The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Southern rock legend and Grammy winner Charlie Daniels, 83
With his bushy white beard and ever-present Stetson, Charlie Daniels was every inch the southern rock star. The legendary performer rubbed shoulders with the likes of The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan during a lengthy career and his biggest hit, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, crossed genre boundaries and became a mainstream success. It secured the fiddler a Grammy award, in 1979, and reached number 14 on the UK singles chart. The musician died on Monday at the age of 83 in a Nashville hospital, after a haemorrhagic stroke, his publicist said. Despite his staunchly conservative political views and gun-toting brand of patriotism sometimes proving divisive in recent years, there has been little disagreement about his musical prowess and his death has been met with a flood of tributes. Sharing a photo of him and Daniels performing together, country star Luke Bryan paid tribute to a “great man” and “hero”. He said: “A true patriot, and country music icon. “Thank you for all your contributions on and off the stage. God bless you Charlie Daniels.” Country singer Jason Aldean wrote on Twitter that Daniels was “one of the nicest and kindest people he had ever met”. The singer, guitarist and fiddler started his career playing bluegrass in his native North Carolina before moving to Nashville in 1967. As a session musician, Daniels played on three of Bob Dylan’s records, including the Nashville Skyline album, as well as recordings for Leonard Cohen and Ringo Starr. He also played with Willy Nelson. Starting in the early 1970s, his five-piece eponymous band toured constantly, sometimes doing 250 shows in a year. Through his decades-long career, Daniels played at the White House, the Super Bowl, and for US troops in the Middle East. His favourite place to perform, he said, was “anywhere with a good crowd and a good pay cheque”. Daniels had a mild stroke in January 2010 and a pacemaker implanted in 2013 but continued to take to the stage to perform. He is survived by wife Hazel, and son Charlie Daniels Jr.