Willie Nelson Nephew Involved in Billy Joe Shaver Estate Dispute
Country Music Outlaw and songwriting legend Billy Joe Shaver passed away on October 28th, 2020 at the age of 81, but the matters surrounding his estate remain unresolved, including his recurring songwriting royalties. It’s all the subject of an ongoing dispute between the nephew of Willie Nelson, and Billy Joe Shaver’s own nephew, with both parties claiming to be the rightful heir to the estate.
Freddy Fletcher is the son of Willie Nelson’s sister Bobbie and musician Bud Fletcher, who Bobbie Nelson married when she was 16. Freddy was one of three children born before the couple divorced in 1955. Bud Fletcher passed away in 1961, and Bobbie eventually moved her family to Austin. In 1984, Freddy Fletcher opened the famous Aryln Studios in Austin, and in 1999, Fletcher also co-founded Pedernales Records with his uncle Willie.
Freddy Fletcher is also a producer and a drummer. He’s performed on numerous recordings from Willie Nelson, Jesse Dayton, Kinky Friedman, and others, including on Billy Joe Shaver’s album Everybody’s Brother from 2007. It was the next year, on October 2nd, 2008, that Billy Joe Shaver reportedly hand wrote a last will and testament, leaving all his worldly possessions, a.k.a. “anything of value,” including his song royalties and his house in Waco, TX, to Freddy Fletcher.
“I want him to continue to administer all my music business and to keep all profits,” the note says, and is even signed by multiple witnesses who apparently watched Shaver write the document. However, part of the dispute is that the original handwritten letter is nowhere to be found. Freddy Fletcher claims he kept the letter, but lost it in 2009 when he moved his office. Another witness claims Billy Joe Shaver kept the original himself. Either way, only a photocopy of it now exists (see below).
The other issue is that at the time the 2008 handwritten will was composed, Billy Joe Shaver already had a last will and testament written and on the books, and done in a more traditional manner through a lawyer, initially naming Shaver’s older sister Patricia as the executor of his estate in 2000, then refiling the will in 2003 naming Patricia’s son and Billy Joe Shaver’s blood nephew Terry Dwayne Rogers as the heir.
“If I am going to leave all of my worldly possessions to someone, I am going to leave it to my family,” attorney for Terry Dwayne Rogers, Whitney Fanning, said to KWTX. “I am not going to leave it to some music director whose sole purpose is to make money. My client has a proper will left to his family members, which is how we do things.”
Even if Billy Joe Shaver wished the 2008 handwritten will to supersede the previous 2003 will, he never went through the proper effort to make the earlier will null and void. Further complicating matters, the original attorney who prepared the 2003 Billy Joe Shaver will passed away in January of 2021.
This week, McLennan County Judge Vik Deivanayagam denied a motion from Freddy Fletcher’s lawyers to throw out Billy Joe Shaver’s 2003 will, bequeathing his estate to Terry Dwayne Rogers. The lawyers of Terry Dwayne Rogers have made similar attempts to toss out the handwritten version of the will, since it’s only a photocopy and not the original document. Both sides of the legal dispute seem to believe the issue is likely heading to a jury trial amid the continuing dispute.
Beyond the saucy details of the legal fight, what happens with the estate of Billy Joe Shaver is of importance to the country music community. Making sure the legacy of Billy Joe Shaver and his songs remains healthy and in the public sphere is important to many Billy Joe Shaver fans. Whomever ends up in control of the estate will also being in control of Billy Joe Shaver’s songs. As has sometimes occurred in estate disputes in the past, they can result in difficulties in the effort to preserve an artist’s legacy, especially if assets are liquidated and split down the middle. This happened most famously with the estate of Conway Twitty.
As Saving Country Music noted earlier this year, it took an extended time period for a headstone to be placed at the Billy Joe Shaver grave. Perhaps the ongoing legal dispute was partly to blame. For Willie Nelson’s part, he always remained a strong champion of Billy Joe Shaver and his legacy, releasing the song “Hero” in his honor in 2012, along with other tributes over the years.
As the legal dispute continues, so does the effort to keep Billy Joe Shaver’s memory alive. Just last week, a new version of Shaver’s classic song “Old Chunk of Coal” was released as part of a new documentary from Shaver’s friend and comedian Norm MacDonald. Shaver’s “surrogate son” Jeremy Lynn Woodall who played guitar for Shaver for years after the death of Shaver’s son Eddie has also started a tribute band that plans an annual concert around Billy Joe’s birthday of August 16th in Waco.
Stay tuned for further developments in the Billy Joe Shaver estate dispute.
