“No!” Charlie Daniels Says To Florida Georgia Line Changing Country
Don’t ask Charlie Daniels a straight question unless you want a straight answer. Recently while appearing on Fox News and celebrating the 40th Anniversary of his signature song “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” Daniels was asked if he was okay with bands like Florida Georgia Line changing the sound of country, to which he responded emphatically and succinctly, “No.”
The Country Music Hall of Famer went onto say, “When I say something like that people think I’m being critical and I’m not. We were considered pretty radical when would came around. All I’m saying from my point of view I can’t tell one song from the other.”
That sounds pretty critical to me. It also sounds correct when considering the sameness washing over much of the music they play on country radio, or even radio in general where no matter what station you turn to, you’re likely to hear someone rapping over electronic beats just like Florida Georgia Line.
Charlie Daniels was interviewed for over four minutes in the Fox News segment, with plenty of opportunities for applause from the (mostly) conservative crowd when it came to Daniels helping to support the troops with his charitable efforts, and lashing out at the growing acceptance of socialism. But it was his point about the same sounding nature of much of today’s radio country that drew the only loud applause of the interview.
“I can’t tell one artist from the other,” Daniels continued. “And I don’t mean it in a critical sort of way because I’m a living life kind of guy. We do our thing and let everybody do their thing. The stuff we played, they said ‘that ain’t country,’ — I said I never claimed to be country. We play American music. We play some of all the music that’s come across in America. We play country and bluegrass and rock and gospel and jazz and everything.”
In fairness, Charlie Daniels did not turn down his Country Music Hall of Fame induction when they came calling, but even as a guy that bent genres and dabbled in all different styles, his music was still more distinctly country than most of what is called country in the mainstream today.
June 28, 2019 @ 10:37 am
A few months ago i was listening to country radio and a sam hunt song came on, so i switch to a classic rock station and sure enough they played the devil went down to Georgia. Who would of thought years ago an act like sam hunt would get played on ” country” radio and charlie Daniels on classic rock.
June 28, 2019 @ 10:58 am
Well, I remember it getting played on New York City rock radio when Million Mile Reflections came out in 1979. The first song they played was Passing Lane with that Deep Purplish guitar riff. And then The Devil Went Down to Georgia. It was a favorite of Southern Rock fans in the area.
June 28, 2019 @ 12:09 pm
Passing Lane is such a great song.
June 28, 2019 @ 7:18 pm
In my experience Classic Rock stations have played The Devil Went Down to Georgia WAAAAAY more than country stations have for the last 30+ years.
While it’s a great song to me its Charlie’s “Achy Breaky Heart”… he has WAAAAAY better songs. CDB’s 1975 Nightrider album is my favorite album of all time.
June 29, 2019 @ 7:24 am
I like Nightrider and I also love the Saddle Tramp album released the next year.
July 4, 2019 @ 11:54 pm
Spot on, Del. “The Legend of Wooly Swamp” doesn’t get NEARLY the amount of airplay it should. That song used to get airplay on WDVE in Pittsburgh. Yeah, classic rock stations played Charlie Daniels a lot. Of course, they weren’t as restricted then.
I always considered Charlie Daniels more southern rock than country – when southern rock was a genre. I can’t say if anybody even uses that term anymore. A lot of what I heard from him was heavier than country but still had country roots.
July 15, 2019 @ 1:03 pm
And I remember that after Charley found Jesus they took son of a bitch out of the lyrics to that song. Never thought it was all that any way.
June 28, 2019 @ 10:39 am
They’re snakes in the grass, I’ll tell ya, guys
They may look dumb, but that’s just a disguise
June 28, 2019 @ 10:59 am
Oh yeah, well, take this:
We rollin’ into town
With nothing else to do we take another lap around
Yeah, holler at your boy if you need a ride let’s go
If you roll with me, yeah, you know we rollin’ high
Up on them 37 Nittos, windows tinted hard to see though
How fresh my baby is in the shotgun seat, oh Damn!
June 28, 2019 @ 12:14 pm
Yeah …sissy noise.
June 28, 2019 @ 11:01 am
“I can’t tell one artist from the other,”
This is gold. The only person I can tell apart from the others is Luke Bryan, which I attribute to the fact that his songs are extra shitty. Other than that, it’s the same omnigeneric crap with a different repetitive chorus designed to make people dumber than they were before listening.
September 4, 2021 @ 5:30 pm
These look a like sound a like bro country acts remind me of a Girl Scout multi function tool. It’s got one handle and about 10 pop out tools most of which are useless
June 28, 2019 @ 11:03 am
The dipshit Sean Hannity uses FGL for his bumper music. I think they both do harm to their respective genres. The next original thought that Sean has will be the first.
