Grammy award-winning musician Charlie Daniels discusses his faith, life and God’s grace.
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NARRATOR: Charlie
Daniels' career
spans 60 years, which
includes selling more than 20
million albums and winning a
Grammy for his signature song,
"The Devil Went
Down to Georgia."
He's performed over 100
concerts in every state
and in dozens of
foreign countries.
Last year, Charlie was
inducted into the Country Music
Hall of Fame.
Charlie puts down the
fiddle and takes up a pen.
He shares about life from
the early days to his rise
to music stardom in
his book "Never Look
at the Empty Seats."
Well, the living legend,
Charlie Daniels, it's
an honor to have you with us.
This is just fantastic.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
You've come out
with a book, "Never
Look at the Empty Seats," and
it's a memoir of your life.
And there are some things
in here I didn't know.
You know, I didn't
know that you grew up
a farmer in North Carolina.
My background-- my folks--
both sides of my family come
from farmers and timber people.
My dad was a timber man.
He knew more about a pine
tree than anybody I ever saw.
He could look at a
pine tree and tell you
how many board feet of timber
were in it, what kind of pole
or pine that it would make.
When he was as compassionate
about that as I
am about my mus-- or as
passionate about that
as I am about my music.
GORDON: So how did
you get started?
I went up to a friend
of mine's house one day.
I'd known him for years.
And he had an old guitar.
Where he got it,
how long he had it--
I had no idea.
It was a terrible
old, big Stella
with a neck about the size
of half of a fence post.
And the string were rusty
and way up off the neck.
But he knew about
literally 2 and 1/2 chords.
He could play G and
C. And if he stopped
and put his fingers right,
he could play another chord.
Anyway, I said, you
got to teach me that.
Here I have my
best friend, and I
had no idea he knew anything
at all about a guitar.
And I'd always
wanted to learn how.
So it started that
day-- right then.
I said, you got
to teach me those.
And I worked on learning
those three chords.
And him and me
started hanging around
anybody that could play any
instrument at all, especially
guitars--
that's what we started with--
and just kept picking
up chords and playing
and got together with
some other guys that
wanted to do the same thing.
They played different
instruments,
put a little band together.
It's been, gosh, 50--
well, no, it's been 70--
not 70, but 60--
about 65 years ago.
GORDON: Wow.
That we're doing it.
One of the things
I didn't know
is that you never took a lesson
on how to play the fiddle.
And yet, at the same
time, you're world famous.
I'm not sure that's your song.
And that's-- you're
recognized for that.
Well, I-- one of the reasons
I have the sound that I have is
because I never learned to play.
I never learned-- I
never had a lesson
on how to hold the fiddle,
how to hold the bow.
I hold the fiddle wrong.
I hold the bow wrong.
I put too much
pressure on the bow,
which creates a sound
most people don't want,
but it works for me.
I have kids ask me sometimes
about playing the fiddle.
I said, don't look at me,
because I do it all wrong,
you know.
It works for me, but it
probably won't work for you.
Look at some of these
guys that do it right
and hold the violin like
it's supposed to be held.
And of course, I'd be too old
to change now if I wanted to.
But I really don't want to.
It works for me.
The sound works for me.
So how did you learn
just playing by ear?
You just test it out.
I just wanted to
bad enough, Gordon.
I am not a natural musician.
I've always had
to work a little--
GORDON: Sounds like you are
if you can do it by ear.
Well, there's a lot
of people think that.
And I wish I was.
But when I say "natural
musician," I mean,
I hear things.
But achieving any
proficiency on it-- it
took me a long time to learn
those first three chords.
And nowadays, I got some guys
in my band that just pick things
up just like that.
If we do a new song, it
takes me a little bit longer
to get my part together
than it does these guys.
That's what I'm speaking of
about being a natural musician.
GORDON: Well, you're
a natural songwriter.
I think that's kind
of a natural part.
But also, that's
also like a muscle.
I think it's something
that the more you--
You got to exercise.
Well, anything in life, if
you've got a natural talent
for it and you don't use it and
you don't develop it, then--
but what got you writing songs?
I was very fortunate
that in 1959, I
made the first trip I
ever made to California.
I was just a kid.
We were going out there to play.
And I stopped in Fort Worth,
Texas to see a friend of mine
that I had met in
North Carolina.
And he introduced me to
a guy named Bob Johnston.
And he was trying to make
it in the music business,
and which he finally
did in a big way.
But I started writing
songs with him.
And we just kind of hit it off.
But he was much more
accomplished than I was.
He was much more--
GORDON: Get hooked on.
Yeah, he was much more
demanding than I was.
And he just really--
when we'd write together,
he would insist that
we get every word
like it's supposed to
be, every note of music
like it was supposed to be.
So that gave me a work ethic
and attitude toward my writing
that I would not turn
loose of something
until I was happy with it.
I have kept bits and
pieces of songs in my mind
for as long as 14 years.
You got to just keep it in
there until it finally fits.
Just like a square peg, you
got to find a square hole
to put it in.
But if you keep it
long enough, it's good.
You'll finally find
a place to put it.