Billy Joe Shaver’s Handwritten Will from 2008:
June 4, 2022 @ 8:20 am
All to Rogers.
Nothing to Fletcher.
Case closed.
June 4, 2022 @ 1:48 pm
Yeah. Rogers is family, there’s a proper will leaving it to him, and someone is trying to overturn that with a one-page photocopy? D*ck move
June 4, 2022 @ 8:39 am
Damn shame. I pray this can be resolved in a way that preserves and protects Billy Joe Shavers musical legacy.
June 4, 2022 @ 10:05 am
my sister’s kid is tattooed from his head down to his toes / he claims trouble follers him everywhere he goes / he’s such a lazy, loafin, useless no good drunken slob / but still he thinks i orter give his sorry ass a job. poetic license, i’m sure.
November 13, 2022 @ 8:18 pm
Ff worked as a drummer for THE LEGENDARY PANAMA RED. Glad hes doing well. BILLY J SHAVER and Panama Red (akaDanny Finley) lived together and wrote together in Nashville. Somehow someone is conveniently leaving panamas name off their co-written songs. Ie BOTTOM DOLLAR, RIDE COWBOY RIDE.. …Bjshaver would ONLY leave his estate to real FAMILY.!.. thats his sister and nephew….from peppermint patty..panamas wife and bjs/brenda/eddie ‘s friend starting back 50 years.
November 21, 2023 @ 9:45 pm
Billy is my great uncle and I’m just learning all this information, my family lives in his house currently
June 4, 2022 @ 10:07 am
Interesting. In 2008, Fletcher was mainly working as a music manager in Austin, kind of trying to continue the family business of live music performance (his daughter went on to start Luck Reunion). What’s most interesting about this to me are the witnesses on the note… I believe the first two are relatives of Fletcher’s who possibly would have been working for him at the time, and the third, Ragland, was the lead singer in a band called Nelo that Fletcher managed until the early 2010s. Ragland always seemed like a straight shooter, regular kind of guy who was just trying to make his way as a musician. Can’t imagine he would have had any skin in this financially or emotionally or investment in it in any way then or now, so it would be very interesting if he could give more detail on what the circumstances were surrounding the written note. Maybe the witnesses will be called to testify if it goes to jury trial?
Thinking back to what it was like in Austin in 2008, I can definitely imagine a kind of late night scenario at the studio where all these people happened to be present and hanging out, maybe some drinking was involved, maybe emotions were running high on Shaver’s part because of family drama and he wrote the note in the heat of the moment and everyone there signed it? Not a typical will, but that kind of thing does happen. Brings to mind Lucy v. Zehmer (1954). Think the witnesses are going to play a big part in how this one is called.
June 4, 2022 @ 10:55 am
I have been experiencing something similar, in a much smaller way, with my mom’s estate. There isn’t much money but there are legal issues and with no will, there is no one to make decisions. It amazes me how otherwise intelligent people can leave behind such messes by neglecting the rather simple act of filing a will via an attorney.
June 4, 2022 @ 8:30 pm
I have a legally binding crayon drawing that clearly states he wanted to leave everything to Sam Cody…
June 5, 2022 @ 1:21 am
I believe it.
Fletcher also testified that before Shaver signed the will, he lit a cigarette.
And Billy Joe said, “God is good and beer is great–And people are crazy.”
June 5, 2022 @ 7:34 am
It amazes me that someone like this doesn’t have an estate planning attorney who sets up trusts. They give more of a direction on how it’s going to go post death and who will control it.
I’m dealing with just a normal will with direction from about 6.5 years ago. I was a recipient and still have not received what is due to me. It isn’t life changing money though.
June 5, 2022 @ 11:12 am
Great article. Thank you!
June 5, 2022 @ 6:55 pm
So here’s one more example in a long list of somebody famous not having their ducks in a perfect row when they die. I can’t for the life of me understand how that keeps happening. Don’t these people have plenty of examples? It’s like the high school teacher that gets caught fooling around with a student:. READ. THE. NEWS.
I’ve read enough stories that motivated me… someone not famous and without any recordings, copyrights, assets, or anything of value to protect and preserve…to get a real estate plan drawn up so my two kids have clarity with the little (about $5 each) they’ll get.
June 7, 2022 @ 10:43 pm
Bueno. Great stuff Man.
June 10, 2022 @ 8:28 pm
“Pity about this document…it was never notarized.” Lucy Van Pelt, Peanuts comic strip.
August 16, 2022 @ 8:56 pm
to the family, why not his sister or his surrogate son, Jeremy