On this day (October 24) in 1934, Sanger Douglas “Whitey” Shafer was born in Whitney, Texas. While you may not recognize his name, some of the most important cultural touchstones in modern country music came from Shafer’s pen. His three failed marriages inspired him to write “All My Ex’s Live in Texas”, still universally regarded as one of George Strait’s best songs.
A member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame since 1989, Shafer’s extensive catalog also includes Strait’s “Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind”, Lefty Frizzell’s “I Never Go Around Mirrors”, and the posthumous Keith Whitley chart-topper “I Wonder Do You Think of Me”.
On January 12, 2019, Whitey Shafer died at age 84 in Ridgetop, Tennessee, following a long illness. Today, we’re highlighting his innumerable contributions to country music in honor of what would have been his 92nd birthday.
Who Was Whitey Shafer?
Raised in a highly musical family, Sanger D. Shafer grew up on the lively western swing of Bob Wills and the rousing honky-tonk of Ernest Tubb.
Receiving his first guitar from his uncle in junior high, Shafer became a fan of Lefty Frizzell after hearing “If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time” on a jukebox.
Whitey Shafer gained his nickname from his fellow local ironworkers during high school. Following a stint in the U.S. Army, he worked a wide variety of jobs — including digging ditches and running a turkey farm in Waco — while also playing seven gigs a week at the Circle R Club for $7.50 a gig.
The Move to Nashville
Despite a lifelong love for music, Whitey Shafer didn’t write his first song until he was 30 years old.
He moved to Nashville in 1967, paying the bills with a carpentry job while writing songs with A. L. “Doodle” Owens and Dallas Frazier on the side.
Soon, Shafer landed a publishing deal with Blue Crest Music. There, country singer George Jones recorded several of his songs, including the top 20 hit “Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are Wrong”.
Shafer also signed contracts with Musicor and RCA as a singer, but his performing career never quite matched the success of his songwriting. His highest-charting single, “You Are a Liar”, reached number 48 in 1981.
Songwriting Success
In 1971, Whitey Shafer’s entire career trajectory shifted when he worked up the courage to knock on childhood idol Lefty Frizzell’s front door and personally pitch him a song he’d written. That song was “You Babe”, and Frizzell liked it enough to record it the very next day.
“You Babe” became Frizzell’s first chart hit in three years, thus beginning a longstanding friendship and songwriting collaboration between the two men that lasted until Frizzell’s death in 1975.
Three years later, Johnny Rodriguez scored a number-one hit with “That’s the Way Love Goes”, which they’d co-written.
They also collaborated on Frizzell’s top 25 hit “I Never Go Around Mirrors” and the top 10 single “Bandy the Rodeo Clown” by Moe Bandy.
George Strait
During the 1980s, Whitey Shafer had a hand in two of George Strait’s most iconic hits. In 1984, he co-wrote the number-one song “Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind?” with third wife Darlene.
Three years later — after that marriage had ended in divorce — he wrote another chart-topper for Strait. This one was “All My Ex’s Live in Texas”, and this time, he had the help of his fourth wife, Lynda.
“That was a fun song to write,” Shafer recalled in The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits.
He admitted, “I was kinda writin’ my biography. I changed the names to protect the guilty. I do have some ex’s in Texas. Thank God they live down there. It’s not really why I live in Tennessee, but it’s a good kicker for the song.”
Featured image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Webster PR
The post Born 92 Years Ago Today in the Lone Star State, the Legendary Nashville Songwriter Behind Hits for George Strait, Lefty Frizzell, and Keith Whitley appeared first on American Songwriter.