Good Time Charlie: Daniels includes stop in Vegas on his expansive tour

Monday, March 1, 2004 | 8:13 a.m.

A river, more like a small creek, runs along the bottom of a hill outside the rural home of country star Charlie Daniels.

It's the setting he likes quiet, restful, far away from the turmoil of such places as Las Vegas, where he will be performing at The Orleans Thursday through Sunday.

"It's an easy-going sort of settled way of life here," said Daniels, speaking by phone from a room where he writes and has a view of the broad landscape outside his window.

Sometimes, for a man who travels 90 miles an hour most of the year, going 25 can be a tad aggravating.

"People around here are not in a hurry to get anything done," he said. "They'll say, 'Well, it was supposed to be here today, but maybe not till tomorrow, or the next day.'"

His place is only a part-time residence. His real home, since 1967, has been a ranch 30 miles east of Nashville. But during the winter months, he enjoys the solitude of the Four Corners area of southwest Colorado, where one of his favorite pastimes is riding a snowmobile.

He also likes golf, working with his horses and target practice with guns.

The cold doesn't bother the man who looks bigger than a grizzly, his face hidden by a wide-brimmed bullrider's hat and a beard full enough that it could nest a covey of quail.

"It's a dry cold," the 67-year-old native of North Carolina said. "When it's 30 degrees in Tennessee, it's really cold. But here, when it's 30 degrees it's light-coat weather."

Daniels described his room.

"I've got a desk in a corner where I keep my computer," he said. "My musical instruments are here.

"I was sitting here one day and I looked at a tree that's 35 or 40 feet from my window and I saw a bald eagle sitting on a branch. It's sights like that that inspire you. Especially watching the snow come in. It's good for me. It's good for resting."

Charlie Daniels and the Charlie Daniels Band can use the rest. They travel about 100,000 miles a year, some of them overseas. In May they are going to Kosovo to entertain American troops. They perform about 120 engagements a year.

"Those are regular paying dates," Daniels said. "Then we have some 'Spirit of America' shows -- a gentleman sponsors them, pays the band enough to cover expenses, and we perform at military bases. Fort Hood is next. I don't count those as dates, though."

Daniels says he tries to get his band and technical crew home as much as possible so they can spend time with their families.

"The first couple of months of the year we take off and settle down," he said. "Then we attack it again.

"We start out doing weekend gigs, basically. Then by mid-June we really start honing. That's when we start to get busy. We may go out 10 days to two weeks at a time."

Strike up the band

Daniels says he was a late bloomer when it came to performing.

"I didn't start playing until I was 14 or 15," he said.

But he knew he was going to be a performer one day.

Daniels remembers different acts passing through the small town where he grew up. They would perform onstage at a local movie theater.

"Once in a while a cowboy from the movie screen would come in and perform," Daniels recalled. "There was something about those people being onstage that made me want to be onstage. But I had no entry into that world at all. I had a burning desire to perform, but I wasn't a natural musician. I had to work a little harder, concentrate a little more."

Daniels' hometown, Wilmington, N.C., had just one radio station.

"And they had to satisfy the whole community," Daniels said. "They'd play country for farmers in the early morning, then later stuff that housewives would like. Big bands were popular. Then at 12 noon there would be another spasm of country.

"The station played all kinds of music -- hymns on Sundays; blues part of of the time; classical, what we used to call long-haired music until the Beatles came along."

Daniels says the exposure to so many different genres affected his taste.

"Now I mix a lot of styles -- even in one song. That's probably where that came from," he said.

Daniels said a friend, Russell Palmer, taught him to play the guitar. Another friend taught him the mandolin and another the fiddle.

"I had this desire, a fantasy, about being onstage," he said. "I can't imagine doing anything else now."

He made 20 cents the first time he performed for money.

