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Home , Charlie Daniels, Going Out Tonight, Itzhak Perlman, Million Mile Reflections

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The Big Interview Episode Number: 213 Episode Title: Description: Southern style comes to AXS TV this Memorial Day weekend, as we present a special evening with country icon Charlie Daniels. The legendary singer sits down with us to discuss his life and career. Then immediately after, we bring you “ Featuring The Charlie Daniels Band,” a benefit concert for America’s soldiers and first-responders.

ACT 1

DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER)

SOME MUSICIANS HAVE A SIGNATURE SONG... SOME HAVE A SIGNATURE SOUND. THE LEGENDARY CHARLIE DANIELS HAS BOTH.

CHARLIE DANIELS

I have my own style of playin' and I have my own sound because I do press too hard on the strings, and I do things that-- would run an ordinary player crazy, but-- it works for me.

RATHER (VOICE OVER)

HE IS A RESTLESS MUSICIAN - NEVER LOST FOR MUSICAL INSPIRATION. AND AT AGE 77, HE’S STILL FIDDLIN HIS WAY INTO THE HEARTS OF FANS.

DANIELS

The worst thing you can do is sit down in a rocking chair and let the world pass you by, because it will. You stay with something you love.

RATHER (VOICE OVER)

CHARLIE DANIELS... TONIGHT ON THE BIG INTERVIEW.

ACT 2

DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER)

THERE AREN’T VERY MANY COUNTRY MUSIC SONGS KNOWN AROUND THE WORLD - BUT THEN AGAIN, THERE AREN’T MANY SONGS LIKE “THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA.” ITS FAMOUS FIDDLE LICKS ARE COURTESY OF COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND CHARLIE DANIELS - BACKED BY THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND. 2

RELEASED IN 1979, “THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA” WON A GRAMMY AND LIT UP BOTH THE COUNTRY MUSIC AND BILLBOARD CHARTS - IT’S STILL POPULAR TODAY, HAVING BEEN DOWNLOADED NEARLY TWO MILLION TIMES.

WHILE SOME MIGHT CONSIDER THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND A ONE HIT WONDER - THOSE IN THE COUNTRY MUSIC BUSINESS KNOW BETTER.

HE IS ROYALTY AT THE IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. HAS PUT OUT DOZENS OF AND HAS BEEN CHURNING OUT COUNTRY MUSIC HITS FOR DECADES. BUT LIKE WITH SO MANY STARS IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS IT WAS A STROKE OF LUCK THAT GAVE CHARLIE DANIELS HIS BIG BREAK - A CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH MUSIC ICON WHO CAME TO NASHVILLE IN 1969 TO RECORD AN CALLED .

NOW NEARLY 50 YEARS LATER, CHARLIE DANIELS IS PAYING TRIBUTE TO DYLAN WITH A NEW ALBUM- CALLED “OFF THE GRID - DOIN’ IT DYLAN” IT’S THE FAMOUS SONGS OF BOB DYLAN GIVEN THE CHARLIE DANIELS COUNTRY TREATMENT. I HAD NEVER MET CHARLIE DANIELS BEFORE WE RECENTLY HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND SOME TIME TOGETHER AT HIS RECORDING STUDIO NEAR NASHVILLE.

CHARLIE DANIELS

I came to Nashville in 1967 at the behest of a friend of mine-- -- took over the Columbia operation here-- and he said, "You wanna come to Nashville?" I said, "Well, certainly. I've always wanted to live in Nashville." So I came, and-- I was kind of low man on the totem pole, you know, when I came. In 1969, Bob Dylan came to town to do Nashville Skyline. And I had asked Bob, I said-- so anyway, Bob was-- was Dylan's producer along with Simon and Garfunkel, and and and the list goes on. I said, "Is there any way you can put me on one Dylan session? I'm such an admirer of his, and I'd just like to be able to always say I played." He said, "I-- I oddly enough,"-- 15 sessions they had booked to do Nashville Skyline. The very first session, the player they'd-- was gonna play all of the rest 'em could not make the first one. So, "If you come-- come in for the first one." So I did. And when I got finished, I was packin' my instruments up to leave, and Bob Dylan asked Bob Johnston, he says, "Where's he goin'?" And he said, "He's leavin'. I got another guitar player comin'." He said, "I don't want another guitar player. I want him." Those nine words meant more to me and were such a shot in the arm to me and such an encouragement to me. Because I'd had-- hit-- hit some, you know, pretty hard licks since I'd been here, tryin' to compete in Nashville. It's a really competitive town. And anyway-- it was really encouraging, and of course it made me even that much bigger a fan. And, so anyway, all these years that I have admired Bob Dylan and I got ready to do an album, and I thought, "I am gonna do a tribute album to Bob." So we call it Off the Grid, which means it's an acoustical album. The only one we've ever done, only acoustical album, doin' Dylan, ten Bob Dylan songs that we took and tried to make our-- to put our mark on 'em. I didn't want to do 'em exactly the way he did 'em, but put our mark on 'em. 3

DAN RATHER

And of those in the album, what is your own personal favorite tune, or you think is the best--

DANIELS Oh gosh.

RATHER

--one to perform?

DANIELS

You know, there-- there's a song called, “You Gotta Serve Somebody,” that we did a very unique arrangement on. We did pretty unique arrangements on all 'em, but-- the one that is totally different from the way that he did it, with a different feel to it and everything. I'm pretty proud of that one.

