There was a time when a gambler wouldn't have taken 100-to-1 odds that Jerry Jeff Walker would live to celebrate his 40th birthday, much less make it to 60 and still be producing quality albums in the 21st century. In the 1970s, Walker burned his candle at both ends and "found new ends to light," he once said. Party buddies were amazed at Walker's hollow leg for booze and hollow nostril for cocaine and his ability to go long stretches without sleep, but they figured his luck would vanish sooner rather than later. "I told him at his birthday party two years ago, 'Jerry, I never thought I'd live long enough to see you live this long,' " said Ray Wylie Hubbard, who wrote "(Up Against The Wall) Redneck Mother," one of Walker's signature songs.

Former lead guitarist John Inmon witnessed much of the journey and marvels at Walker's gusto. "His whole life has been this one wild ride," Inmon said. "He's like a Hemingway kind of character. He's one of those guys who takes life by the horns. He wants to get the most out of it that he can. Often it doesn't have a good effect on people around him, but he insists on pure freedom for himself. You got to admire that. He's the real deal."

Six decades have passed since Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, N.Y., and fashioned himself into a gypsy songman and road scholar. He survived the rootless existence, name changes, drunk tanks, the righteous '60s, rollicking '70s, lowly '80s, and rejuvenated '90s, and he remains relevant in the current Texas Music regeneration.

Walker's departure from big record labels in favor of self-production and internet-based distribution in the mid-1980s became the model that his contemporaries follow today. His nonprofit foundation is attempting to start a pop music vocational school similar to Paul McCartney's innovative Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Meanwhile, his son, Django Walker, is reaping praise for his own budding music career.

The metamorphosis continues. After spending most of the past decade performing with a band, Walker is planning to play more solo performances in 2003 -- just Jerry Jeff, his guitar, songs, and stories. He'll be with his band at the first Big Tex Music Festival on Oct. 19 at the 2002 State Fair in Dallas. Thirty years after Walker and a handful of Texas musician made Lone Star and Luckenbach household names, he can command a spot on a State Fair bill that includes the fashionable Dixie Chicks, Pat Green, and Charlie Robison. NEXT »

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