Fifty Years (Now Sixty) and Counting

Posted on 09.21.2018

Fifty Years (Now Sixty) and Counting

*NOTE* Charlie will be back with a brand new soapbox on Monday, in the meantime, here's a rewind from 2008 when Charlie was celebrating 50 Years of Making Music, ten years later, he's still going strong!. - TeamCDB

Sometime during the first part of this summer, I will complete 50 years in the music business. It really doesn’t feel like fifty years in a way but when I start trying to gather all the memories of the places I’ve been and the things I’ve done it could well be a hundred years.

I’ve logged a lot of miles in my career; I’ve played in every state and almost every town of any size at all over the last half-century, and more foreign countries than I can call to mind right at the moment.

I’ve done things and been places that I didn’t even have the imagination to think of when I first started out. I’ve ridden on the Concorde, an Eskimo dog sled in Greenland, an elephant, Air Force One, some good horses and I’ve logged quite a few miles in a snowmobile in the Colorado Rockies.

I’ve been to the Polar Ice Cap, the 38th Parallel, on top of the Eiffel Tower and the hole in the ground in New York left by the 9/11 attacks. I’ve gone out with the chuck wagon in the Big Bend in Texas and pulled king salmon out of the icy streams of Alaska. I’ve seen the Northern lights, the Southern Cross, the Eastern Shore and the West Coast.

I’ve had my name in lights on the strip in Las Vegas and on a police blotter in Louisiana. I’ve stood on stage in front of American heroes in uniform in the hell holes they were serving in around the world and felt a stir in my heart because of the patriotism of young men and women who are willing to give up prime years of their lives to keep freedom’s light burning bright.

I’ve been married to the same woman for over four decades and watched a son grow up honest and respectful. I’ve made a lot of friends and I’ve lost some, Tommy, Toy, Ronnie, Leon, Hughie, Allen and Stevie Ray.

I’ve seen America at its patriotic finest during the days of the Second World War and at its lowest ebb in the seventies when heroes came back from Vietnam and were spit on by stoned out hippies with an aversion to soap and water and a twisted idea about how America works.

I have seen proud and arrogant men fall and nobody cares enough to pick them up and I’ve seen humble men taken into the hearts of their fellow man when trouble finds them.

I’ve kept twenty or more people steadily and gainfully employed for over thirty years. I’ve watched their children grow up and have children of their own.

I’ve touched the heart of America and in turn been touched by the heart of America and I have been blessed much, much more than I could ever deserve by Almighty God.

I have had so many of the desires of my heart answered that I truly can’t even remember them all.

I’ve seen my hair turn gray, my step become a little slower and it seems I celebrate a birthday about every six months.

I’m 71 now but the fire in my belly burns just as hot and my love for making people happy is just as fervent, my creativity is flowing and getting on stage with my band is still a thrill.

I’ve got a lot of shows booked for this year and I hope to see some of you all at one or more of them.

Come help me celebrate the beginning of my second fifty years.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

— Charlie Daniels

PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU POST

Feel free to comment on Charlie's soapboxes, but please refrain from profanity and anonymous posts are not allowed, we need a name and you MUST provide a valid email address. If you provide an email address, but leave the name as "Anonymous" we will pick a name for you based on your email address. No one other than website administrators will see your email address, not other posters. If you post without a valid email address, your comment (whether positive or negative) will be deleted. — TeamCDB

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Comments

Still "The Man" Sixty Years And Counting

Hello Charlie, I met you last night at the show in Williamsport PA. at the CAC WOW what a performance! It was my 68th Birthday and the best birthday present I have had in a long time. I enjoyed the show & ALL your band members are VERY talented, and meeting you was a GREAT pleasure. Imagine the Legend Charlie Daniels coming to my small hometown, I would not have missed it for the world! I had my version of The Devil went down to Georgia called THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO BILLTOWN but forgot to give it to you. Our town is sometimes referred to as Billtown and Pool is pretty popular around here so I just replaced fiddle with pool cue and jumping up on a billtown stump, lying a golden pool cue at Tommy's feet "my Son's name" who incidentally is the Capitol Lounge & Concession Manager at the CAC, and who bought my ticket to see you for my birthday. Of course I'm not a songwriter so some things don't rhyme but the local audience would have gotten a kick out of it. Well Charlie you keep doing what you do, we ALL enjoy it very much. I hope to see you out there entertaining for many many years to come!!! -Hank
Posted by Hank

Here's To Many more

Amen, Amen & Amen Charlie here's to many more on the road with your wife of 54 years. You truly blessed of God sir, but you also have paid your dues and worked like a borrowed mule burning the midnight oil to hone your craft. God Bless Plowboy
Posted by Plowboy

Loved and Respected

Charlie, Even when Peter opens wide the gate...love and respect will follow you.
Posted by Patricia

If my brother were here...

CDB, anything CDB is what he'd bark out if he saw somebody headed toward the jukebox. You see, at the little tavern in the big woods of northern Wisconsin when he bought the place he got a jukebox that played CDs and loaded it with CDB music nothing else. He told my young son that back 1970 he got a letter in the mail and it said that he had won an all expense paid trip to a little country in southeast Asia called Vietnam and that he just couldn't say no to that deal. That was all he would say about that time in his life. 20 months in country changed him forever. When he heard "Still in Saigon" he cried I had never seen him cry. He was able to open up and get the help he needed and in turn helped others to deal the demons. He knew that it was the first song you did not write but without the CDB nobody would have heard the truth. He's gone now, Agent Orange the doc said brain tumors. You have touched so many people Thank You Charley Hay Plowboy, if you asked my brother how he was doing he always said,"Well they been working me like a borrowed mule" haven't heard that in 10 years thanks
Posted by bill (good guy with a gun)

If my brother were here...

CDB, anything CDB is what he'd bark out if he saw somebody headed toward the jukebox. You see, at the little tavern in the big woods of northern Wisconsin when he bought the place he got a jukebox that played CDs and loaded it with CDB music nothing else. He told my young son that back 1970 he got a letter in the mail and it said that he had won an all expense paid trip to a little country in southeast Asia called Vietnam and that he just couldn't say no to that deal. That was all he would say about that time in his life. 20 months in country changed him forever. When he heard "Still in Saigon" he cried I had never seen him cry. He was able to open up and get the help he needed and in turn helped others to deal the demons. He knew that it was the first song you did not write but without the CDB nobody would have heard the truth. Meeting Charlie Daniels and shaking your hand and thanking you for what you do for our military and this country. He's gone now, Agent Orange the doc said. He had us play Amazing Grace at the funeral, your version. You have touched so many people Thank You Charlie Hay Plowboy, if you asked my brother how he was doing he always said,"Well they been working me like a borrowed mule" haven't heard that in 10 years thanks
Posted by bill (good guy with a gun)

Touch and Go

Good thing for us you kept it all going. Special shout out to Williamsport, pool and birthdays. I always said if the lyrics don't get you the fiddle playing will...or was it the other way around? God Bless you, Charlie. NIMOC
Posted by Jeff

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