June 28, 2019 @ 12:48 pm
Hannity also uses Big & Rich as bumper music as well.
June 28, 2019 @ 4:09 pm
Seen him a couple of weeks ago on Sammy Hagar’s “Rock n Roll Roadtrip” on AXS TV where he said much the same comments. Great interview. No politics was brought up,was all about the music. Much recommended to any CDB fan.
People have different opinions about Sammy Hagar,but I love this show. He doesn’t ask about thoughts on abortion,or gun control,or how evil Trump is,he sticks to the music and stories of whatever guest is on. Quite refreshing.
June 28, 2019 @ 4:12 pm
Didn’t mean for that to be a reply to Bradley or Mike lol
June 29, 2019 @ 5:58 am
Just discovered the show when he interviewed Charlie. Really enjoy it, he does a pretty good job.
July 14, 2019 @ 6:21 am
I’m a regular watcher of Sammy’s shows and it’s turned me into a fan of the man. He even led a prayer before one little concert. He’s a surprising fellow (to me) and seems to do interviews to pull the positive out of people rather than controversy. He’s also praised Hank Williams a few times as being one of the greatest writers of any music.
July 1, 2019 @ 2:04 am
That stopped last year. It was FGL’s “This is How we Roll” and it was rahtarded. He now uses Big & Rich’s “Comin’ to Your City” which makes just as much sense. None. Absolutely none.
June 28, 2019 @ 11:36 am
Other than the sick tragedy that is FGL making so much money while good artists struggle, I love them. I can watch the “This is How We Roll “ with Luke Bryan video ANY TIME. The wannabe hand gestures, dancing on the truck, the bro party boi facial expressions. Basically the whole how could we actually do this with a straight face choreographed trying way too hard posing, is pure comedy gold. I mean, they ARE a parody act, right?
June 28, 2019 @ 5:39 pm
Fgl played close to home before they got on the radio the concert was terrible they couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket but it was free and the beer was cheap but this was also before they got their producer they have now now they are autotuned to death and everything sounds the same if I want to hear good county on the radio I listen to Cody jinx
June 28, 2019 @ 12:21 pm
If I can’t two-step or waltz to it, I don’t feel like it’s 100% country.
June 28, 2019 @ 1:19 pm
I don’t care for no fancy music if your shoes can’t shuffle around.
June 28, 2019 @ 12:50 pm
What a character Charlie is! Here are some thoughts that come to my mind at least. At heart the CDB has been a “southern rock” band first and foremost. With the Volunteer Jam which Charlie instituted in the early 70s, he really helped the scene big time. I can think of no artist in southern rock more passionate about collaborating with his fellow musicians and selflessly working to promote not himself alone, but an entire culture and music movement. You look at all the folks he’s invited to play in his festival not to mention how many albums he’s collaborated on as a picker and player. Its stunning.
As for his contributions to country music, it’s all there. When you talk fiddle ambassadors, is there a greater name? His involvement with Urban Cowboy boosted interest in country music through the roof. And he has made some great country songs for sure. Long Haired Country Boy, Drinkin’ my Baby Goodbye, American Farmer, Texas, Billy The Kid, Louisiana Fais Do Do, Simple Man, What this World needs… and on and on.
And honestly, look at the guy, talk to him for 5 minutes, he’s the dictionary definition of a biscuit and gravy, corn fed straight up country boy. My point is his opinion on country music is important to me.
Florida Georgia who?
June 28, 2019 @ 3:51 pm
I don’t listen to the radio today. The music sucks. Yeah, I’m getting old and cranky…. well to damn bad. Today’s popular country music, in general, sucks. Thank God for the Cody Jinks and Whitey Morgan (and George Strait) and others.
Sadly I have to suffer thru a Thomas Rhett concert tomorrow for my wife. But at least 1) the tickets were free and 2) I have plenty of booze to numb my ears.
“Pick it Moon!”…..
June 28, 2019 @ 4:31 pm
Judging from the most recent reviews of FGL’s last album, (Which I think we’re done on this very site.) I ‘m hoping FGL won’t be around much longer.
June 28, 2019 @ 4:37 pm
Their sales and streams have been way down as well. They are typecast in the Bro-Country era.
June 28, 2019 @ 5:01 pm
Tyler childers, cody jinks, the heathens, sturgill Simpson, the list goes on and on, we just wont hear them on the radio. Country music is still alive. .you just have to find it unfortunately.
