Return to the Stage: The Legend of Charlie Daniels Saga

We had a show on the 4th, the show got postponed…

We rescheduled for Sunday… The weather almost canceled the show altogether…

Prayers went up, and we were blessed with favorable skies.

Now we’re all caught up.

But there were still a couple of issues to work out. 

On Saturday, The Frontmen were supposed to do three songs total, instead, Tim Rushlow was the only member able to return on Sunday, and he took two songs, “Long Haired Country Boy” and “In America.” We had a plan for “Simple Man,” that left “The Legend of Wooley Swamp” as the one we needed to figure out a plan for.

But I’ll come back to that.

During rehearsals, one thing became clear to me, something felt off, and that was the way we were bringing the guest singers on stage, which was going to be an announcer or on-stage host, but I just had something tugging at me that we needed to do something differently for the CDB set.

If Dad had been there, he would have introduced all of the guests like he Did at the Volunteer Jams, and he would have been the one to welcome everyone and say things like “Good evening Ft. Campbell!”

For reasons I will get to, I planned on being on stage anyway, but I submitted an idea to Noah Gordon, our partner in the show, I would host the CDB set like Dad would have. 

It would be more authentic and less impersonal. I would do my best to bring the energy that Dad would.

The guys in the band liked the idea, Noah agreed to the idea… I’m not going to speak for him that he liked it, but he did agree to let me do it, and I thank him for giving me the opportunity do so.

Here’s the thing… I’ll let you in on a little secret... 

I’VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE!

I gave a speech when I accepted an award for Dad in 2023 at ACM Honors, but I had a safety net. I submitted my speech and had it on a teleprompter if I needed it. I didn’t really, I had rehearsed it enough that the prompter was just a safety net.

But this was totally different, flying by the seat of my pants. I did make notes that I tried to put on my phone for easy access… however, we changed the order of songs Sunday morning and the order of my introduction of the band, so I was scrambling to update my notes on my phone before we went back to the base.

Right before leaving for Ft. Campbell, I quoted Dad about getting out of your comfort zone. Well, I was about as far from my comfort zone as Tunisia, but I just buckled down and soldiered on.

From the inception, we had talked about me doing at least one song, Noah suggested “Simple Man” as it was something not very vocally challenging for a rank amateur like myself.

I really only had time enough to work on the song while I was driving, and then it was probably only maybe 6-7 times that I was really able to sing along with it to try to get my breathing right as well as to be able to hold the notes out in the choruses properly. I went to the rehearsals in June and got up for the first time with a band and sang.

Shockingly, nobody said I sucked, not even my wife, and she would be completely honest.

Obviously, there were some performance things I needed to work on but considering I was just trying to get through the song first, the fact that people’s ears weren’t bleeding was a sigh of relief.

But, when the 5th rolled around, we still needed vocals on “The Legend of Wooley Swamp.” I knew the song by heart, but I had not practiced with it at all, and I wasn’t confident in the choruses without practice, so Noah had a solution, Noah – a songwriter and former recording artist - would do the choruses and I would do the verses.

For my hosting duties, Noah arranged for my own microphone and stand on stage. Mind you, my Mom knew nothing about my stage involvement other than I was going to be involved in some capacity.

So, showtime finally rolled around, fist bumps with the band, and trying to keep my nerves in check as I stood on stage behind a microphone trying to fumble my way through background vocals on “The South’s Gonna Do it (Again)” with Aaron Tippin on lead vocals after his set.

After Aaron finished, I was up… Lord, give me the strength…

I just did what I watched Dad do for fifty years.

“GOOD EVENING FT. CAMPBELL!”

“HAPPY” (looks at watch for effect) FIFTH of JULY!”

“AND HAPPY 250th BIRTHDAY UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!”

This has been a long time coming…  six long years, in fact, but, we ARE the Charlie Daniels Band from Mount Juliet,

Tennessee! And we welcome you to The Legend of Charlie Daniels!

Dad couldn’t be here in person today, he’s booked in the most glorious venue you could possibly imagine, but we know he’s here in spirit.”

I thanked Aaron, invited Noah on stage, and we sang about the orneriest piece of real estate Dad ever set foot in, “The Legend of Wooley Swamp.”

Noah nailed the choruses as he did in rehearsals, and I held my own on the versus. I think I could have done the whole song by myself, but with no rehearsal time, it was the safest call, because my first time on stage was going to be with a song I hadn’t practiced repeatedly, it was jumping into the fire. I only mildly flubbed one word, but I quickly recovered.

Then I brought Tim Rushlow on stage to do “Long Haired Country Boy” and “In America,” still fumbling my way through background vocals so I didn’t look ridiculously out of place.

I also took a moment to wish my Mom an early happy birthday and lead the crowd to sing to her, as hers is on July 8, just three days from last Sunday.

Then I introduced the band, something that Dad would have also done. I could with all sincerity say that this was The Charlie Daniels Band because four of the six guys up on stage played with Dad for many years. I started with the rookies, Andy Varner and Kevin Ray, then the Old Guard CDB, Shannon Wickline, Jack Gavin, Chris Wormer, and Charlie Hayward who had been there since 1975 all the way to 2020.

Then I was up again with “Simple Man.”

I said, “You know, it’s hard to believe that tomorrow it will be six years since we lost the greatest man I’ve ever known. He was an amazing husband and father, a friend, a talented musician, songwriter, patriot, a Christian, and a Simple Man.

I finished the song with “That’s the way I see it, I’m a Simple Man too…” and I don’t think I embarrassed myself.

Then I stepped to the side of the stage while Dad sang “How Great Thou Art.” I’ve been forcing myself to not get emotional when I hear him sing this recently, but tears got the better of me.” I just stood on the side of the stage praising the Lord with my hand up in the air, thanking Him for letting us have this night of tribute for my Dad as he was glorifying Him in song.

Then came the hologram portion of the show. I hadn’t seen it in action since rehearsals a few weeks before, but the changes I had relayed to the team went through, including fixing the jeans and pockets as well as having the gold fiddle be strictly for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Both “Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye” and “TDWDTG” looked great on stage, but we did have some issues on the large screens next to the stage.

The images did not look as realistic and sharp as they should have. We finally attributed it to the on again/off again weather issues and settings for the screens not being set properly resulting in a lower quality image.

But the crowd seemed to enjoy the evening, and then came the one-day late fireworks show.

New technology often doesn’t work the way you expect it to, but we identified the issue, and it won’t happen again, and we’ll be in discussions about the next phase of this endeavor this week.

One last addendum/epilogue…

Six years ago, on July 9, the day before we laid Dad to rest, I got a photo from someone who received it from Marty Pryor who snapped the original photo near Crossville, TN. It was the unmistakable image of Dad, cowboy hat and all in the heavens. I have spoken with Marty several times now and have expressed how much his photo meant to us.

Yesterday (July 12) he sent me another photo he had just taken in Kentucky of all places - the same state we just performed in – of another cowboy hat in the clouds.

Almost exactly six years apart. What are the odds?

Thanks, Marty, and thanks to Ft. Campbell and all who attended and toe everyone who helped us put on what we hope is the first of several Legend of Charlie Daniels shows.

We certainly appreciate it.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Long live The Legend of Charlie Daniels!

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What do you think?

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