"Russell Palmer's folks ran a combination service station and grocery store," Daniels said. "Me and him were down there one day, he with a guitar and me with a fiddle, and a car pulled up with two guys and two ladies in it. One of the ladies said, 'Play us something.' And Russell said, 'Got any money?' She pulled out four dimes. So we got paid 20 cents apiece. That was the first time I ever earned money playing music."

A Nashville cat

In 1967 Daniels moved to Nashville.

"I never did fit the mold of the country singer in Nashville," Daniels said. "I was bluesier, louder, didn't look the part. I did a lot of session work, with artists like Ringo Starr and Bob Dylan. I just didn't fit in, never was one of the boys."

In 1970 he formed the Charlie Daniels Band. They had their first hit in 1972 with "Uneasy Rider." That was followed by the 1975 best-selling album "Fire On the Mountain," which included the singles "Long-Haired Country Boy" and "The South's Gonna Do It."

In the summer of 1979 "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" became a platinum single, topping both country and pop charts, winning a Grammy Award and earning three Country Music Association awards. The song was used in the 1980 film "Urban Cowboy."

Daniels says he has performed in Vegas many times over the years.

"The first time I went to Vegas was in '59," he said. "I played at the Four Queens. I also played the Mint and the Horseshoe. Back then the Strip only had five or six hotels."

Daniels shows no signs of slowing down. One of his motivations to not retire is his employees.

"I've got a lot of people who've worked with me 25 or 30 years," he said. "They've got medical insurance, a 401(k) plan. I try to take care of our employees. They took care of me when I couldn't take care of them."

And, he doesn't know what he would do with his time.

"I'm 67 years old," Daniels said. "I don't know what I would do with myself. I live a different life than most people who are 67. I have more in common with younger people half my age. I would be so bored after a couple of months after I retired."

He says he never gets bored.

"Every night is a challenge," he said. "Take 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia.' If I played it perfect 200 times in a row, I might get bored. But I haven't played it perfect yet."

His 2 cents worth

When he isn't onstage, or pursuing one of his other pastimes, he is working on his autobiography.

Daniels is noted for his strong conservative opinions about God and patriotism. Many of those opinions can be found in his music and in "Ain't No Rag" (Regnery Publishing; $24.95), a book that is a compilation of articles he wrote for his website.

Daniels writes two columns a week.

"Most of my adult life I've been pretty opinionated," Daniels said. "I don't arrive at an opinion on the spur of the moment. It's something I feel strongly about, but it's just my opinion.

"One of the bad things wrong with America is that people think too much of somebody's opinion. That's just your opinion and you have a right as an American to express it. I wish everybody would stop and think for themselves and not just take my opinion and live by that."

Daniels sees lots of things wrong with the United States.

"I'm very much against the amnesty thing for illegal aliens who are pouring across the border," he said. "I don't like the socialized medicine program. Something needs to be done about people having insurance and prescription cards. The federal government isn't capable of doing it. It's better off in the private sector. If the government wants to give people money, cut the taxes. Another bureaucracy to run medical programs isn't necessary."

He supported the war in Iraq.

"Some people are so naive," he said. "Any fool knows the weapons of mass destruction were there. We don't know where they are now, they could be in Syria. We've been there less than a year. Iraq is a big country. We need more time to find the weapons."

Daniels said people should find God.

"Myself, being a Christian, I think we're getting way away from God and the teaching of the Bible," he said. "Besides the religious aspect, it's just common sense."

He says he likes President Bush, but he doesn't trust any politician 100 percent.

"Some I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw an automobile," Daniels said.

Daniels criticizes adults who don't vote.

"I have come to the conclusion that when these politicians run, they don't have to worry about the ones who are not going to vote, they just please the ones they know are going to be in the voting booth," he said. "They sit back and let 30 or 35 percent of the people elect politicians to do things we don't like."

But he thinks the United States is still the best place in the world to live.

"I think when something happens to galvanize this country, as 9-11 did, we are the most united country on the earth," Daniels said. "Unfortunately, Americans have a short attention span."

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