1 The Big Interview Episode Number: 213 Episode Title: Charlie Daniels 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 “Volunteer Jam 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 fiddle 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 COUNTRY MUSIC 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 GRAND OLE OPRY IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. THE BAND HAS PUT OUT DOZENS OF ALBUMS 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 BOB DYLAN WHO CAME TO NASHVILLE IN 1969 TO RECORD AN ALBUM CALLED NASHVILLE SKYLINE. 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-- Bob Johnston-- 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 Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash 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 guitar 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 4 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.