You know, the thing about doin' Dylan stuff, you never run out of material. I mean, there's just song after song after song. So if I came across one that I didn't feel like we did a good job of, we s-- right here in the studio where we are is where we recorded. And we would be in here with the band and-- and if-- if we started doing somethin' and it didn't feel like it was our-- we could put our mark on it, if it didn't feel like it could be us, you know, doin' it, if it was too much like the way Dylan did it or whatever, we'd just bypass it and go to another song. So all the songs that we picked out, I feel we did put our mark on.

RATHER

Now you said you recorded it in here?

DANIELS

Oh, yeah. This is our studio.

RATHER

In this very studio?

DANIELS

Yeah. This studio stays set up for us all the time. It's our-- nobody records here but us.

RATHER

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Well, I'm a little confused, because true or untrue, and I thought it was true, that most of the time you don't-- you're in a recording studio, you don't record with the same band that you-- that you play with on--

DANIELS

Some--

RATHER

--concerts.

DANIELS

Some people don't, but I do. Always do. We-- I've got six people in my band. Gosh, you-- I got one workin' on 40 years, one's been 25 years. I mean, just guys that've been with me forever. They're like my family.

RATHER

They must have the pictures on you or somethin'.

DANIELS

Oh they do. (LAUGHTER) But we leave--

RATHER

No, but that's remarkable, let me pause to say that to work with people that long, and I don't want to interrupt your flow, but I want to understand. So when you record, you record with the same band you play in at concerts?

DANIELS

Yes, sir.

RATHER

But that's not always the case?

DANIELS

Not u-- a lot-- a lotta artists record with a stu-- with studio musicians. Some of the finest studio musicians in the world are in Nashville. they're just as good as they come, and they're able to take a song and really make somethin' special at it, but-- but myself, I prefer to-- to-- I-- I feel-- I look at myself as part of a six-piece band. I mean, it's not Charlie Daniels and the Charlie 5

Daniels Band. It's The Charlie Daniels Band. I'm a member of it. I'm responsible for it. I'm responsible for making payroll ev-- two times a month. And I'm responsible for their well-being, and, you know, to keep the band together and the business together. But basically, right down to it, when I get onstage with these guys, I'm part of the band. These guys are-- they're family to me. I mean, it's I know I can-- I can look at somebody and-- and-- you know, and, "Let's do this." And the-- they'll know exactly what I'm talkin' about. No words passed or nothin'. It's like, "Speed it up. Slow it down. Do it this. Do it." You know what I mean? You know, it-- and you-- it's wonderful to work with people like that, and when I go into stu-- I can't imagine goin' into studio with studio musicians. I want my guys.

RATHER

Of the music you have written and recorded, your favorite is?

DANIELS

Our signature song, a song called "Devil Went Down to Georgia." I mean, that's the one that-- if you say Charlie Daniels, man in London, that's probably the only thing they could remember of ours or Australia or something, say, "Oh yeah, I know that-- that one song," though I've got something like 50 albums out and literally hundreds of songs, that would be the only one they would remember.

But now-- as-- as it to-- it being my favorite song, I don't know if I could say it was. I've got-- I've got songs that are kind of obscure that I really like. I got a song called "Carolina Remember You," that speaks of growing up in North Carolina when I was-- a young man, you know, a kid, well, from (UNINTEL) that means a lot to me. When I do it-- I can visualize the things I'm talking about. I can visualize that you're using the river and the road and the two-lane black top and, you know, the snowflakes as big as goose feathers and the moon the color of new-made country butter and night sky like diamonds against black velvet from horizon to horizon. When I was a kid, before all the east coast pollution came up, you could see all those stars, you know, the-- you don't-- we don't see how much we have lost it, looking into the sky nowadays because of the pollution we put out. We can't see the stars. There used to be just a whole blanket of stars out there, but I-- that song means a lot to me for that reason. I can visualize these-- these scenes as when I was five or six years old.

RATHER

And with "The Devil," you wrote it. You recorded it first and then it got pretty popular and a lot of people wanted to cover it.

DANIELS

Well, you know what's kind of strange about that thing Dan that we had written and rehearsed an album's worth of material from an album called . We had gone-- I didn't have a studio at the time. It was back in '79. We went into a studio in Nashville, started recording. And said, "We don't have a fiddle tune. We need a fiddle tune." Why we didn't 6 realize that before we went in, I don't know, but we took a break. We moved the equipment out of the recording studio into a rehearsal studio and I had this thing in my mind, devil went down to Georgia. I don't know where it came from, but it came to me. And I said, "Guys, listen to this." And drummer started playing. You know, that's how we put something together and we put a melody together. We put an arrangement together. And I went and wrote lyrics to it and went back and recorded it. If there was ever a song you'd think that there would be a really interesting story about, it would-- in our catalog, it would be that one, but it's really not. I've got songs that-- that I've written it are a lot more interested, you know, stories than that, but it just-- we needed a fiddle tune. We went and wrote this fiddle tune.

RATHER

So in search of a fiddle tune, out came the song by which you're best known and fair to say has been the biggest moneymaker for you.

DANIELS

Oh yeah, definitely, signature song, that particular song really spread our wings a lot and said-- I mean, everybody came out. It was-- it was and still is our-- if we did a show and did not do that song, people would feel like they'd been cheated. And they would-- rightfully so because we owe that to 'em. That's what they-- that's-- there's still people in this country, that's the only song here that they know that-- that-- that we do, so they came to see that-- us do that song. In the meantime, they get to hear all these other things and they, you know, start appreciating them too.

RATHER

They used the tune in the movie, the movie, . You were in the movie, as I recall.

