Shaver Charged In Shooting

Billy Joe Shaver surrendered to police in Waco, Texas, April 3rd after the country singer/songwriter allegedly shot and injured a man, described as drunk and wielding a knife, who followed him to the parking lot of a Lorena bar the previous Saturday.

He turned himself in at the McLennan County jail and was released after posting $50,000 bail. Shaver, whose attorney said he acted in self-defense when he shot the unidentified victim in the face, is charged with aggravated assault and possessing a firearm in a prohibited place.

Shaver attorney Joseph Turner said the star did not know the man who followed him out of Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon. He attempted to surrender to police in Austin the next day but was not arrested because police there had no record of the warrant.

A greatest hits package was released April 3rd, and Turner said a tour that launched that day was not expected to be interrupted because of Shaver’s legal difficulties.

Mathew Knowles, president and CEO of Music World Entertainment – which acquired Shaver’s label, Houston-based Compadre Records, in March – said he talked with Shaver after he was released.

Knowles said that he and Shaver did not discuss the shooting but that he wanted the singer to know the company supports him.

"Billy Joe Shaver is an icon in the country music industry. We’re not going to turn our back on him at all," Knowles said. "I personally wanted to tell him that, which is what we talked about."

Shaver lives in Waco, about 15 miles from the location of the shooting, and rose to country music stardom in the 1970s.