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Many
thanks to Paula and the rest of the CDB staff for their help
with this.
For
up-to-date information on The Charlie Daniels Band,
visit the official website at www.CharlieDaniels.com
CD=Charlie
Daniels
DL=Devon
Laney
DL:
Mr. Daniels, thank you for taking the time to speak with me
today.
CD: Thank you.
DL: I had the pleasure of seeing your show in Tuscaloosa,
AL a few weeks back, and I know you're in Columbia, SC tonight.
You've played in so many places throughout your career. What
are the differences, if any, between playing somewhere in the
south versus other, larger cities and venues?
CD: Well of course I am Southern, and there's an affinity
for Southern People, but of course I enjoy playing anywhere.
I found out a long time ago… if you're gonna play around you
can't disseminate between places; you just have to play them.
When you get, where, you feel like 'we're in so and so tonight,
might as well be in such and such other place'… because we're
gonna give them the same show we ordinarily give anyone.
DL: Is the crowd atmosphere any different?
CD: I think to some extent, people in the South are pretty
well familiar with us. We've been around a long time. But really,
if you get right down to it, you know, we don't disseminate…
we just play our show.
DL: You've worked with so many musicians in your career.
Is there anyone you wish you had been able to work with that
you didn't?
CD: Well, I've worked with most of the people I'd want
to work with, but yeah, there's definitely a few. I'd love to
do something with B.B. King one of these days… I'm a big blues
fan. Most anybody that's a good picker. <laughs>
DL: Some people classify your music as Southern Rock,
others as Hard Country, but I don't follow that. To me, it's
just your music. How do you keep your music, your style, so
uniquely yours considering the wide range of music you work
with?
CD: We try not to be affected by what the rest of the
world is doing. We just do what we do, and let everybody else
do what they do. I found out a long time ago that I didn't want
to follow trends; it's just not my thing… I don't want to try
to be somebody I'm not. We just do what we do - keep our own
thing going. We're pretty dependable as far as what people can
expect from us. They know what we're all about, and they know
we're not gonna come in one time and have orange hair <laughs>…
We don't follow what the rest of the world does; we just stick
to what we do.
DL: What was the first song you ever learned to play?
CD: Gosh…I have no idea… back before your momma and daddy
were born I bet. <laughs> I really, honestly cannot remember…
I've played for so doggone long now, I'd be reaching back further
than I can remember. <laughs>
DL: In 2002 you released both a Christmas Album and a
Gospel album, and you've done so in the past as well. What made
you decide to release those types of albums and did you worry
about how they would be accepted by your fans?
CD: No, I didn't worry about how they'd be accepted by
our fans. I've been doing gospel music in our shows for years;
I just never had recorded or done an album of it. I had always
wanted to… gospel music is such a big part of my heritage. I've
been singing gospel songs since before I learned to play. My
very earliest remembrances are of gospel songs. We had always
been on major labels, and they don't really market gospel music
anymore, but I had always wanted to do it before now, I just
didn't have the opportunity.
DL: With the hectic touring schedule you've had over
the years, how do you keep the music fresh…not only for yourself,
but for your band, every night when you go on stage?
CD: Well, I get a chance to play it better tonight than
I did last night, and better tomorrow night than I do tonight.
It's just a matter of…this is how I make my living. I need to
stay motivated, and I do… very motivated. I keep the best part
of myself available for when I go on stage, that's what my focal
point is. That's what I do. I just really feel that I owe it
to the people that pay the money; I owe them a good show. That's
just the way I am. We don't do sloppy shows. I will not do that.
If I can't do a decent job entertaining people then I won't
try. I feel very strongly about it, and I thank God that I've
been able to make a living doing something I enjoy so much.
You're gonna get a good show from us every night.
DL: Everyone knows about Charlie Daniels, the musician.
But only some people know about all the charity work you do.
Tell me a little about some of the charitable organizations
you are involved with.
CD: I don't try to make a big deal out of it… I serve
on one of the boards at St. Jude Hospital; it's one of the advisory
boards. I also do a couple of charity golf tournaments every
year. I love doing it, but I don't want it to sound like I'm
doing it for any other reason other than that. I just don't
talk about it that much.
DL: You recently released a collection of your writings
from your website called "The Soapbox Collection, Vol.