DANIELS

Well, we're in there performing the song, yeah. (LAUGH) I wasn't doing any dancing or anything. There was a lot of authenticity in that movie that-- that-- gets bypassed a lot of time. I mean, they created the atmosphere of-- of a Gilley's --the kind of people that went there, that-- regulars that were there five or six nights a week and what their interest were and-- you know, the little two-night love affairs and all this stuff that-- that went on. And I thought they did a great job of it. And they tried to keep the music authentic too. We were honored to be included in it. And they said, "You all come down here to Houston and be in our movie," so we packed up the bus and went down there. And it was-- you know, I think-- I think what that movie did. I think it was a big-- it was a social sort of thing. I think, you know, John Travolta was kind of-- he'd just coming off of Saturday Night Fever and he was a huge teenager star, if you will. And so I think what it did was it legitimized country music in the eyes of a lot of people that never had looked at it. They would come in and-- and they'd go to that movie and, I mean, here's all these people, these cowboy hats doing the two ste-- I mean, you having a big-- you know what time they have in a big old Texas beer joint, having a big time. And people said, "Well, I want some of that. I'm gonna learn to do a two-step. I'm gonna get me a cowboy hat and a pair of boots," 7 and they did; people wearing cowboy hats and boots around New York City, coming to our concerts.

ACT 3

DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER)

CHARLIE DANIELS WAS A CHILD OF THE DEPRESSION ERA SOUTH... THE ONLY SON BORN INTO A WORKING CLASS FAMILY. HE GRAVITATED TO MUSIC AT AN EARLY AGE...GETTING HIS START BY SINGING HYMNS AT CHURCH. BUT DANIELS CUT HIS COUNTRY MUSIC TEETH AS A TEENAGER - PLAYING IN PERSON SMALL LOCAL RADIO.

CHARLIE DANIELS

We started at-- a station called WWDP in Sanford, North Carolina. And it was a low-wattage station, but it was a-- it was the station in town, you know, it was the one station in town. Of course, we played it for-- in the mornings for a good while, and then we started to get-- we got smart. We got afternoon shows. (LAUGH) We'd play Saturday afternoon.

RATHER

Well, what kind of music were you playing?

DANIELS

Mainly bluegrass and well, country. We played, you know, some of the-- a lot of bluegrass. We were really into and-- Flatt and Scruggs and all those people, but we still did some of the kind of popular music. We did maybe a tune, or-- you know, somebody-- a song, or somethin' like that, but basically bluegrass.

We-- I used to be almost a bluegrass purist. That's all I wanted to hear, was . Let me tell ya the first money I ever made playin'. The friend-- this friend of mine who had actually taught me to play, his daddy ran a service station in this little gown of Gulf, North Carolina, which was about nine miles from Sandbury, just a wide place in the road. And we were settin' down there one Saturday night at his store with a fiddle and a guitar, and we were just playin' away, you know, and this-- car stopped by to get gas or somethin'. And there was-- two couples in it. Just two men, two women. They both got out, and walked up. This lady said, "Play us somethin'." And Russell popped up, this friend of mine popped up, and said, "You got any money?" (LAUGH) She reached in the purse and pulled out four dimes. So $0.20 was my first fee for playin', and we played a couple tunes for 'em. But--I played anywhere I could. I played, you know, any kind of square dance. Any kind of place I could find and then I moved back to Wilmington, North Carolina, which is my ancestral home if you would –where I was born, and somebody came up to me and said, "We're gonna start workin' at a beer joint in Jacksonville, 8

North Carolina" which is the home of the Second Marine Division, and one of the few places that had a club population.

RATHER

A club being a beer joint?

DANIELS

A club bein' a beer joint, abs-- that's all there was. That's all they could serve, was beer. So I started workin' up there six nights a week. I had a daytime job and I did manual labor. In the summer of 1958-- there was a-- things had kind of slowed down, and they were gonna lay somebody off. The guy that I worked with was a black guy named Lewis Frost, I remember. He trained me, he trained my daddy. My daddy was in the same business. But they were gonna lay somebody off. They were gonna lay him off for one reason. Because he was black and I was white. They were gonna keep me. I knew 1/10 about as much about the job as he did. And I said, "Look-- this man's got a family. I've got another job. I've been kind of wantin' to leave anyway, so you keep him and let me go." Never looked back since then, 1958. Summer of '58. I left, and-- started playing full time at the beer joints up in Jacksville. And then finally ended up north up to Washington D.C. area and playing the beer joints up there.

RATHER (VOICE OVER)

CHARLIE DANIELS WAS AWAY FROM HOME - BEGINNING WHAT WOULD BE A LIFETIME ON THE ROAD. AND AS HE’S TRAVELED ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES - AND AROUND THE GLOBE, HE’S HAD A FAITHFUL MUSIC COMPANION. IT IS THE FIDDLE WHICH HAS PROVIDED THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND WITH ITS MOST SIGNATURE SOUND - AND GIVEN CHARLIE DANIELS, HIMSELF, A LASTING IDENTITY - ONE THAT’S EVEN BEEN USED TO SELL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE.

RATHER

Let's talk fiddle for a minute.

DANIELS

Okay.

RATHER

Keep in mind, again, I'm a Texan.

DANIELS

I understand--

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RATHER

And it's axiomatic in Texas; it ain't a Texas band if it doesn't have a fiddle.

DANIELS

That's right. If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band. (LAUGH)

RATHER

Did you start on fiddle or guitar?

DANIELS

I started on guitar. I started-- this friend of mine, I had known him for years. I had no idea he had a guitar. I don't know where he got it from, I never did find out but--

RATHER

You were what age then?

