"THE PORTRAIT OF BILLY JOE"
The documentary screened at CineVegas
We went to the coffee shop at the Palms Hotel and sat down for a chat. Billy Joe is a very warm and
friendly man. I felt very lucky to have interviewed him and Luciana Pedraza and talk about "The Portrait of
Billy Joe.” I got a chance to see the documentary the next day and have added some comments about the
film in my interview.
There is a story behind the story of this film. Documentary filmmaker and director Luciana Pedraza is not
the type of person you would expect to see behind the camera. She is a beautiful woman one would think
should be in front of the camera. Also, Luciana’s debut film is about a rough 'n' rowdy Texan, who had
gone to hell and back in his life. Billy Joe Shaver’s life is nothing like that of Luciana.
Luciana Pedraza was born in Salta, a town in northern Argentina. Being the oldest of five sisters, she
grew up among horses and sports. She formed her own marketing and event planning business at the
age of 22 called W. & Associates. So how did she get from an event planner to directing films? Well, she
met Robert Duvall and made one film “Assassination Tango” with Duvall.
As Luciana watched Robert Duvall working on the film “The Apostle” 8 years ago, she thought that she
would like to start working behind the camera, not on feature films but documentaries. That is where she
met Billy Joe Shaver who had a part in Duvall’s film. She told me that, “she found Billy Joe to be very
honest in regards to his life. I can't write, wish I could write books and short stories of the things I see,
but I am no good at it. So I capture people's experiences on film. I think it would be great to have footage
of the Romans, Cleopatra, things like that...think how magical that would be? At this time we are very
lucky we are able to capture history, moments and peoples stories. This will help us understand things, to
see how I was and to learn and be better."
Billy Joe performed at a nightclub here in Las Vegas for those in attendance at CineVegas June 16, 2004.
It was a great concert. If you have a chance to see and hear Billy Joe Shaver perform do so. I asked Billy
Joe what he thought the highlight of his life had been he said, "last night was. I got so excited things like
that don't happen to me very often never has happened to me so many gifted people paying so much
attention to me...being the center of attention, it was overwhelming, musicians, friends, and other
important people.“
Over the years Luciana kept in touch with Billy Joe, and as they say the rest is history. She decided to do
a documentary of his life and she filmed portions of his life over a two-year period. She even filmed a
section about his life when he visited with his 102 year-old English teacher (Mabel Legg). His English
teacher was the one who saw something special in Billy Joe. She knew he had a gift. Billy Joe still has
the original newsletter the school put out which published one of his poems.
Born dirt-poor in 1939 Billy Joe says he is still not rich, but that is not important to him. His music is his
life. Even after he lost most of his fingers on one hand at a sawmill accident he did not give up on his
music and playing guitar. He started playing guitar when he got an old Gene Autry guitar when he was 11
years old. His father left him and started another family. Billy Joe’s mother remarried. When Billy Joe’s
stepfather gave his guitar away, he said, “It hurt and I decided not to mess with music. I got away from it a
little, but my English teacher had told me I had something, something I could fall back on. I fell back on
music and sure enough it was my main thing music. I have been very lucky.” It was lucky for Billy Joe that
his English teacher saw something special in him and later in life this influenced his life. Billy Joe said,
“That is an endorsement you can't buy or drag it out of them. They (teachers) just come up and tell you
and it just means the world to you. It stays there in your heart. You build towards it.”
The documentary about Billy Joe shows the high and low points of his life and how he dealt with life. At
one time he thought of suicide, but stopped himself…lucky for us he decided to not take his life. We
would have missed out on some great blues/country music in the process. He probably has written over
400 songs and they have been sung by some of the greatest singers such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash,
Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.
I asked Billy Joe what he thought of Luciana's interpretation of his life. She did better than I could. She
brought out the good things about me I had never seen. I have more self esteem now, than I did before.
It also woke me up; there are some good things about me.
How did it make you feel that the whole world is going to see your life? Billy Joe said, “That is fine with
me my life is an open book. I have never been a person that hid things and I guess in a way it hurt me, I
never hid the bad things either, never put up a front or anything like that.”
I asked what was his favorite part of the documentary. He said, the first part…and also the part where he
tells about the wife smoking her husband. He explained this to us, “She had him cremated and kept
rolling him in marijuana and smoking him. I did not know Luciana got it; she sneaked it in the film.”
Luciana said, “She liked laughing at things he said during filming and seeing the things he has learned in
his life. Things that have made a difference that paid off later in life. The English teacher told him he had
a gift and it did not pay off until later in his life." Luciana quoted this, “The older they get the better fruits
they give. A man that turned negative into positive, to overcome your demons.”