1". Is that something you're going to continue?
CD: Well actually it's gone a little farther than that.
We put out… well, we had a lot of reaction to the column. I
did one a week for a long time, and then things got to where
they were heating up so much I started doing 2 or 3 a week,
and now we've got a whole bunch of them, and we decided to put
all of it in a soft cover collection. But now there's an outfit
in Washington that has approached us about doing a hardcover
copy… so we'll see what happens with it. It's something I enjoy
doing; I'm an opinionated person. I've always been that way.
A guy told me one time, "you know, you're a real opinionated
person, why don't you just speak your mind on the website and
tell us how you feel about things?" And it sounded like
a pretty good idea to me, and that's how it started, just a
little column. I may write about sitting and looking out the
window at a mountain or I may write about politics, war, the
military, anything… whatever happens to be on my mind at the
time.
DL: I also know about your involvement with Sean Hannity
and his Freedom Concert on July 11th. Talk a little about your
friendship with him and how that started.
CD: I first met Sean by doing his television show. When
I had the song, "This Ain't No Rag It's A Flag"… we
had a little controversy over it. People had asked us to be
a part of a thing they were doing to raise money for the victims
and families of 9-11, and we were gonna do this song, and they
said we couldn't. Well, when we asked why not, they said they
didn't want to offend anybody… it boiled down to much to-do
about nothing. If I had thought it would hurt the show, I wouldn't
have done it. But I knew that people were chomping at the bit
to help and do anything they could, so I said "you've got
plenty of people there, and I'm just not gonna do your show".
I thought they were wrong. They thought that this thing had
happened to us and we were just gonna sit back and do nothing
because we're afraid of offending a few people when there are
3,000 people dead in this country…murdered by a bunch of scumbags,
and I just couldn't see it, I didn't agree with their position.
They really misread the whole situation. They got a real black
eye over the thing, and it's not because it was me… it could've
been anybody. They just hadn't heard the song and couldn't understand
the reasoning for it. I just felt at the time that I couldn't
be a part of something that was trying to be that politically
correct. I was mad, the country was mad. They needed something
to vent their anger on, and if they could do it on the song,
then great. There are times when people need to say things,
and there are times when people need to be mad, because if we
don't stay focused it might happen again. When Richard Gere
got up in New York and said "forgive and forget",
nobody was in a mood to forget. People had lost family members,
and he was saying we should just forget and let go? There's
no way in the world we could ever do that unless we want it
to be a day-in, day-out situation, and that's what the song
was about. I just didn't want to feel like being a part of something
that politically correct, and because of that situation I became
friends with Sean Hannity.
DL: Your new album "Liberty and Justice for All"
comes out this summer…tell me a little about it and the songs
on it.
CD: You know, we'd had a few requests and suggestions
for patriotic songs, and we'd played them. But people were saying
that we should put them all together and release them, so we
decided… well, I wouldn't do it for a while because I didn't
want it to be the wrong time. But then I got into the school
of thought that maybe it is the right time, maybe it is time
for us to put all those songs together, and… so we did. We wrote
some new things, some new songs as well. It's just a collection
of CDB patriotic songs both old and new.
DL: What's the release date on that?
CD: I believe the date is July 26th… street date. We
probably could have gotten it out earlier, but I wrote a couple
of songs after we already had the album finished and I felt
like they should go on it, so I held everybody up, <laughs>,
and that's just me! But that's the good thing. We have our own
recording studios and record label, although we are distributed
by a company in New York. We pretty much have control over what
we want to do, and that's the reason I'm not on a major record
label. I had a contract on my desk from a major label, and we
decided we would not do that, I just didn't want someone looking
over my shoulder, so that's why we do our own. I'm 67 years
old, so I don't have time to fool around. I want peace and fun
in my life, and it should be enjoyed, and that's the way I want
to spend the rest of mine. Not worrying about what a record
label does or does not want me to do.
DL: Mr. Daniels, we'll look forward to the new album
and your continued writing. Keep speaking out and we'll keep
listening. Thank you again for talking with me, I've certainly
enjoyed it.
CD: I enjoyed talking with you, son. Thank you and God
bless.
This interview is copyright
© 2003 by Devon Laney and Southeast Concerts, all rights
reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited without written
permission. For permission to use this article please contact
our staff here.
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