DANIELS

I was probably 15. 14, 15. I went up to his house one day, and he had this old Stella guitar. The neck on it was about the size of half of a fence post. The strings were probably-- the ones that came on it, it was hard. They were way up off the neck. And he knew about two and a half chords. I said, "Oh, you gotta teach me that." So anyway, he started teachin' me, and we started buggin' anybody in the neighborhood that we could find that knew a chord on a guitar that we didn't know. And we just-- we were just eat up with it. We were just a couple young guys, really eat up with learnin' how to play. So everybody else was gone to the movies, and me and him were sittin' there learnin' to play. So then I started-- somebody showed up with a one day, and I took it and learned a little bit on it. The fingerboard on a mandolin and a fiddle are the same. So then I got ahold with fiddle, and instead of doin' this, you do this. And so--

RATHER

What's the difference between the fiddle and the ?

DANIELS

There is no difference. I went to see Itzhak Perlman at the Opry House here, where we're gonna be tonight, in fact, and somebody took me backstage. And I said, "Good evening, Mr. Perlman. I'm Charlie Daniels and I'm a fiddle player." He said, "We're all fiddle players." So if he says we're fiddle players, you know vio-- in my book, the greatest violinist in the world, then by gosh we're all fiddle players. (LAUGH)

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RATHER

Well, down here-- it's a little bit in the dark, but over here, you have what? A mandolin?

DANIELS

That's a mandolin. That's a mandolin.

RATHER

And over here's a fiddle?

DANIELS

That's the fiddle, or violin, if you wanna call it--

RATHER

And the difference between a mandolin and a fiddle is?

DANIELS

Well-- you-- for this one, the fiddle-- I mean, the mandolin, of course you play it like this. This is an electric, so it don't make much sound. And then, of course, the fiddle you gotta pull the bow on the strings to make it work. It's the same fingerin'. You put your fingers. And of course, when I do it, you know, I do it all-- I have kids ask me all the time about playin' fiddle. I said, "Do not look at me when you play the fiddle. I hold the bow wrong. I hold the bow like this. "I hold the fiddle wrong. You're supposed to support it with your neck and reach over like this." I hold it-- I support it with my hand. I push too hard on the strings. That's what-- why I tear so many bow hairs up. So say, "Don't look at me. It works for me, it may not work for you. You know, you'll drive your violin teacher crazy. Don't-- don't play like I do. Look at Johnny Gamble or somebody, you know some really good fiddle player." But-- I have my own style of playin'. I have my own sound because I do press too hard on the strings, and I do do things that-- would run an ordinary fiddle player crazy, but-- it works for me, so--

RATHER

Now did you have lessons? You-- did you have guitar lessons--

DANIELS

I can't read music. Can't read music.

RATHER

--mandolin lessons? Fiddle lessons? 11

DANIELS

No. I can't read music. I can't. The only thing I read is chords. It just evades me. I can't do it.

RATHER

I do not play an instrument, broke my departed mother's heart, never learned to play an instrument. I can barely carry a tune even in a bucket with a lid on it, but I'm fascinated that you've come as far as you've come and you don't read music.

DANIELS

There's a lot of people that don't read music. It's never really held me up. I would like to be able to read music more for the-- for writing it than anything else, more for being able to take-- a pencil and a piece of staff paper and writing a tune down that came into my head that I don't have anything to record it on right now and I might forget it. If I could just write it down, it'd be great. Everything that we record, I do completely by ear. Most of my guys do it by ear, except for a chord chart. They-- I mean, we write up a chord chart, like, you know, whatever, however many beats is on a chord. I don't even use those most of the time. I had to learn something and-- and just play it.

RATHER

I know you've traveled a lot and I want to talk to you about that. With the music business, it has a lot of people who've had their struggles with-- Jack Daniel. Were you ever into drink so heavily you worried about it?

DANIELS

No.

RATHER

Ever into drugs?

DANIELS

No. I would be lying to you if I told you I had not-- had not-- never done any of that, because I have, but-- I have never had a problem with it.

RATHER

How did you avoid that?

DANIELS 12

Well, I just-- you know, I had things in my life that were more important than that. I have such a great respect for this business and I have such-- had such a burning desire to make something out of my life and I loved it so much, I want to be a part of it and I want to be successful at it. And I wanted to do it on the big stage. I didn't want to play beer joints. I wanted to make records. I wanted to do all the-- the good things. And I found out early on that you cannot party all night and sleep till four o’clock in the afternoon and get up with a fuzzy head and-- and do a good job. So you decide, do I want that or do I want a career? If you want the career, you say, "Well, you know, we got to moderate on this drinking and whatever else." I don't do drugs at all. The only drugs I ever do is prescription things. Of course, as you get older, you do a lot of those, (LAUGH) you know. But--

RATHER

Tell me about it.

DANIELS

But you know, I-- you got to make a decision along the way. I've seen people go the other way. I've seen some incredibly talented people that went the wrong way. I saw about two weeks before he died. I was playing at (UNINTEL) White with . I was playing backup for Leonard. And to think about this guy, still on the side of the stage and watching him perform and to think about this guy that died from drugs, think about , you know, that-- that had-- I mean, had the world by the tail. And they threw it all away for cocaine or mandrax is what Jimi got into and all that stuff. It's just not worth it. There's lessons to be learned by that as you can only push this thing so far. The more you do, the more you're gonna want to do and you're gonna finally end up either without a career or could well end up-- end up dead.

