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RENAISSANCE MAN: BILLY EDD WHEELER
BILLY EDD WHEELER
APPALACHIAN RENAISSANCE MAN
Sitting at a large desk in a garage studio at his home in Swannanoa, Billy Edd Wheeler is surrounded by his life’s work — photos of family and friends, musical instruments, handmade paintings, published novels and plays, and wall after wall of gold and platinum records.
“Things happen in your life where you hardly realize at the time that something is happening,” the 89-yearold marveled. “I’ve just always been interested in creative people and running with anything that inspires me — always pursuing any idea that pops into my head.”
Born and raised in the mining town of Whitesville, West Virginia, Wheeler was surrounded by bluegrass, folk, blues and mountain music. And it wasn’t long before Wheeler himself picked up a guitar and started writing his own songs, all with hopes of someday recording and performing the material.
Wheeler was also a burgeoning playwright, but just barely scratching the surface of his many lyrical and literary talents in those early years. After graduating from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa in 1953 and Berea College (Kentucky) in 1955, he then served in the Navy and started working at Berea.
And yet, it was a chance encounter around this time with legendary Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright/novelist Thornton Wilder
— BILLY EDD WHEELER
which ultimately shifted the trajectory of Wheeler’s life and aspirations.
“I told him I wanted to write plays and he told me to go to Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut, and that they gave out scholarships. So, I did just that in the early 1960s,” Wheeler said. “While at Yale, I would often wander down to Greenwich Village in New York City and immerse myself in the folk music scene — it was there where I really felt inspired to write songs.”
By 1961, Wheeler had made his first album. His 1964 release, “Memories of America,” hit number six on the nationwide country charts and included the number three country hit “Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back.”
In 1967, Wheeler’s melody “Jackson” rose to number two on the Billboard Country chart when it was covered by Johnny & June Carter Cash. The song would go on to take home the Grammy Award for “Best Country & Western Performance Duet, Trio or Group” in 1968.
“My mind is constantly working, always thinking and being inspired by something, whether in my daily life or from a dream I had — and I have such insane dreams,” Wheeler chuckled. “And you just never know where an idea for a song or a play will come from, but there’s always these little pieces of information here and there that will spark something for me to write down and work on.”
As time went along, Wheeler returned to Western North Carolina, where he met and married the love of his life, Mary, who’s still by his side to this day. In 2001, Wheeler was inducted in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, with a recognition from the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame coming in 2011.
In his decades as a successful songwriter, Wheeler’s work has been recorded by dozens and dozens of acclaimed artists, including Elvis Presley, Kenny Rogers, Neil Young, Florence and the Machine, Nancy Sinatra, Judy Collins, Jefferson Airplane, and Bobby Darin.
Wheeler has also written and published eight plays/musicals, several dramas and numerous acclaimed books of prose and poetry. He is also an abstract painter. In 2018, he finally penned his highly-anticipated memoir, “Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout: A Hillbilly Poet’s Journey from Appalachia to Yale to Writing Hits for Elvis, Johnny Cash & More.” His latest novel, “The Boston Cowgirl,” was released in 2021.
“Everything that has happened in my life has led to something else wonderful happening,” Wheeler marveled. “There are lots of things that happen in life that you think may happen and they don’t, and vice versa — the beauty of life is that you never know what’s going to happen.”