Well, it didn't take
you long if you say you
started writing songs in 1959.
In just a couple
years, Elvis Presley--
the number one, the King--
is singing your song.
Well, that was a song I
wrote with Bob Johnston.
Bob and myself wrote that.
And we wrote it in 1962.
And that was recorded in 1963.
And it was by far the
biggest thing that had ever
happened to me at that time.
Elvis Presley was the
biggest artist in the world.
And he--
GORDON: Yeah, not just--
he's still King.
I mean, what happened to you?
I mean, was there a hat
big enough for your head?
I was so flabbergasted
by the whole thing
that the way it did me was I
wanted to go back and write
more songs, you know?
I wanted more of that.
I wanted--
GORDON: Oh, you wanted--
OK.
Yeah.
I've always say,
things like that that
happen to me
encourage me to work
a little harder, to dig a little
deeper, and that sort of thing.
But at that time,
doing that song--
having Elvis record it-- is
one of the biggest things
that ever happened to me and
gave me such a shot in the arm.
And then playing on three Bob
Dylan albums in the early '60s
and early '70s.
And those are
three legendary--
some consider them his best.
Well, "Nashville
Skyline," to me,
is a totally different
album for Bob Dylan.
I think it kind of--
you know, he was constantly
reinventing himself,
it seemed like.
And that was one of the
times when the invention was
just pretty doggone incredible.
But that was a big step up.
But he was always kind enough
to put the studio musicians
names on his albums.
And he's a kind of artist that
people wanted to know about.
So they'd literally
read the liner notes.
And to have your name
on a Bob Dylan album
gave you a kind of legitimacy
with a lot of people.
You know, people
say, well, hey, you
must play pretty good
to play with Dylan.
It opened a lot of doors for me.
GORDON: Did he teach you
anything about songwriting?
No, no, not really.
He just came in and
he'd sing his songs.
And we'd all stand there
with our mouths open
and try to learn them.
Wow, listen to him.
And you know, I've compared
him with William Shakespeare.
And I mean, they're two
totally different things.
But they both had
a very unique way
of putting the English
language together.
And I don't think
anybody's been more--
in a down-to-earth sort of way--
ever put the English
language together quite
like Bob Dylan did.
Now I don't know what he was
talking about half the time.
I'm not sure he did.
I don't know.
But it sure did--
it sure worked out well.
Just all seemed
to go together.
Yeah, it did.
For you, those are
obviously big breaks.
And I think for any
musician to say,
you know, I've
played on a Bob Dylan
album-- you can kind of say,
OK, you've achieved a pinnacle.
But you went on from that.
Well, I wanted to--
I went to Nashville thinking
I would be a studio musician
and record producer and
that sort of thing--
kind of behind the scenes.
But I come to find out--
I've done this a couple
of times in my life--
that's not what I wanted.
My place is on stage.
There's no doubt in
my mind about it.
That's where I love to
be, what I'm best at.
I've devoted my life to
learning how to entertain.
And there's nothing
I like better
than getting on stage
and entertaining people.
GORDON: I've got to ask this.
You were on stage in Jerusalem.
And one of the things I
learned in the book was you
learned how to play "Hatikvah,"
the national anthem of Israel.
"Hatikvah," which
means "the hope"--
it was the song of
Zionism in the 1890s.
It was the song that sustained
them in the concentration camps
in Germany and then became
the national anthem.
And here you, a country
player, are playing it.
What was their reaction?
Well, I went there to--
I'd gone with my church.
And it was during the
Feast of Tabernacles.
And the Christian
Embassy Jerusalem--
is that-- am I saying it right?
They had programs every night.
This particular night,
that was a night
that the Jewish people came.
There was a night that all the
local people came in Jerusalem.
And my pastor said, would
you do a song with the band?
And so, yeah, we
sent some music down.
And I didn't write it.
Somebody else did.
Went and rehearsed a song called
"I'll Fly Away" with the band.
And I said, tonight
when we come on,
I want to do something
on my fiddle by myself,
and when I get through with it--
I'm just going to
step up and do it--
and when I get through
with it, I'll step back
and we'll do the song.
So we walked out.
Everything kind of quiet down.
I started playing "Hatikvah."
And it's like,
all these people--
all these Jewish
people-- are out there.
Here's this hillbilly from
Tennessee, standing on stage,
playing their national anthem.
It was a really
nice moment, Gordon.
It was well worth the effort
it took me to learn to play it.
And it did touch the people.
I could tell.
GORDON: I think it
touched you, too.
They have a very,
very strong feeling
about that song and
about anything Jewish.
I love the Jewish people.
That one and
"Jerusalem of Gold"--
you play those, and
they start crying.
Yeah.
Well, we're out of time.
I wanted to talk about
you mentoring people.
I think that's
another untold story--
We'll just have
to do it again.
--of Charlie Daniels.
We're going to have
to have you back.
But if you want
to find out more,
I encourage you to get
the book, "Never Look
at the Empty Seats."
You can find it beginning
October 24th wherever
books are sold.
And Charlie, honor--
honor to have you.
My pleasure, my friend.
Thank you, brother.