Till this day, I-- I'm 77 years old and I'm still just as competitive as-- as I can be. My mind operates that way. I catch myself being that way. And I think why? You know, you-- why do you have to be that way now? Why do you keep-- why do you judge everything as it applies to you? You know, why do you look at somebody else's performance and say, "Now, I would do--" What difference does it make? But it makes a difference to me. That's my makeup. That's what keeps me going. I think one of the worst things that a person can do and I-- you obviously feel the same way, because you don't-- you do this because you want to-- doing it because you have to. The worst thing you can do is sit down in a rocking chair and let the world pass you by, because it will. It will pass you by. It'll pass you by in such a hurry that in six weeks, you don't even know what's going on. But you stay with something you love. You're doing something you love. I'm doing something I love. We both kind of like that we-- something that we can really pour ourselves into. Well, that's the way I was, the way-- nothing was gonna separate me from that desire. Not Jack Daniels, not cocaine, not any kind of drug or anything. Nothing was gonna keep me from that.

RATHER

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You and I both know that the road is littered with the career carcasses of people because they were on the road so constantly, either drink, drugs or what should we call it, an eye for a well- turned ankle. Those are the big three that so many crashed and burned.

DANIELS

I've seen it happen. But it's like I say. Do you value that or do you value your career? Because you can't have-- you can't have 'em both. Anybody that's coming into the music business because they think it's glamorous, and it is, but if that's all you're coming in for, do yourself a favor and play at the Holiday Inn lounge on Friday and Saturday night and work a daytime job and stay home, because you're gonna be sorely, sorely disappointed. There is so much beneath the water line. There's so much preparation. There's so much devotion. It takes staying current. It takes doing interviews. It takes keeping up with everything. It takes keeping the band rehearsed, keeping the band happy. Only the people who have it here and here are gonna make it, really make it. I mean, longevity was always the-- the big deal to me. It was not-- I want to go in and make a bunch of money and go buy a Greek island, you know. I didn't want that. I wanted to be a part of this business, which I have for 56 years now.

ACT 4

DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER)

CHARLIE DANIELS IS KNOWN FOR IS HIS UNWAVERING SUPPORT OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY. HE HAS PERFORMED IN WAR ZONES AND WRITTEN SONGS LIKE “LET EM WIN OR BRING EM HOME” WHICH FOCUS ON THE SACRIFICES OF MEN AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM… AND THEIR FAMILIES. IN 2010 DANIELS CREATED THE SCHOLARSHIP FOR HEROES - MONEY HE RAISES FOR VETERANS WHO WANT TO CONTINUE THEIR EDUCATION AFTER MILITARY SERVICE.

CHARLIE DANIELS

You know, Dan, I don't think anybody intends to go in-- 19-year-old kids, says, "Well, I'm gonna go in the Army and stay for 50 years." I think it's, like, "I will go in and I will do 20 years, at 30 years or whatever. I'm gonna come out of it a young man. I'm gonna start a horse ranch or I'm gonna go be-- a network newscaster or I'm gonna do-- you know, I'm gonna do something else." And then during their service, they're grievously wounded. They lose limbs. They lose terrible wounds-- some of the folks in our program have had awful wounds. And I always put it, like, and jumpstart their life. Maybe you can't do that horse ranch anymore. Maybe you can't do what you planned on, but there's something you can do. Let us help you do that. Let us get you an education. Let us get us something that you want to do, send you to a fine university, and you can major in what you want to and you can get out and go on with your life. And it’s gratifying.

RATHER

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I would think gratifying might be an understatement for that kind of work, where you-- Charlie, you perform fairly regularly in front of and on behalf of-- our men and women-- in uniform-- From where does that come?

DANIELS

Dan, I was five years old when the Pearl Harbor thing happened. I remember it. I remem-- I remember-- cold, cloudy afternoon in coastal North Carolina and I didn't know exactly what was going on, but we didn't have TV. Years before TV, radio. And all the grown folks. We're at my grandmother's house and for some reason, the whole family was there. And-- and-- and they were all ganged around this big old floor-mounted radio, listening to something that I didn't know exactly what was going on. I certainly didn't know where Pearl Harbor was. But I knew it was on-- somewhere on the other side of the world. Could have been another planet to me back then, but something-- something really seriously was going on. That was my formative years. We lived-- Wilmington was a sea coast town. We had-- a lot of shipping went out that-- in the war effort. We had air raid drills. We had rationing. We had blackouts. We had all the things there. That-- that was my formative years. And I realized once-- two things very early. I-- I realized that there were only two things that guarded the United States of America. One was the grace of God. The other was the United States military. That was ingrained in my-- in me very, very early on. You got to honor the people that do it, the-- the-- the mil-- the United States military. I-- really bothers me to see somebody belittle them or see a politician belittle them or talk about them in a bad way or something. That's one thing that gets my dander up pretty quick.

RATHER

More common might be ignoring it now.

DANIELS

Absolutely--

RATHER

Both the countries and what some people call war fatigue-- the Afghanistan war has become the- - the new forgotten war.

DANIELS

Well, it's-- you know, it's an unfortunate situation that we're in right now and I-- I just hate to see-- I hate to see the emphasis taken off of-- of the-- the kind of military that we need to keep America safe and free in this-- in the environment that we live-- their national environment that we live in. It is-- it is sincerely, I mean, to me, of course, I'm looking at it from point-- a senior citizen who's been there, done that, remember a lot of wars. And-- and realizes that we can't cut our military back while other people are building theirs up, especially other people that don't like us very much or get right down to it, downright hate our guts. And you know, it really bothers 15 me and-- and the-- we got the greatest young men and women in our military. They're the cream of the crop. I owe 'em. I owe them. I could never, ever do enough for them.

