At his son’s grave in Texas, Billy Joe Shaver noticed a small Texas flag someone had placed in the ground. Written across it were five simple words: “You will always be around.”
Billy Joe Shaver recognized them immediately. The words came from a song written years earlier with his son, Eddy Shaver. At the time, neither father nor son could have known how deeply that song would eventually become connected to their own lives.
The moment was recorded by journalist Michael Corcoran, who accompanied Billy Joe Shaver to Eddy Shaver’s grave after the young guitarist’s death. But the story of those five words had begun long before that visit, with a melody Eddy Shaver brought to his father.
A Melody That Took Six Months to Find Its Words
Eddy Shaver was more than Billy Joe Shaver’s son. Eddy Shaver was a gifted guitarist and a longtime musical partner. Together, Billy Joe Shaver and Eddy Shaver performed and recorded as Shaver, combining Billy Joe Shaver’s distinctive songwriting with Eddy Shaver’s powerful guitar playing.
During a 1994 interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Billy Joe Shaver explained how one of their most meaningful collaborations began.
Eddy Shaver had given Billy Joe Shaver a melody that was too good to forget. Billy Joe Shaver carried that melody for approximately six months, listening and searching for words worthy of the music.
The breakthrough eventually came while Billy Joe Shaver was driving the band home from a performance. Thinking about the way songs can outlast the people who create them, Billy Joe Shaver began finding the words that belonged with Eddy Shaver’s melody.
Eddy Shaver also helped finish the lyrics. The result was a father-and-son composition called Live Forever.
The song was not originally written as a farewell. It was a reflection on the possibility that something meaningful can remain long after a person’s lifetime has ended.
When Four Country Legends Recorded Their Song
In 1995, Live Forever reached an even larger audience when Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson recorded the song as The Highwaymen.
The recording appeared on The Road Goes On Forever, released on April 4, 1995. Produced by Don Was, the album brought together four of outlaw country’s most recognizable voices.
For Billy Joe Shaver and Eddy Shaver, having a composition included on a Highwaymen album was an important recognition of their songwriting. But the song’s most personal chapter was still ahead.
The New Year’s Eve That Changed Everything
On December 31, 2000, Eddy Shaver died at the age of 38.
The loss changed Billy Joe Shaver’s life. Eddy Shaver had been a son, guitarist, songwriting partner, and close companion through years of performances and recordings.
When journalist Michael Corcoran later visited Eddy Shaver’s grave with Billy Joe Shaver, the small Texas flag carried words from the song the two had created together. Billy Joe Shaver explained their origin and remembered how Eddy Shaver’s melody had stayed in mind until the right lyrics finally arrived.
It was a remarkable connection. A song about leaving something behind had become part of the way a father remembered his son.
The Song Billy Joe Shaver Continued to Carry
Years after Eddy Shaver’s death, Billy Joe Shaver continued performing Live Forever. A 2014 NPR profile described how Billy Joe Shaver sometimes acknowledged Eddy Shaver during concerts, occasionally ending a performance with a simple expression of love for his son.
In that interview, Billy Joe Shaver spoke about Eddy Shaver’s continuing influence and the lasting goodness people leave in the lives of others.
The meaning of Live Forever had grown beyond its original recording. What began with a melody passed from son to father had become one of the most personal songs Billy Joe Shaver could perform.
And the recording by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson ensured that the father-and-son composition would continue reaching listeners far beyond the stages where Billy Joe Shaver and Eddy Shaver once played together.
That small Texas flag at Eddy Shaver’s grave did not tell the whole story. But those five familiar words brought it together: a son’s melody, a father’s lyrics, and a song that both had helped leave behind.