90 Years of Charlie Daniels - Soapbox Jr.

October 28, 2026, marks 90 years since Dad was born.

A previous engagement in the most heavenly and glorious venue you could ever imagine will prevent him from celebrating with us, but we will still celebrate that we had him with us for 83 years, and celebrate 90 years since he came into our world and left an indelible mark on music and pop culture in general, not to mention touching the lives of too many people to count.

This is a tough one to write, not just from a melancholy “we wish he was here with us” and here’s what we’re doing in his absence sort of way. I will touch on a couple of things, but overall, I’ve done that many times before and I will probably write something similar again, but this is a milestone, and one that I had hoped to plan for shortly after Dad turned 81. His energy and his constant enthusiasm for performing for crowds of fans appeared to not be diminishing one iota.

A 90th birthday shindig – Maybe another Volunteer Jam - was certainly plausible and even if he had retired in his later 80s, I would have expected him to be there to celebrate turning 90.

But the Lord had other plans.

I struggle a lot with the legacy sometimes. I second guess myself a lot, I feel like I’m not doing enough, and I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall sometimes.

And I feel like I could be doing more.

A perfect example of this is that on Wednesday, Oct. 28, we’re having a very last-minute birthday celebration at Texas Roadhouse in Mt. Juliet. It came about pretty quickly, I had a conversation with someone at the City of Mt. Juliet about putting Dad’s birthday up on the electronic signs around town in honor of Dad’s 90th, that then turned into the question, “Have you been to the new Texas Roadhouse in Mt. Juliet?” I told him I had and that we had supplied, Andy, the owner manager with stuff for a shadowbox display earlier this year.

So, we hurriedly started trying to put this together, and a lot still needs to be done to pull this off. We’re giving away CDB T-shirts and even a few autographed posters and such that have been hiding at the studio and office. We’re figuring out how to do a playlist of CDB songs that they can handle.

In hindsight, I should have been thinking about this a year ago, and approached the City of MJ about doing something like reactivating the old Charlie Daniels Day celebrations from the 1980s and make it a sure-fire blowout, but with so many other projects and responsibilities, it wasn’t until just a few months ago that it dawned on me that this was a milestone year… 90.

Wow…

Talk about dropping the ball…

I just had to let it go because we were building up to a huge event at Ft. Campbell for the 4th of July weekend, The Legend of Charlie Daniels show, and fielding everything from bio-pic movie pitches and a stage musical based on “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Yes, I’ve been covered up for many, many months, but I still should have been better prepared for this.

Ten years ago, we were celebrating Dad’s 80th, and it was an eventful year in and of itself.

After his announcement as one of the Class of 2016, Dad received his own exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame, and was formally inducted into the Hall just twelve days before his birthday.

The day after his 80th, the Hall threw a lavish birthday party in the rotunda on October 29th. A few days later, on Nov. 2, Dad appeared on the 50th Annual CMA Awards, then just over a month later, The Charlie Daniels 80th Birthday Volunteer Jam was held at Bridgestone Arena with special guests, Chris Stapleton, Travis Tritt, Luke Bryan, Larry the Cable Guy and 3 Doors Down.

Quite the whirlwind for an 80-year-old.

But despite the gray hair and beard, you wouldn’t have known how old he was from the amount of energy he exuded on stage and in general.

Now don’t get me wrong, in his later years he had to slow down in order to conserve said energy, but I always said I hope I have half of Dad’s energy when I got to be his age.

So, Wednesday’s celebration is going to be fairly low-key for the most part, however, I have a feeling it’s going to be amazingly crowded, which is good because from what I understand, patrons will be able to add money to their bill for The Charlie Daniels Journey Home Project, which aims to help veterans adjust to civilian life and partners with other 501(c)3s to focus on organizations that already are serving our brave heroes.

Hopefully next year we can do something with a bit more planning in 2027.

One last little devilish tease…

We’ve been looking for some specific vault recording masters now for almost a decade now.

While I can’t say when we will be able to bring some of these lost treasures to fans, I can at least say that we’ve been able to locate and confirm what exists in said vaults.

And there’s reason for excitement.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

Happy 90th Birthday, Dad, I wish you could celebrate with us. I know you wouldn’t want to leave your place in your heavenly eternity, but I sure wish we still had you around, I know that’s selfish of me to even think that, but we just miss you something fierce.

I love you, Dad.

Now begins the TENTH decade of Charlie Daniels in our world, I better start planning the 100th birthday now, so I don’t drop the ball on that one too.

Stay tuned, and come celebrate 90 years of Charlie Daniels with us, if you’re in the area.

What do you think?

Let’s all make the day count!

Pray for our troops, our police, the Peace of Jerusalem and our nation.

God Bless America!

#SonyReleaseHonkyTonkAve

#BenghaziAintGoingAway #End22

- Charlie Daniels, Jr.

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