RATHER

There is something about country music. If you disagree, tell me, that even for people who don't particularly like country music or thought they didn't like, there's something at least special, maybe unique, about country music

DANIELS

If you listen to country radio for about an hour, you probably would find some-- something in there that would apply to your life, whether it was a lost love, gained love, I'm going out tonight, you know, my girlfriend's hot and I can't wait to see her. And I mean, ju-- it just-- it just deals with all kinds of emotions that people-- like-- it deals a lot with freedom. It's, like, man, it's Friday night. And I'm getting paid. And I'm fixing to go out and bust this town wide open, you know. It deals a lot with the-- you know, being able to-- to-- to say what you want to do and do what you want to and-- talks a lot about pickup trucks-- you know, we were raised that way. You know, hey, I mean, we were raised in pickup trucks and-- and it talks about, you know, the kind of people that want to go out fishing and, you know, that-- that sort of-- it just touches that down inside or at least with me and a lot of people I know, it touches that deep-- deep down inside emotions that you feel every day.

RATHER

Well, let's go down-- the list. The-- if you will, the litany for country music. There's pick-up trucks, prison, (LAUGH) trains, lost love.

DANIELS

Don't forget rivers.

RATHER

(LAUGH) And rivers. What else have I left out?

DANIELS

Oh gosh-- drinking, you know, bending the elbow.

RATHER

That's right. Tonight the bottle let me down.

DANIELS

16

Tonight the bottle let me down. What a great tune.

RATHER

But question, because when I talk about country music with people and I do from time to time. I grew up on it, country music and they say, "Well, Dan, that's yesterday's music and the people who follow it are basically yesterday's men and women, even though they may be young." What they're referring to is their view is that our country has changed in so-- so many fundamental ways that the deep down, solemn emotions hidden inside all of us, as you referred to, they aren't the same now, because the country's not the same. You agree?

DANIELS

No. I think that basic emotions are basic emotions. They may be couched in different words. People may think about 'em different, but I mean, you know, if you're setting up in a room somewhere somebody's just walked out on you, you know, whether you're-- it was back in the 1930s or today, it's still that same type of feeling.

Now, they-- as far as yesterday's music concerned, country music bigger now than it's ever been. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's-- probably the-- the largest-- sells more record than any other particular genre of music. There’s always no matter how-- where-- where it goes, there's always that nucleus of people who have great, great respect for the traditions. Any kid you talk to will sit down and tell you they have the greatest respect for-- for . Hank Williams' been dead since the '50s and he's still, you know, very much alive in-- in-- in-- in the hearts of anybody that loves country music.

RATHER

Speaking of the '50s, I want to go back-- pick up on something you said before. You were in North Carolina. You were working-- the (UNINTEL). And the company's gonna lay off-- a man who was of African-American heritage. And you said-- you stepped forward and said, "Listen, I have other work. Leave this guy with the job." I'm wondering what there was in your background that led you to have that kind of response, because that would not have been a common response in that time, I don't think.

DANIELS

It was-- it was not as noble as it sounded, because I wanted to leave, but looking at it the other way was-- it was only common sense. It was not fair. It-- it-- whether we had both been white. Or whether we had both been black. It was the right thing to do and it was-- it was-- I was raised with a sense of fairness.

RATHER

Where I was going with that was at that time, 1957, '58--

17

DANIELS

'58.

RATHER

1957, '58, did you, even in your wildest imaginations at that time, think you would live to see a president of the United States of African-American heritage?

DANIELS

I did not. I did not. I don't think anybody else did. I don't think anybody-- I came up during Jim Crow days and I came up during-- a time when everybody was the back of the bus, the back of this, the separate-- you called it separate but equal, but it wasn't. It-- it was separate but it was never equal. I never went to school with a black kid in my entire life. I finished school in 1955. I never-- we never had any-- any black kids in school with us. It was a segregated society. And when you come up in that way, you don't know any different. And when I started-- when all this stuff started dawning on me and I got away from the-- I don't know how to say this exactly, but it was-- when it finally comes to you, your mind, hey, that guy's a human being. Those people are human beings. Same god made them that made you. How would you like to be treated that way? How would you like to be not able to go in a place, just because of the color of your skin? Or how would you like to have to walk back past one of those empty seats in the front of the bus or the train or whatever you happen to be riding, how would you like to have to get up and walk past-- the whole bus had been emptied. Is that right? Is there anything right about this? Is there anything right about-- and it-- and it boiled down to the guy was black, but he did the-- a lot better job than I did. It was the best thing for him, for me, for the company, for everybody. It only made sense and it did not make sense to deprive this man of this, just simply because of the color of his skin.

RATHER

Well now we have you said--and I would say the same thing. In the 1950s, I did not think in my lifetime and probably not in my children's lifetime did I think it's time that we have-- an African- American president. But we have one now, not only have we-- he had one term. He's in the middle of the second term. Now I know. We're not gonna get into a political discussion, but I know that you have your differences with him on policy.

