Charlie Daniels: All Legend. All Music. All Country.

“Few individuals have symbolized the South in popular culture as directly and indelibly as Charlie Daniels.” - Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

Charlie Daniels is partly Western and partly Southern. His signature 'bullrider' hat and belt buckle, his lifestyle on the Twin Pines Ranch (a boyhood dream come true), his love of horses, cowboy lore and the heroes of championship rodeo, Western movies, and Louis L'Amour novels, identify him as a Westerner. The son of a lumberjack and a Southerner by birth, his music - rock, country, bluegrass, blues, gospel - is quintessentially Southern.

In fact, even his bent for all things Western is Southern, because his attire, his lifestyle and his interests are historically emblematic of Southern working class solidarity with the “lone cowboy” individualism of the American West. It hasn't been so much a style of music, but more the values consistently reflected in several styles that has connected Charlie Daniels with millions of fans. For decades, he has steadfastly refused to label his music as anything other than “CDB music,” music that is now sung around the fire at 4-H Club and scout camps, helped elect an American President, and been popularized on a variety of radio formats.

Like so many great American success stories, The Charlie Daniels saga begins in rural obscurity. Born in 1936 in Wilmington, North Carolina, he was raised on a musical diet that included Pentecostal gospel, local bluegrass bands, and the rhythm & blues and country music emanating respectively from Nashville's 50,000-watt megabroadcasters WLAC and WSM.

• He graduated from high school in 1955 and soon enlisted in the rock .n' roll revolution ignited by Mississippian Elvis Aaron Presley. Already skilled on guitar, fiddle and mandolin, Daniels formed a rock .n' roll band and hit the road.
  
• While enroute to California in 1959 the group paused in Texas to record “Jaguar,” an instrumental produced by the Bob Johnston, which was picked up for national distribution by Epic. It was also the beginning for a long association with Johnston. The two wrote “It Hurts Me,” which became the B side of a 1964 Presley hit. In 1969, at the urging of Johnston, Daniels moved to middle Tennessee to find work as a session guitarist in Nashville.
  
• Among his more notable sessions were the Bob Dylan albums of 1969-70 Nashville Skyline, New Morning, and Self Portrait. Daniels produced the Youngbloods albums of 1969-70 Elephant Mountain and Ride the Wind, toured Europe with Leonard Cohen and performed on records with artists as different as Al Kooper and Marty Robbins.

Daniels broke through as a record maker, himself, with 1973's Honey In the Rock and its hit hippie song “Uneasy Rider.” 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.

Following stints with Capitol and Kama Sutra, 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, became an international phenomenon, 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.

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, the Allman Brothers, Link Wray, Ted Nugent, Billy Joel, the Marshall Tucker Band, Solomon Burke, Little Richard, B. B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eugene Fodor, Woody Herman, and Bobby Jones and the New Life Singers.

“I used to say, .I'm not an outlaw; I'm an outcast,'” says the Grammy Award winning star. “When it gets right down to the nitty gritty, I've just tried to be who I am. I've never followed trends or fads. I couldn't even if I tried. I can't be them; I can't be anybody but me.”

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 50 years of record making and represents more than 20 million in sales. His resume includes recording sessions with artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Flatt & Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Mark O'Connor, Leonard Cohen and Ringo Starr. His songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley and Tammy Wynette. This touring legend has been documented by ABC Newsmagazine 20/20. 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.

Recently, Charlie had a few minutes to share with STARCHAT!

Charlie, growing up, did you ever dream you would be so famous!
Had no idea where this was all going when I started,just wanted to be a professional musician.

What is one of your earliest memories?
The bombing of Pearl Harbor...

What is your favorite music to listen to when you need to relax?
Whatever I'm in the mood to listen anything from blue grass to classical .

Looking over your career, it must be wild to be you! What would you say are your three personal, biggest professional triumphs? What are three milestones, turning points or perhaps just ONE MASSIVELY GREAT SHOW, that stick in your mind when you think about life as the one and only Charlie Daniels!

1. Leaving my daytime job,cutting the apron strings and pursuing my music full time.
2. Coming to Nashville in 1967
3. Recording The Fire On The Mountain album in 1974

What is the one thing newcomers to the music industry do NOT understand about life in the music industry?

If you don't truly love it ... don't attempt it.

Charlie...quick, are you a morning person?

Yes

What is one of your favorite breakfasts - pancakes, omelettes?

Grits and eggs

Charlie...this may be a loaded question. What is YOUR favorite song?

Don't have just one...

Why is country music so awesome? Is it the raw emotion? Is it the American spirit?

It communicates on a level people understand.

What is your favorite place in the United States to perform?

I love them all!

Charlie...100 years from now, people will be listening to The Charlie Daniels Band, wondering about the man, the time, the music. What do you hope is the ONE thing people know about Charlie Daniels?

That the music they're listening to ... came from my heart.

Charlie...would you ever go a day without your hat?

Of course

Charlie...do you watch reality TV?

Very seldom

Looking at today's country music landscape, who do you feel of the newer batch of rising starts are truly the performers to watch?

Not familiar enough with them to pass judgement.

Final Thought: Charlie, can you share with us a little story about someone that really touched your life, and influenced your music.

Bob Dylan choosing me to play guitar on the Nashville Skyline album.

Special thanks to Charlie Daniels for his time, thoughts and awesomeness!