Billy Edd Wheeler: Swannanoa songwriting legend pens memoir, joins tribute concert
Carol Rifkin, Special to Scene Published 6:33 a.m. ET March 29, 2018 Updated 6:52 a.m. ET March 29, 2018

His new autobiography, “Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout: A Hillbilly Poet's Journey From Appalachia to Yale to Writing Hits for Elvis, Johnny Cash, and More,” is a funny and poignant chronicle by this ridiculously talented 85-year-old Swannanoa resident who penned songs such as “Jackson” and “Coward of the County.”

Wheeler first came to this region from the coal mines of West Virginia to attend high school and junior college at what is now Warren Wilson College. The public is invited to attend a gala book celebration with special guest speakers and regional musicians to toast this Appalachian Renaissance man at 4 p.m. April 7 in Kittredge Theatre on the college campus.

“Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout” follows Wheeler’s life from Warren Wilson to Berea College in Kentucky and eventually to Yale, where he studied to become a playwright. His years in New York and Nashville are filled with famous names and lovely anecdotes, like visiting with Johnny Cash and June Carter, or Bob Dylan.