DANIELS

I do, but not because-- nothing to do with his race, nothing what-- nothing whatsoever to do with his race. I do have differences with his policies, but I had difference with George Bush and his policies. I had difference with Bill Clinton and his policies. I had difference with every president I've ever known in my-- once I was mature enough to understand, you know, what was going on with-- with Lyndon Johnson and-- and John F. Kennedy and every-- I mean, it has nothing to do with the race. I don't care what color a president is. I don't care whatever-- what his heritage is. I want somebody that's the best thing for the country. And when I don't think 18 they are, I will -- and I resent somebody, if I do something against the president, I resent somebody saying, "That's a racist comment." No, it's not. It's a political comment. It's a comment on the job that the man's doing or that he does something that I think is detrimental to the country. It has nothing to do with race. I got past that a long, long time ago when most of the people who would say that have no idea what racism is. I've seen it firsthand. I've seen people mistreated and pushed off into parts of town that nobody want to live in and-- and made to live under-- under circumstances nobody want to live in, for no-- nothing other than the color of the skin. It's wrong. I came out of that myself. I know what racism is. I know the cruelty of racism. I know. I know that's-- it's detrimental to any society. And I know that I want no part of it. And I know that anything that I do, anything I say against anybody or for anybody has nothing to do what color they are.

RATHER (VOICE OVER)

NOW WHEN WE RETURN… ON THE TOUR BUS WITH CHARLIE DANIELS… AND OUR CANDID CONVERSATION ROLLS ON….

ACT 5

DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER)

CHARLIE DANIELS SHOWS LITTLE SIGN OF SLOWING DOWN. THIS YEAR ALONE HE WILL TRAVEL CLOSE TO 100,000 MILES AND PERFORM OVER A HUNDRED CONCERTS… IT’S A GRUELING SCHEDULE THAT MEANS COUNTLESS HOURS ON HIS BUS. AND THAT’S WHERE I MET HIM ONE EVENING AS HE PREPARED FOR A CONCERT AT WHAT’S BEEN CALLED “COUNTRY’S MOST FAMOUS STAGE” - THE WORLD RENOWNED GRAND OLE OPRY.

RATHER

Any time you appear at the Opry - it's a big night.

CHARLIE DANIELS

Tonight I'm doing two songs I haven't done at the Opry before. And I'm still-- thinking about lyrics on 'em for one thing. But I-- there's a little circle of wood, and you'll see it when you go out there, about this big around that is right in the center of the stage. And it was cut out of the floor down at the Ryman Auditorium when they moved out here. And every country music star in the world, every singer, Hank Williams and and and and everybody has stood on that-- on that piece of wood and sung. And you got to think about the tradition of this place and what it-- you know, what it is and what it-- how long it's lasted and what it's meant in my life-- it's been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

RATHER

19

Now as I understand it, when you walk off the stage tonight, you're gonna come to the bus. The bus is gonna crank up. And you're driving overnight to Florida?

DANIELS

Pensacola, yes.

RATHER

Are you mad?

DANIELS

No. That's-- that's not that far. It's--

RATHER

But this is--

DANIELS

--that is--

RATHER

--what you do?

DANIELS

Oh, yeah. That is not-- if you look back here, you'll see-- that's our bedroom. And I sleep just as good there as I do at my bed at home. Of course, back-- in the back there's a bathroom, there's a shower. There's a little small kitchenette type thing right here. We have (UNINTEL). We got satellite T.V. And-- you know, we watch T.V. going down-- down the road. We can read. We can-- it's like being at home except you're moving.

RATHER

Now what about the band? They do or do not travel on this bu--

DANIELS

They're next door. Their bus is next door--

RATHER

I saw that bus-- 20

So they have their own bus?

DANIELS

They have their own bus. And we have a truck for the equipment. We have three-- diesel vehicles that we travel in.

RATHER

Does anybody ever say, "Listen, Charlie, I love you, but I wanna sleep in the motel tonight"?

DANIELS

N-- well-- if you work this outfit, you're not gonna sleep in a motel unless it's scheduled to be that way 'cause we're pulling out right after the show. When I get through on stage, I walk out and get on this bus. The crew, it takes them a little longer 'cause you gotta pack everything up. But as soon as they get through, we're rolling. We have to to keep our schedule. If you wanna sleep in a motel, you better stay home. (LAUGHTER) There are certain things that are-- that-- that have b-- you h-- have to be requisite in this job. And one part of it is being able to travel and being able to tolerate long trips. Sometimes-- I don't like to do it to 'em. But sometimes, there's times-- we just did-- we just came 900 miles this past weekend. I had to be back in town.

RATHER

You have the same bus driver regularly with you?

DANIELS

Oh, yeah. He's been with me for 20-- 20-- gosh, I wanna say 28 years, 20-some years--

RATHER

'Cause you have to--

DANIELS

--twenty-six years.

RATHER

--trust him a lot. You-- while you're napping back here--

DANIELS

There are times –you know, that’s the thing about it. Everybody --there are no unimportant jobs. My job is important for about two hours a night. From the time I get off the bus till the time I 21 get back on, when I go on stage and play. There's times that the-- the road crew they're the most important people in the outfit 'cause they're settin' up, they're tearin' down. After we all get on the buses, the guys that are driving, they're holding everybody's lives in their hands. They're the most important people in the outfit. Everybody in my outfit is respected. Everybody-- does-- a good job. I’ve got people been with me many years.

RATHER

Do you have any fun on the bus?

DANIELS

Oh, yeah. Fun? Oh, yeah. I-- I do same thing-- on the bus I do at home. I sit and-- you know, fool with my iPad or I get to-- I watch whatever I want to on T.V.

RATHER

So you have your iPad. You do Facebook? You do ?

DANIELS

I just do Twitter. I can't keep up with it all.

RATHER

Well, I know there's a theory that if you-- if you'd really make it in the music business or almost any other business these days, you better be active in quote "social media."

