The Texan outlaw country singer and songwriter Billy Joe Shaver has died. Rolling Stone reports that Shaver died today in Waco, Texas after suffering a stroke. Shaver was 81.

Shaver grew up in the Texan city of Corsicana, and he dropped out of school in eighth grade to pick cotton. Shaver also served in the navy and worked in a lumber mill, where he lost two fingers in a workplace accident. But Shaver learned to play guitar even with his fingers missing, and he eventually hitchhiked to Nashville and found work as a songwriter, working for Bobby Bare.

At one point, a desperate Shaver demanded that Waylon Jennings listen to the songs he’d written, saying that he’d beat Jennings up if he didn’t. Jennings, impressed, recorded the 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes, an album almost entirely comprised of Shaver’s songs. That album is a classic, and it’s one of the founding documents of the outlaw country movement. Soon afterward, artists like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson recorded Shaver’s songs, and Shaver landed a record deal of his own.

Shaver released his debut album Old Five Dimers in 1973, but his label Monument went out of business soon after. Shaver had problems with addiction, and at one point he drove a car through the plate glass window of a car dealership. That took a toll on Shaver’s career, and only a couple of Shaver’s solo songs even touched the Billboard country charts. But Shaver remained hugely respected as a songwriter, and he continued to tour and to record with people like Willie Nelson.

Shaver’s life was a hard one. In 2000, Shaver’s son, the guitarist Eddy Shaver, died of a heroin overdose at the age of 38. In 2007, Shaver was arrested for shooting someone in the face outside a bar. He testified that he acted in self-defense, and he was acquitted. Despite all that, Shaver kept working. Shaver acted alsongside friend and admirer Robert Duvall in movies like The Apostle, and Duvall sang his song “Live Forever” in the movie Crazy Heart. Shaver also recorded the theme for the Adult Swim show Squidbillies. Shaver released Long In The Tooth, his last album, in 2014. This past January, he performed alongside Tanya Tucker at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

Below, check out some examples of Shaver’s work.