Testimony reveals country legend Billy Joe Shaver grew tired of family members and changed his will

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – Country music legend Billy Joe Shaver had grown tired of family members taking advantage of him and changed his will in 2008 to entrust his musical legacy to longtime friend Fred Fletcher. Willie Nelson’s ex-wife and Fletcher’s brother-in-law testified Monday.

Testimony from Connie Nelson, the ex-wife of The Red-Headed Stranger, and Chuck Rainey, who witnessed the change in Shaver’s handwriting, opened the trial Monday in the dispute over the iconic singer-songwriter’s estate.

The trial pits Fletcher, an Austin music producer and longtime friend of Shaver’s who played drums for a decade with Shaver’s band, and Shaver’s nephew, Terry Dwayne Rogers, whom Shaver saved from a abusive stepfather and raised him as his son from an early age.

Fletcher’s attorneys, Blaine McSwain and Andy McSwain, and Rogers’ attorneys, Whitney Fanning and Bruce Perryman, spent Monday morning selecting a jury of four men and two women before opening statements and testimony in the afternoon.

Blaine McSwain asked during Rainey’s testimony that he play a video of Shaver singing his song, “Wacko from Waco,” to give jurors unfamiliar with Shaver’s work an idea of ​​who the trial is about. Fanning objected on relevancy grounds, and County Court Judge Vik Deivanayagam sustained the objection.

A prolific songwriter and founding member of the Outlaw country music movement of the 1970s, Shaver wrote such hits as “I’m Just an Old Chuck of Coal,” “Live Forever” and “Georgia on a Fast Train.”

Fanning told jurors in opening statements that Fletcher cannot produce the original handwritten will that Shaver created in Fletcher’s office in 2008 and suggested that a photocopy of the document may have been tampered with.

Shaver drafted a will in 2000 that named his sister, Patricia, as executor and left everything to her. This will was replaced three years later by one that left his estate to Rogers, his sister’s son. Both wills, and others Shaver drafted over the years, were drawn up and self-authenticated by attorney Elizabeth Miller, who died in 2021. It’s up to a jury to decide which of the two remaining documents should be honored.

Nelson testified that she cared for Shaver in the last few years before his death in October 2020 and spoke to him on the phone almost every day. He said he attended a funeral in 2019 where he arranged for Shaver to sing and was struck by his physical appearance.

“It scared me,” she said. “I was broken.”

He said Shaver had a suitcase with him, and jokingly asked if he didn’t intend to go home. He said the suitcase was full of his songs.

“He said, ‘I can’t leave them at home. My family steals everything I leave behind and I can’t let them get my songs,’” Nelson declared. “His music and playing for people was his life.”

She said Shaver accused her family members of ransacking her home, stealing her belongings and taking royalty checks for songs she wrote out of her mailbox.

“He said, ‘My family has gotten a lot from me, and I don’t want them to get any more,'” Nelson said.

She said he asked her if she had a will. He assured her that he wanted to leave his estate, including his musical legacy, in Fletcher’s hands because he trusted him, Nelson testified.

“He said, ‘My songs are the most important thing to me and I know Freddy is going to make sure they get heard,'” Nelson said. “My family could take my royalty checks.”

Rainey said he was in Austin when Shaver handwrote his 2008 will, leaving his music and “anything of value” to Fletcher.

He said there were other witnesses, including Shaver’s attorney, Dahr Jamail, and they were also witnesses to the document.

He said Shaver seemed confident when he signed it. Rainey told jurors that he took Shaver to his car after their meeting just to make sure it was his wish to leave his property to Fletcher.

“I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ He said, “I don’t have much, but I have my songs and there’s nobody in this world I trust more with my songs than Freddy,” Rainey said.

Testimony in the trial will resume Tuesday morning.

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