When I go to bed at night, lay down, I put my phone on airplane mode. Usually when I get up,

that's the first thing I do is turn my phone back on.

And I done that today and I woke up this morning.

The first thing that popped up was a text message from a sister of mine, sister Connie Collingsworth, telling me that Billy Joe Shaver passed away.

I ain't gonna lie to your friends that killed me.

I interviewed Billy Joe Shaver back in October of 2017. I'd been a fan of his music for a long time, so you can imagine talking to a hero, an old honky-tunk hero of mine.

I was pretty nervous about it, but after talking to him for probably 15, 20 seconds,

I realized this wasn't going to be like an interview. This was like talking to a friend.

And that's what it was.

After the interview concluded, he told me, he said,

W.B. said, you got my number now in your phone.

He said, I got yours. he said, me and you friends.

And he, uh, get me his address. I send him out some stuff and, uh, we've been buddies ever since.

My dad passed away at the end of 2018. I had a really hard time because me and my dad kind of had a strained relationship and

just dealing with the fact that we wasn't on the best of terms when he passed away,

I had a very hard time with it.

And the person that really helped me more than anybody is Billy Joe Schaver.

I mean, he's been through a lot of tragedies and a lot of heartbreak and talking to him,

it helped more than anything.

He always reminds me to keep your heart pointed to Christ. Over the years since that interview happened I've talked to Billy Joe quite a bit and I'm really going to miss this kind of random text messages.

I always just kind of blow me away to think on things about I guess I made a

impression on him enough to think on me from time to time and reach out and he just a

...