Luciana said she remembered a song Billy Joe sang in the concert, “First time the devil made me do it and
the second time I did it on my own (lyrics to a song).” She said, "we are always trying to blame others,
later in life we find we can blame ourselves." I liked Billy Joe’s honesty.
Billy Joe had one son who he thinks is the best guitarist ever. They were working on an album before his
son died of a drug overdose. This devastated Billy Joe and he wanted revenge on all drug dealers. Billy
Joe overcame his devils and did not let revenge take over his life instead he fought his devils. He said
he had problems with drinking and drugs himself so he figured he was not a good role model.
Now Billy Joe is releasing a CD features his son Eddy. He took masters he had, and masters another
person had and put them together with his vocals. He also put some new songs on the CD. The album is
called "Billy and the Kid" and to be released in August.
I asked Billy Joe, “Why did you marry your wife three times?” Billy Joe, “Well, I am not sure why she
married me three times. I know why I married her three times she was beautiful and a good person and a
little wild. So that is why I loved her she was a lot like me. She would take no crap. She gave me a boot a
couple of times.” He also added, “I am a hard person to live with.” Billy Joe took care of his first wife
when she was diagnosed with cancer until she passed away. He said, “it was payback for all she did for
him while she could.”
Luciana only found out recently that he had been married to another woman. Billy Joe said, “well she was
a short girl so it was short marriage.” This is the humor that Billy Joe shows when you chat with him and it
also shows in his lyrics.
Billy Joe’s career started off in 1966 when he landed his first job writing songs at age 21. "I didn't leave
town - I kept working. My wife thought I was crazy. She thought I could not do it because I had lost six
fingers in an accident. I got some stuff together and we divorced again, I took off to Nashville I had about
$10 in my pocket. It took a while took until 1969 to land a job writing songs. After that it was not hard at
all. I had so many songs."
Luciana said this about the documentary, “Billy Joe is the story of an individual, but the story of every
man. In the sense we all fall in love, we all hate somebody and we have to overcome that and have to
become better. He is a good example of achieving that with much harder and more difficult stories, than
probably the average person. That way he can perform and sing the songs like he did last night. We can
all connect through his words in his songs.”
I asked Luciana about being behind the camera and doing documentaries. Luciana asked for advice from
Robert (Duvall) and learned from him. “You learn we have been together for 8 years; I like independent
films and documentaries.”
Luciana remarked about working on documentaries, “When I am working with my crew I just learn from
them and when I need something I am very strong. I need that shot, probably because I know how I am
going to edit this and I care about the story. How I may use the footage. Instead of just having Billy Joe
sitting, I say 'O.K. now I am following you Billy Joe. I am here for you, I do not want to put you to serve the
camera, and we will serve you.' That is how I like to work. I think that allows you to be more free, more
relaxed. You will see in the beginning of the film. You will see that you are almost spending time with
Billy Joe. You will see visually, that you are sitting with someone.”
“This man takes you through his past, his pain, his love story, and what he went through in just one hour.
It shows the people that meant a lot to him, his journey with his beliefs. I try to watch and be very relaxed
about it. I feel very natural doing this. When you work you find peace, in your life. I enjoy it immensely,
even the editing. It took probably two weeks filming. I was filming in and out as I was working on
another project too. As for editing, what you want in the film a documentary allows you to do anything you
want, unlike a feature film. The documentary starts to have a life of its own and that song does not go
there. That line just doesn't go there. I listened to others (they made suggestions) and I tried to be very
objective, not become emotionally involved just try to let it happen. This allowed me to enjoy the process.
“
"Whatever you do in life you cannot be worried about what other people say. You just have to do what
you want to do and that is what it boils down too. I am the captain of the boat now and that is what I told
Bobby (Robert Duvall). We have learned in our relationship that when I am working on a film it is mine and
when he is working on a film it is his. If you ask me I will help you, but that is what I tried to learn. If you
ask people for advice, but that does not mean I must follow that advice. It is all a learning process."
Check out this lovely documentary about how a man overcame adversity and has continued to keep
writing wonderful lyrics. Luciana is distributing the documentary via DVD. She decided to put it on DVD as
she felt she could get Billy Joe’s story out to a larger audience. Luciana said they got 7800 emails from
people who have visited the website. They came from everywhere all over the world, that is why she
decided to do a DVD of the documentary.
For her first-time documentary and work behind the camera Luciana did a very good job. Also, check out
other upcoming documentaries by Luciana Pedraza. She is currently working on two more
documentaries. One is about Pulitzer Prize-winning and Oscar-winning playwright/screenwriter Horton
Foote. The other is about the film business’ top dialect coach, Robert Easton, the self-proclaimed “Henry
Higgins in Hollywood.”
Interview/article by Carolyn Weaver
