Charlie Daniels (83) was born on October 28, 1936 in Wilmington, North Carolina to teenage parents William and LaRue Daniel. The “s” in Daniels’ name was added by mistake when his birth certificate was filled out. Two weeks after Daniels had begun to attend elementary school, his family moved to Valdosta, Georgia, commuting between Valdosta and Elizabethtown, North Carolina, before moving back to Wilmington. After enduring measles, Daniels would require glasses to see for most of his life afterward, which led to him being bullied by other children at his school. Despite these challenges, Daniels found inspiration in Pentecostal gospel music, local bluegrass groups, and rhythm and blues artists he heard on the radio.
He graduated from high school in 1955 and began his music career as a member of the bluegrass band Misty Mountain Boys in the 1950s. Soon after he enlisted in the rock ‘n’ roll revolution ignited by Mississippian Elvis Aron Presley. Already skilled on guitar, fiddle and mandolin, Daniels formed a rock ‘n roll band the Rockets and hit the road.
While enroute to California in 1959 the group paused in Texas to record “Jaguar,” an instrumental produced by the legendary Bob Johnston, which was picked up for national distribution by Epic. And the Rockets became The Jaguars. It was also the beginning of a long association with Johnston. After discovering jazz as a genre, the Jaguars began performing jazz music, before reverting to rock and country music by 1964.
During his career as a rock and roll sideman, Daniels also wrote songs for other performers. In July 1963, soul singer Jerry Jackson recorded Daniels’ song “It Hurts Me”; the following year 1964 and Elvis Presley recorded the better-known version of this song, which was released on the flip side of “Kissin’ Cousins.” The songwriting credits list Charles E. Daniels and Joy Byers as the songwriters, although Byers’ husband, songwriter and producer Bob Johnston, was the actual co-writer with Daniels. In 1967 Johnston encouraged Daniels to move to Nashville to get work as a session player, which led to Daniels recording with Bob Dylan on his 1969 album Nashville Skyline, Ringo Starr on his 1970 album Beaucoups of Blues and Leonard Cohen on his 1971 album Songs of Love and Hate, as well as further sessions with Dylan and Cohen’s 1971 European tour. Dylan and Daniels found each other creatively invigorating during their recordings together, with Dylan saying that “when Charlie was around, something good would usually come out of the sessions”, and Daniels describing the recording sessions with Dylan as “loose, free and, most of all, fun”. Daniels also produced albums for the Youngbloods, including their 1969 album Elephant Mountain.
His own unique voice as an artist emerged as Charlie recorded his self-titled solo album in 1970 for Capitol Records, which helped lay the foundations for what became known as Southern rock. Two years later he formed the Charlie Daniels Band and Daniels broke through as a record maker, himself with 1973’s Honey in the Rock and its hit hippie song “Uneasy Rider,” which scored top Ten Billboard His rebel anthems “Long Haired Country Boy” and “The South’s Gonna Do It” propelled his 1975 collection Fire on the Mountain to double platinum status.
The same year he followed up with the even more successful Nightrider, whose success was spurred by the Top 40 hit single “Texas”. Saddle Tramp was also a gold seller, and was the first release by the band to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Country charts.
“We were country but not what was accepted by the country music establishment at the time – certainly not what Nashville was putting out at the time. It was very much different from that. Every other music was changing and moving and cooking, and it was time for country to do that, too. And a song like “Long Haired Country Boy,” or “The South’s Going to Do It,” or “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” kind of kicked it in the rear end a little bit.”
In 1974 he invited some friends to join him at Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium for an all-star concert he dubbed The Volunteer Jam. The event continued for years and was broadcast in the U.S. and internationally. Over the years, the Jam featured a diverse line up that included Willie Nelson, Ted Nugent, Roy Acuff, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Crystal Gayle, James Brown, Emmylou Harris, Amy Grant, George Thorogood, Kris Kristofferson, Little Richard, Tammy Wynette, Alabama, Oak Ridge Boys, BB King and the Allman Brothers.
Since then the CDB has populated radio with such memorable hits as “Long Haired Country Boy,” “The South’s Gonna Do It Again,” “In America,” “The Legend of Wooley Swamp” and of course, his signature song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”.
The band also attracted a high-profile fan in President Jimmy Carter, who used Daniels’ song “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” as his campaign theme, After Carter’s win, the band performed at his 1977 inauguration.
Epic Records signed him to its rock roster in New York in 1976. The contract, reportedly worth $3 million, was the largest ever given to a Nashville act up to that time. In the summer of 1979 Daniels rewarded the company’s faith by delivering “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which became a platinum single, topped both country and pop charts, won a Grammy Award, earned three Country Music Association trophies, became a cornerstone of the Urban Cowboy movie soundtrack and propelled Daniel’s Million Mile Reflections album to triple platinum sales levels.
