostle." Shaver, in turn, asked Duvall to appear in his "Freedom's Child" music video in 2002.

Duvall's wife, Luciana Pedraza, was so taken with Shaver that she made a documentary about him. "He will not lecture at you," she says. "He will tell you about his life stories, and you can take it or leave it, but for sure you will learn something."

Pedraza learned that Shaver is always willing to take chances, when her camera caught him trying his luck at a betting game that – on family television – can only be described as ‘Chicken Bingo.’

But the documentary also showed Shaver’s dark side, particularly his long, tortured relationship with Brenda Tindell, about whom he wrote the song “We.” They met as teenagers, married and had a son.

"We were wild and crazy. I’m telling you we’d get up in the middle of the night, get on our horses and ride bareback, naked, just haul ass all over the farm and everywhere and come back and hose down," says Shaver.

But it was no simple love story. Shaver struggled for years with drugs, alcohol and even suicide. He often left Tindell for other women. The couple divorced, re-married, and divorced again. They married for a third time when Tindell was diagnosed with cancer. She died in 1999.

Many of Shaver’s songs are laced with pain and loss, especially the loss of his son, Eddy, a promising musician in his own right. Eddy died in 2000 from a drug overdose.

Here are lyrics from a song that Shaver wrote with his son: "Nobody here will ever find me, but I will always be around. Just like the songs I leave behind me, I’m gonna live forever now."

"He was a victim of heroin abuse and crack cocaine," says Shaver, at a concert. "I thought I gave him a good look at what not to do, but then again, that ain’t no way to be a father. But I'm OK with God about it, so I reckon it’s all right. He lives here."

Shaver has never made much money from his music. But after writing hundreds of songs that others have made famous, he is finally getting some attention in his own right, from fans and from the country music industry.

Last fall, Nashville tipped its hat to Shaver by voting him into the Country Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Recognition has come late in life for Shaver, after some very tough times.

"You lost your wife, you lost your son, you lost your mother all in a year, and had a heart attack," says Rather.

"And I'm still cooking," says Shaver.

"But you've been knocked down, but not knocked out," says Rather. "Why is that?"

"I'm hard-headed, I guess," says Shaver, laughing.

But despite his losses, and the years of obscurity, Shaver says he never gives up, which is reflected in his song, "Try and Try Again."

"If at first you don’t succeed, just try and try again. If all you do is lose, you better find a way to win. If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again."