DANIELS

I think social media is very important. You know, I get instant reviews from the shows we do. Every night, when we go-- there-- at a certain time on stage when the lights come up enough to photograph audience-- there'll-- there'll be enough ambient light to get-- and I have my road manager take a picture of it. And I put it up on Twitter every night. And I thank the town that we came to. Toledo, you're wonderful, thank you, and put a picture up. And I'll get reviews. I get like instant reviews sometime. Boy, the show was great. Or this or that or the other thing. And- - and it's like people say when you're coming to town. And I say, "Look at the schedule." You know. But it's-- it's-- it's a great thing. It's-- I-- my son has literally dragged me kicking and screaming into every kind of technology I've ever gotten involved in because I am not a technical-minded person. I come from the days of a dial telephone or one of these, you know. But I’m still fascinated by technology, the capabilities of technology. It’s just nuts. I mean, it's just crazy. Just that I can get on this little machine sittin' here in Nashville, Tennessee and type up something that goes instantly around the world. And people can respond to it. It's just amazing to me.

RATHER (VOICE OVER) 22

COMING UP NEXT… CHARLIE DANIELS TAKES US BACKSTAGE BEFORE HIS PERFORMANCE AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY… YOU’LL WANT TO SEE AND HEAR IT… SO STICK HERE WITH US.

ACT 6

DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER)

CHARLIE DANIELS IS A FAMILIAR FACE HERE AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY. HE’S PERFORMED HERE SO MANY TIMES... HIS ROUTINE IS LIKE CLOCK WORK… HE CHECKS IN… WALKS THE LONG NARROW HALLS… EXCHANGES PLEASANTRIES WITH OTHER MUSICIANS AND FRIENDS... ALL BEFORE HEADING TO ONE OF THE GREENROOMS TO MEET UP WITH HIS BAND THEN IT’S TIME TO BREAK THE INSTRUMENTS AND GET READY FOR THE NIGHT’S SHOW BY DOING WHAT MOST BANDS WHO SHARE THIS MUCH HISTORY LIKE TO DO… JAM OUT.

THEN IT’S SHOWTIME. THE BAND PLAYS A SONG OFF THE NEW TRIBUTE ALBUM TO BOB DLYAN - THE CLASSIC “TANGLED UP IN BLUE.” BUT BEFORE DANIELS LEAVES THE STAGE, HE KNOWS WHAT THE CROWD HAS BEEN WAITING FOR. THE UNMISTAKABLE - THE ONE AND ONLY – “THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA.”

RATHER

I want to come back to-- I should have asked you this in the beginning, but we got off to a good conversation, which I appreciate very much. (LAUGH) That-- two parts to the question and it is who are you. First of all, who are you professionally and then who are you as a person, as a man?

CHARLIE DANIELS

You know, the professional part is-- is-- kind of hard to answer. I-- let me put it like this. I have to live to be 150 years old to accomplish what I want to do. I've got so many things in my mind. I just finished a children's project that I worked on for years. I just-- this is gonna be hard to believe, but actually, literally, I've been involved in writing a symphony right now with-- I don't have the time to devote to it. We've got part of it, one of the guys that works with me and myself. We've got-- some of it done, but we've got-- we've still got a long way to go. I want to-- I want to do it and I want to get it done and I want to perform it somewhere, you know? I want to see a symphony orchestra perform it. I write a lot. I'm writing a biography that-- is probably gonna take me a lot longer to finish, 'cause I feel like I'm still living it, you know, still-- I'm thinking maybe-- there's a good possibility that I have not lived the most interesting part of my life yet.

RATHER 23

A great way to look at life anyway.

DANIELS

(LAUGH) But I'm doing-- I'm-- I-- I am-- I'm writing. I've been in-- involved in writing a biography for quite a while--

RATHER

So as a professional, you're a musician. You're a , music writer.

DANIELS

I've had three books out and published all three, if you will.

RATHER

You're an author. (LAUGH) You're a blogger-- columnist, commentator. That's professionally. Now who are you as a person, as a man?

DANIELS

I am a father, grandfather-- guy who's in love with his wife almost 50 years, more so than the day that we got married. I'm a happy person-- I sincerely do love my fellow man. I do try to live by-- the golden rule. I try to treat other people like I want to be treated. I'm very opinionated. I'm not bashful about expressing my opinion and I have-- I'm fortunately furnished with some forums to do it in, since kind of being a public sort of person, I can-- you know, I can do like what we're doing right now. I do quite a bit of this kind of thing, although I must say, ne-- not on this level. You don't know how honored I am to be sitting here talking to you.

RATHER

Oh, well, I'm undeserving of that, but I'm very appreciative--

DANIELS

No, you're not. No, sir, you're not undeserving at all. I am deeply honored you would-- would come and do this. 'Cause I know there's-- you can be interviewing anybody else in town right now.

RATHER

What question have I not asked you I should have asked you, Charlie?

DANIELS 24

Well, you know something that people probably don't know about me, I have to make a confession. I drink Irish Breakfast tea every morning instead of coffee.

RATHER

(LAUGHTER) Say it ain't so.

DANIELS

Now you wouldn't have guessed that, would you? I still love coffee, but I-- I-- I do. Every-- every morning, I get-- make me a big pot of Irish Breakfast tea.

RATHER

Oh, Charlie. But you're in country music.

DANIELS

I've just blown my image. I know.

RATHER

It's supposed to be coffee and Copenhagen--

DANIELS

I know, I know. I used to do the Copenhagen too, but (LAUGH) it don't go too well with tea, so.

RATHER

Charlie, thank you.

DANIELS

My pleasure sir.

RATHER

I really appreciate it.

DANIELS

Thank you, I’m honored.

25

END TRANSCRIPT