The album’s title was a reference to a milestone in the Charlie Daniels Band’s legendary coast to coast tours. Including two drummers, twin guitars and a flamenco dancer. The CDB often toured more than 250 days a year and by this time had logged more than a million miles on the road. On the Million Mile Reflections Tour, transported in a convoy of busses and gleaming black tractor trailer rigs a show that stopped traffic all over the country the band now included a full horn section, back up singers, a troupe of clog dancers and sometimes a gospel choir. By 1981, the Charlie Daniels Band had twice been voted the Academy of Country Music’s touring band of the year.
Full Moon, issued in 1980, became Daniels’ third platinum album. Simple Man (1989) is also platinum while A Decade of Hits (1983) is triple platinum, and Windows (1982), Saddle Trump (1976), and Midnight Wind (1977) are Gold. He earned a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association in 1994 for The Door, and a 1997 CMA nomination for his remake of “Long Haired Country Boy” featuring John Berry and Hal Ketchum. Amazing Grace: A Country Salute to Gospel, a compilation album including Daniels’ “Kneel at the Cross,” garnered a 1995 Grammy Award. In 1996 he was honored with a boxed set of his classics. His By the Light of the Moon: Campfire Songs & Cowboy Tunes (1997), Christmas Time Down South (1990) and Blues Hat (1997) albums added further layers to his multi-faceted style.
In 1980, Daniels had played himself in the film Urban Cowboy, starring John Travolta, and as a result became closely identified with the revival of country music generated by the film’s success. Subsequently, the combination of the success of the more country-oriented song and the decline in popularity of Southern rock led Daniels to shift focus in his sound from rock to country music. After the platinum certified Full Moon (1980) and the gold certified Windows (1982), Daniels would not have another hit album until the 1989 release Simple Man, which earned Daniels another gold album, although the title track sparked controversy, as it was interpreted by some as advocating vigilantism, due to lyrics such as “Just take them rascals [rapists, killers, child abusers] out in the swamp/Put ’em on their knees and tie ’em to a stump/Let the rattlers and the bugs and the alligators do the rest”, which garnered Daniels considerable media attention and talk show visits.
Daniels’ annual Volunteer Jam concerts, world famous musical extravaganzas that served as a prototype for many of today’s annual day long music marathons, always featured a variety of current stars and heritage artists and are considered by historians as his most impressive contribution to Southern music. Among the artists “Jam Daddy” has hosted at 16 of these mega musical samplers are Roy Acuff, Don Henley, Tanya Tucker, Amy Grant, Leon Russell, Billy Ray Cyrus, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, James Brown, Duane Eddy, Pat Boone, The Outlaws, Dwight Yoakam, Steppenwolf, Bill Monroe, Exile, The Judds, Orleans, Willie Nelson, Carl Perkins, Vince Gill, George Thorogood, Emmylou Harris, Alabama, the Allman Brothers, Link Wray, Ted Nugent, Billy Joel, the Marshall Tucker Band, Solomon Burke, Little Richard, B. B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eugene Fodor, Woody Herman, and Bobby Jones and the New Life Singers.
When you hear a classic Charlie Daniels Band performance like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” you hear music that knows no clear genre. Is it a folk tale? A southern boogie? A country fiddle tune? An electric rock anthem? The answer is, yes to all of that and more. And the same goes for “In America,” “Uneasy Rider,” “The South ‘s Gonna Do It,” “Long Haired Country Boy,” “Still in Saigon,” “The Legend of Wooley Swamp,” and the rest of a catalog that spans more than 35 years of record making and represents more than 18 million copies in sales.
Having been born in North Carolina, his roots have always been slightly more to the Country side of music. An astute businessman as well as talented musician, Charlie launched Blue Hat Records in 1997 with his longtime personal manager David Corlew. Over the years, the label has released such memorable albums as Blues Hat, Tailgate Party, Road Dogs, Fiddle Fire: 25 Years of the Charlie Daniels Band and his first bluegrass album 2005’s Songs From the Longleaf Pines and 2007’s album Deuces, featuring duets with Brad Paisley, Gretchen Wilson, Bonnie Bramlett, Travis Tritt, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Brenda Lee and Darius Rucker.
In April 1998, top stars and two former Presidents paid tribute to Daniels when he was named the recipient of the Pioneer Award at the Academy of Country Music’s annual nationally televised ceremonies:
“In his time he’s played everything from rock to jazz, folk to western swing, and honky tonk to award winning gospel,” former President Jimmy Carter said. “In Charlie’s own words, ‘Let there be harmony. Let there be fun and 12 notes of music to make us all one.”
“Charlie’s love of music is only surpassed by his love of people, especially the American people,” former President Gerald Ford said. “For almost five decades, he’s traveled this land from coast to coast singing about the things that concern the American people. Tonight, the Academy of Country Music’s Pioneer Award is presented to a supremely talented compassionate and proud American, and a fair to middlin’ golfer, too!”
With an unerring instinct for the universal ties that bind people together and an equal abhorrence for the intolerance and fear that do the opposite, Charlie Daniels has kept the specifics of his cultural heritage as the soul of the CDB music that has impacted lives of everyday people everywhere.
“It’s purely American music with something for everyone,” he said. “At least that’s what I’ve hoped for in my 40 plus years in music.
Charlie Daniels died July 6, 2020 from a stroke. He was 83.
