Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Daniels dies at 83

[babylonsister]

https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/07/06/charlie-daniels-country-music-dies/5384087002/

Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Daniels dies at 83
Dave Paulson
Matthew Leimkuehler
Nashville Tennessean

Charlie Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame best known for "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," died Monday morning after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.

Daniels' death was confirmed by his publicist, Don Murry Grubbs. He is survived by his wife, Hazel, and son Charlie Daniels Jr.

By the time the Charlie Daniels Band topped the charts with “Devil” in 1979, the instrumentalist, singer and songwriter had long established a remarkable, multifaceted career in Music City. As a session musician, he played on three of Bob Dylan’s albums — including the revolutionary “Nashville Skyline” — as well as recordings for Ringo Starr and Leonard Cohen.

In 1974, he launched the first “Volunteer Jam,” a regun all-star concert that has continued for nearly 50 years. Daniels joined the Grand Ole Opry in 2008, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016.

This is a developing story.

[DBoon]

1. uneasy rider

[argyl]

5. Great tune. It's the one I thought about first when I heard he'd died.

[kentuck]

17. That is my favorite Charlie Daniels song.

He was a great musician, although I disagreed with his politics. He was not as radical right-wing as some might think.

[SiliconValley_Dem]

2. bummer

[Zambero]

3. The Devil gets another shot

RIP to another Obamaphobe.

[FarPoint]

4. Well....

Bye

[MyNameGoesHere]

7. Like this?

[Maru Kitteh]

16. THAT IS EXACTLY the first thing that came to my mind!

[rso]

6. Daniels

At the risk of sounding insensitive, good riddance to another member of the trump cult.

[Rorey]

8. +1

When my ex-husband told me that a friend of his died last year, that's sort of what I said. I told him the guy was an effing racist. May he rot in hell.

I shed no tears for Daniels.

[mokawanis]

9. That's my response too

Good riddance, hateful old redneck bastard.

[StarfishSaver]

13. Some of my white friends are mourning his loss and when I tell them he was a racist

they say something like "That may be, but I still loved his music."

One element of white privilege is being able to compartmentalize racists from the work they create because the people the racists hate don't look like you, so it just doesn't matter as much.

[coti]

15. Well, sure, just like some not accepting that Michael Jackson was a child molester.

Every time his music- as good as it was- comes on the radio, I'm both surprised and uncomfortable. I've decided that I can't encourage my children to listen to his work.

[GumboYaYa]

10. I vehemently disagree with his politics, but in 1986 when I was working on the

Ralph Emery show in Nashville he gave me tickets to the Charlie Daniels jam and I got to see the Allman Brothers reunion. It was a great show that I will always remember.

[Docreed2003]

12. Great story YaYa

Daniels certainly became an evangelical rw prick later in life but in the 70's and 80's and early 90's he was still a good dude and he certainly earned the right to be considered an icon of country music, especially in regards to crossover music in the 70's.

[StarfishSaver]

14. He wasn'a good dude in the 70s and 80s. He was a racist

As I said in another post, everyone isn't privileged to be able to separate the people who hate from the work they create when the people they hate look like us.

I'm not one to dance on anyone's grave or celebrate people's deaths. But I'm also not going to go out of my way to compartmentalize his racism from his music.

[Docreed2003]

18. StarfishSaver I think we've interacted enough here for you to know that

I'm totally open to listening. If you say he was a racist, then I'm open to hearing that...and I believe you. My impression of him,both professionally and on a personal interaction, was that he was a decent guy until he chose to align with Billy Graham and that movement of evangelicals.

I hope you know I wasn't lionizing the guy...I certainly have no celebration for his more recent beliefs, I just wasn't aware of his earlier racism, and I say that as someone who actually met the guy a few times.

[StarfishSaver]

20. I appreciate your comment and your open-mindedness

Daniels himself admitted that he was a racist, that it was how he was raised.

Between these two extremes lay Charlie Daniels. A native of Wilmington, North Carolina, Charlie Daniels was born on October 28, 1936, making him a full decade older than Duane and Gregg Allman, Ronnie Van Zant, Toy Caldwell of the Marshall Tucker Band — any other musician that could be conceivably called a Southern Rock peer. Charlie was from a different generation, one who could remember a time before rock & roll, and one who grew up in the thick of institutional racism. Daniels never denied this, recounting to journalist Mark Kemp in 2004 that he “never went to school with a black person one day in my life. My mind was conditioned in such a way that I felt they were an inferior race. That was just the way things were. And the thing about it is, when you’re raised that way, when you’re indoctrinated that way, it’s not even a conscious thing to you. It was a cultural thing.”
...
Daniels grew up listening to Black music — he claimed “the one thing the South has always done is respect black music. Whether you respected black PEOPLE or not, you respected the music.” Still, Daniels didn’t quite see a common ground between Black and White. “For me, it was like this: they had their music and we had our music. And everybody knew that black music was the pacesetter.”
https://medium.com/@sterlewine/the-souths-gonna-do-it-again-charlie-daniels-the-confederacy-and-the-rise-of-the-new-south-in-ebbce1059d51

This is not unusual for people of his generation. And this article says that he let go of his prejudice over the years. But I never saw any evidence that he actually did. And in the last couple of decades, he reveled in that good-old boy, Confederate loving racist persona, as evidenced by his embrace of Trump, attacks on Colin Kaepernick, defending Confederate statutes, etc.

And I can tell you for sure ... I would NEVER have felt it was safe for me or anyone in my family to attend a Charlie Daniels concert anywhere in the United States. There's a reason for that ...

So, I'm just not feeling him ...

[bigtree]

11. wiki:

In 2003, Daniels published an Open Letter to the Hollywood Bunch in defense of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy. His 2003 book Ain't No Rag: Freedom, Family, and the Flag contains this letter as well as many other personal statements. During the 2004 presidential campaign, Daniels said that having never served in the military himself, he did not have the right to criticize John Kerry's service record but that Kerry should allow the release of his official military record to establish the truth or falsehood of allegations from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. His band's official website contains a "soapbox" page, where Daniels has made statements such as the following:

In 2019, Daniels lambasted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for signing the Reproductive Health Act, which legalized abortion until birth under some circumstances, tweeting, "Watch the wrinkles on Cuomo’s face lengthen as the ramifications of the thousands of murders he has sanctioned come to bear on him. The NY legislature has created a new Auschwitz dedicated to the execution of a whole segment of defenseless citizens. Satan is smiling."

[CentralMass]

19. I saw CDB twice decades ago. The 2nd time was for a fundraiser in the small MA town I lived in.

I have forgotten the cause but we had a a black country singer named Big Al Downing who lived in town. He was pretty successful, had recorded etc. This must have been in the mid 80's he called in some favors and got Crosby Still and Nash and CDB to play at our county fairgrounds for a fundraising concert. I think it was for someone in ill health but in any event it was a noble cause.
As the years went by that remberence of his kindness tempered my opinion of Charlie Daniels as his politics got more extreme.
For the record I'm not a big country western fan.

[bedazzled]

21. Went to a concert of his because 38 Special was opening

38 Special was fabulous of course. I left when Charles Daniels came on. complete disinterest. Condolences to his family.

[shanti]

23. Was it late 70's?

38 Special and Charlie Daniels. Big Outlaws fan. My brief southern rock period.

[bedazzled]

24. Seven or eight years ago ... in florida

My musical growth rate is stagnant. I still listen to southern rock and hair metal. 38 special was awesome. Ratt or Cinderella have not aged well however