June 28, 2019 @ 5:16 pm
“PISS ON GEORGIA COUNTY LINE!!!!!
June 28, 2019 @ 6:42 pm
Charlie Daniels is such a breath of fresh air, every time he speaks he just tells it like it is, he is just plain honest and doesn’t beat around them the bush.
Been a fan ever since I saw him at the Sonoma-Marin Fair watching in amazement him playing that fiddle! Now I have a saying if it aint older than me, I don’t want to hear it and I dont want to drive it!
June 28, 2019 @ 6:54 pm
There’s also a young .man by the name of William Michael Morgan from Vicksburg Mississippi,great young country singer in the fashion of George Strait and they won’t even play his songs on the radio here in Alabama.
June 28, 2019 @ 7:10 pm
I always thought all of CDB’s story songs sounded exactly the same, especially “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and “Legend of Wooley Swamp.” I liked much of the stuff back in the day. But now, Charlie is giving John Rich a run for his money for talking more politics than music. It is funny so many people made the comment, “shut up and sing” about the Dixie Chicks, but those same people love it when these “country rebels” praise Fox News and anything Trump. Double standard?
June 28, 2019 @ 7:38 pm
Because unlike you and the Dixie chicks Ray, they are patriots.
June 29, 2019 @ 6:26 am
George, I love my country as much as you and your fellow patriots. I also believe in freedom of speech. The Dixie Chicks got rebel flag wavers fired up with their comments.
June 28, 2019 @ 9:51 pm
CDB was never strictly country, but this song is Country-er than anything I’ve heard on the radio in 20 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovCb03RySio
June 29, 2019 @ 2:01 am
I love Charlie Daniels’ music & how he never shies away from speaking his mind. I have never listened to FGL on purpose, and don’t intend to start. The crap they play on country radio today is a far cry from what I consider to be country music & I don’t listen to it unless I’m a passenger in someone ( who doesn’t know any better) else’s vehicle. I prefer old country – Hank Williams, Jimmy Rodgers, Ray Price, Bob Wills, CDB, Guy Clark, Willie, Waylon, Merle, and the new outlaws like Tyler Childers, Parker McCollum, Margo Price, Band of Heathens, Shane Smith & the Saints, Sara Hobbs.
June 29, 2019 @ 4:07 am
Typical Florida Georgia Line apologist:
Hay you suns of bitches! How dare Yu put them down!!!!!!!!! I AMA country boi I drive recklessly like a REAL REDNECK so that means I know what Carnt tree Music is all about yo! Don’t gimme that old fart bullshit when Waylon Jenninz came around they wet their pants becoz he was NEW and GOOD! At least for than but foridah gerja line kicks his ass any day ov the week! They are REAL Country singurz and sing about real stuff like about how cuntry they are and harassing girls and cumming In their pants while they hear their song hit number one and prove Yu Don’t have to sing bout meeningful stuff or respect old closed mined old country fanz or hav banjo Orr Fidel in music which gives me a headache i wAnt reel music like that song of theirs cruise. That song make me moist. It sexy it cool and HIP!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cuntry music is about sticking yo wang in a cold beer glass and punching someone from a multi cultural background and screwing a fat chick with daddy issues and shooting endangered species if you got to know the members of Florida Georgia line they have issues pet peeves and turn ons just like tha rest of us for egsampel Tyler Hubbard when his multiple girlfriends want sex with him he can never get hard so he drives his pick up truck a trademark of his out with his girlfriends in the back seats he pisses on Hank Williams grave and gets a MONSTER BONER that drives girls WILD!!!!! He hates Hank Williams Yu seeee if any one of you old farts hate on moy favourite duo again I will find you and hunt yu down like how a REAL country boi hunts down a Muslim! So ‘trigger’ you basement caveman why don’t you find sumthing meaningful in life you gay virgin F**K YU AND EVERYTHING YU STAND FOR
June 29, 2019 @ 6:03 am
Lil Dale, is that you?
June 29, 2019 @ 7:20 pm
You win the internet with this one. Some funny shit right thar.
June 30, 2019 @ 7:23 am
FGL are complete ass clowns. I’m in North Carolina. I’ll be waiting. Hank will bitch slpa you and both those clowns.
June 29, 2019 @ 6:27 am
I’m definitely not a fan of FGL and am a fan of CDB but the way I see this whole thing is this, it’s all music and that’s ok, it’s all about what you like so if some folks like FGL that’s fine but just don’t put it in the country music shelf because country it’s not.
