The Devil Went Down to Georgia: Johnny 3 – Devil 0 - Soapbox Jr.

Round 1.

We all know and love the story of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the song that was written as an afterthought that became one of the most iconic songs of the 20th Century and is still wildly popular over forty-six years after its release.<

In fact, as I’m finishing up this Soapbox, Jr., it just happens to be December 5, 2025, forty-seven years to the day that “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was recorded.<

Dad took inspiration from a poem he read in school called “The Mountain Whippoorwill,” about a Georgia mountain fiddle contest. The line “Hell’s broke loose in Georgia” comes directly from Steven Vincent Benét’s poem, but there were no supernatural elements to the to the story, a fiddle contest in Georgia is where the similarities end.

Dad and the band’s producer, John Boylan, knew there was something special, intense and mesmerizing about the song, and the final verse ends with Johnny – the song’s hero – calling the devil a S.O.B. Dad always maintained that he couldn’t see anything wrong with calling the devil an S.O.B., and for a band who had the most success on AOR – Album Rock Radio – in the mid to late ‘70s, that would have been just fine, but there was something about this song that everybody involved with felt this could go beyond AOR.

So, contrary to popular opinion that a change was made to the lyrics years later after Dad drawn closer to the Lord, he actually recorded both versions of the lyrics on the exact same day. So, both the S.O.B. version and a more radio-friendly “son-of-a-gun” version were recorded at the same time. The original version thrived on rock radio, and was the version chosen for the album, but had it not been for the “son-of-a-gun” the song would not have achieved the heights it has.

Most likely the song would never have made it on country radio, and if it wasn’t going to get country airplay, it wouldn’t have gotten pop airplay either, but it reached #1 country and #3 pop because of the alternate version.

Later on, Dad did start doing the more family-friendly version in his stage show because his shows were drawing families.<

The song won Dad and the band CMA and ACM awards, along with a Grammy.

Not bad for a song that existed solely because of the realization that they forgot to write a fiddle tune for the album.

Round 2

In 1993, fiddle virtuoso Mark O'Connor released his album ‘Heroes’ which contained a continuation of the Johnny/Devil story called “The Devil Comes Back to Georgia.”

This sequel takes place ten years after the events of the original with the devil still upset about being bested by Johnny by a Georgia hickory stump and issues another challenge to Johnny who hasn’t played much since his son was born, but claims he’s still up for the challenge.

The story follows more-or-less what you would expect from a sequel, the plot is basically the same, the biggest difference is that Dad only plays the devil’s fiddle parts – and doesn’t sing - while Mark plays Johnny’s parts, but the biggest change is that rather than one, there are three vocalists, Johnny Cash, Travis Tritt and Marty Stuart who bring to mind a bit of a cinematic musical feel, to the tale. Johnny Cash fills the role of narrator of the next chapter of the epic tale, Marty takes on the role of Johnny, and Travis is the devil.

The ending is more ambiguous than the original, as there doesn’t appear to be a moment where either fiddle player admits defeat, although it does say that “Johnny is the best that’s ever been” So, the implication is that he won this round as well.

The song did make for a pretty spectacular music video which you can find on YouTube.

Round 3

A few months ago, while I was almost neck deep in several projects, I saw some posts on Facebook of fiddle players auditioning for a new song by taking a track of a fella with a guitar singing about Johnny and the devil, but I didn’t have time to listen to the whole thing, but the title alone concerned me, “Johnny Went Down to Hell,” but I’ll come back to that.

The guitar picker’s name is Thomas Mac, and he managed to rack up a lot of interest in his song. I gathered the auditions were for the final studio track and then they were planning on releasing it, which meant it would eventually cross my desk and I would have to deal with it at that point.

Finally, in late October, Universal Music Publishing Group reached out to me regarding a derivative version of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” called “Johnny Went Down to Hell,” so I knew I was going to have to listen to it in full and then decide the song’s fate.

My first issue was the title, I was a bit taken aback as I don’t think it ever crossed my mind that Johnny’s journey would take him to the place with the broken air conditioning and brimstone, but it turns out that Johnny gambled a lot in his lifetime, and it apparently cost him his soul. Once my initial shock at those turn of events wore off, I then started scrutinizing the song and the lyrics.

The stakes are higher this time as the devil plans to take all the souls in Georgia as his own if Johnny loses to him this time.<

I tried to keep an open mind, but also trying to do what I think Dad would have done. The original song has been extremely good to us, and we definitely don’t want to tarnish it.

I ended up having a handful of issues aside from the initial premise. Rather than go back and forth between our publishing administrator, I emailed Thomas himself just to tell him where I was with the song and offer some constructive criticism.<

Let me say this, Thomas could not have been more pleasant to talk to, and come to find out that his co-writer on the song was Jeff Bates an artist/songwriter who has been around Nashville for a while, and I met him on at least one occasion during Country Radio Seminar several years ago.<

raised some of my concerns to them in an email to Thomas before we moved to the phone and some back and forth texts. He and Jeff could not have been more understanding or more accommodating with regards to my issues with the song, and they stressed that they wanted this song to be a tribute to Dad.

I had raised my initial concerns about the concept, and he and Jeff had already been discussing alternate scenarios to get Johnny and the Devil into another rematch, but I told him that I’m okay with the concept with a caveat which I’ll get to shortly.

The first thing that jumped out at me, and it was completely unintentional, and perhaps a loving son being extra protective, but there were some times where Thomas sang “Johnny” and it sounded uncomfortably like “Charlie.” He assured me that it wasn’t intentional, and he said he would re-sing some of the lines to make sure the emphasis was on making “Johnny” absolutely clear.<

The other issue I had was the song’s end which I suspect was trying to end on the same note that the original’s S.O.B. ending by saying to the devil, “you still ain’t got “$#!+”on the best there’s ever been.” I felt that if he was still around today, Dad would want that tweaked to something more family-friendly. I gave them the option of a musical “Bleep” for lack of a better term, but essentially a musical power punch where the offensive word would go, in the end, they went with my other suggestions of “still ain’t got nuthin’ on…” which works just fine.

My main caveat for the song to proceed at all was for there to be a moral to the story. I hated to think of the hero of Dad’s signature song to have played his cards in life to the point of risking the damnation he avoided previously. So, I put it to Thomas and Jeff, I think I’m okay with the premise if there’s a lesson to be learned, don’t wager with the devil, and I threw out some ideas, but they came up with a pretty good ending, and they were able to add several more seconds to the track, and work in the moral.

I also had to reach out to a wise old soul named Cledus T Judd for some clarification on how derivative/parody songs work. Thank you for the insight, Cledus.

So, forty-seven years ago, a song that nobody had the forethought to write was recorded and became an international sensation, and forty-seven years ago, the song is still being played with probably more than one hundred million streams every year across all streaming platforms, and excitement about the story still remains, so much so that others are still building on Dad’s original story.<

Speaking of building on Dad’s story… we may be able to make a very exciting announcement regarding “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” sometime in 2026.

Stay tuned, and be sure to check out Thomas Mac’s “Johnny Went Down to Hell” HERE 

There is a highly inferior AI generated sequel of the same name out there, so don’t be duped.

Almost 50 years later, and the song is still "The Best There's Ever Been!"<

And hopefully 50 more after that!<

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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