June 29, 2019 @ 9:07 am
I don’t think FGL “changed country”. They started a trend which became very popular for a short time, but traditional country was never altered or vanquished. It was just relegated to the background while FGL, and other similar artists, had the spotlight. This is nothing new. It happens across all genres. The metal scene is full of sub-genres, several of which have stolen the spotlight as the hot trend for a short time. “Bro country” is just another sub-genre, but it doesn’t define the genre as a whole. Another trend will steal the spotlight eventually, but only temporarily. Complaining about it is futile, really. For better or worse, music has to change and evolve. The alternative is to stagnate.
June 29, 2019 @ 4:54 pm
Look, I get that country music must evolve, but Bro Country is a real shitty thing to evolve to. It’d be like a dog evolving into a rat.
June 29, 2019 @ 5:07 pm
It happened wether we like it or not. And now Bro Country is fading and something else is going to replace it. Maybe it will be a resurgence of traditional country, or maybe something else. If all you listen to is whatever’s trending, you’re stuck with what you get. Or you can support and spread the word about artists that play traditional country and try to push them into the spotlight.
August 8, 2023 @ 2:59 pm
Women are more evolved than men because we have 3 holes and they have 2. Sometimes evolve is overrated
July 3, 2019 @ 6:59 am
I don’t think anyone is disputing that country music has to evolve. But it has been able to do so, and thrive, through decades of changes because artists have understood how to bring the music’s traditional spirit forward in a way that both remembers the past and is relevant to today as well. And there are artists these days who manage to do this in some extremely creative and artistic ways. But it’s pretty hard for those folks to break through on a big level when the so-called “gate keepers” in Nashville today only pay mere lip service to the genre, and instead foist Bro Country, tractor-rap, and miserable excuses for country/R&B on the listener.
June 29, 2019 @ 10:04 am
I mean, I agree with Daniels on this issue, but what is the point of him even saying anything on this matter? Charlie Daniels is about as relevant to FGL fans as the SAT. Mainstream, currently popular artists need to be the ones rasing this issue.
June 29, 2019 @ 10:38 am
If you’re spending most of your time inside the Nashville 440 Loop, how are you going to even have a clue what the country experience is about? Maybe you could write a song about the Crashville Crawl (traffic), but really, you gotta get in the country some and talk to the people to sing about the country.
June 29, 2019 @ 10:59 am
I don’t like FGL, but when the one guy sings solo, he sounds more country then when he sings as a duo. I’m with old country music fans, it needs a little more country sound to be country and less rock sound. Some of us wanted more upbeat country instead of sad songs, but new country has lost much of its country sound, if it ever had it in the first place.
June 29, 2019 @ 1:20 pm
Charlie Daniels? Yuck. Ray Wylie Hubbard was on the money re the fiddle solo in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
June 29, 2019 @ 2:26 pm
What? That the devil’s solo was better?
June 30, 2019 @ 12:31 am
Just because you don’t like fgl that’s you.but you not liken them an what you’re saying about them don’t make me not listen.i love there music.an who are you’ll to say what is an what ain’t country.hell I’m black.but i don’t like all rap songs but who I’m i to say what’s rap an what’s not rap hell if they think it country shut your dam mouth an don’t listen to it.Its your right.everything changes.why are yall haters still stuck on old.look time marches on..music change to with the times of life love all the old singer i do nothing wrong with that they want be forgotten.but don’t go putting the New singer’s down because they don’t sing like charlie or george,or allen.they are different that’s what makes it what it is.dont mean no harm just being real
June 30, 2019 @ 8:49 am
Thanks No Child Left Behind…..
July 1, 2019 @ 2:12 am
Your grammar is atrocious. [əˈtrōSHəs] But, anyhow, you did mention a pretty decent song. “Time Marches on” has stood the test of time, thanks to Tracy Lawrence and 1996.
July 1, 2019 @ 2:14 am
Marcia Gordon, by the power invested in me and all the country legends who love country music and devoted their hearts and soul and entire lives to the genre, I now pronounce you …… to be completely full of shit. Hank Williams, Jason Bray And I are going to kick your ass.
July 1, 2019 @ 8:47 am
SOUNDS LIKE A PETTY JEALOUS OLD MAN .. And Fox News is as racist as the day is long. Now, I enjoy Charlie Daniels but STOP. Times change & so does music. If he doesn’t like it, don’t listen to it. SIMPLE..NO NEED to put other artist down.
July 14, 2019 @ 6:26 am
You should listen to more Charlie, it’ll broaden your mind. If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it. Simple. No need to put another opinion down.