Quotes from Charlie Daniels

For the first time in more than twenty years, I was without a recording contract. We were no longer an act that a major label would want to sign. We did not even remotely resemble what was happening on radio, which was increasingly being dominated by younger acts.

We were a band without a radio format but not without a following. As always, our concerts were our bread and butter. We continued crisscrossing the country, playing our music and entertaining hundreds of thousands of concertgoers each year. I decided that as far as my recording career was concerned, from then on I would record whatever struck my fancy, without being concerned about it having to fit mainstream radio formats, whatever genre, whatever style.

My manager came up with the idea of our own independent label. We had a recording studio that I had seriously upgraded and was capable of handling any kind of project we wanted to attempt. We had a distribution network. We could hire independent promotion people if we felt the need. Most importantly, we could record anything we danged well pleased, with no interference from outside interests. So, why not? Enter Blue Hat Records.

One morning on the way to the studio, I stopped at a drugstore for something. There was this dingy little guy with tangled rat's-nest hair trying to buy a bottle of cheap wine but he was short a dime. Somebody in line behind him paid the ten cents for him, and he bellowed, "Thank you, brother, the revolution will be won on ripple.

I will never run out of new projects. I've got them backed up in my mind, and when I feel one is complete enough, we just get the band together, call our engineer, and proceed to make some new music. I did a duet album called Deuces with artists ranging from

As I approach my golden years, I find that the creative juices still flow bountifully. I've got enough album concepts and ideas to take me years down the road, and as long as God gives me the strength, I'll be writing and recording new music.

In November 2007, we were doing a show called Christmas for Kids at the Ryman Auditorium. It's a show to benefit underprivileged children at Christmastime, started by the drivers who drive the touring buses used by the Nashville artists.

It was to be another one of those moments when just a few words will change your whole life. She said, "You have been invited to join the Grand Ole Opry!" Did I hear her right? Did she really say what I thought she said? At the age of seventy-one, was I really going to realize one of my longest-held and fondest dreams?

What they didn't realize is that it was my world they were getting ready to go out into. I had been making my way in it since before they were born and had some things to say about life after cutting the apron strings that could prove just as beneficial as anything they had gotten out of their books.

Guess I'll hang it up for tonight. Goodnight planet earth. God bless.

You have to recognize opportunity, no matter how subtle the knock. Everything doesn't happen at once. One thing leads to another as the building blocks of your life start to take form. This was one of those times, and I just knew it.

When you develop an attitude of "I'm going to accomplish what I want even if I have to work twice as hard as anybody else," you're going to get there.

There is an art to entertaining a crowd. If you've got a bevy of hit songs, you can entertain by simply playing them one after another. If you're a knockout in size 28 jeans who can take away the breath of the females in the audience by simply walking on the stage, you're entertaining. But since I have never fallen into either category, I have had to rely on other attributes.

They're always there, nipping at your heels. If you can't hold your spot, they'll gladly take it.

So, at least from my perspective of stability and longevity, what you're looking for in representation, labels, agencies, or record producers is people who believe in you, and sometimes the smaller entities are where you'll find them.

I have people talking about, "Boy, I hate to go to work." I love to go to work!

We didn't have a garage to rehearse in. We had to aggravate the folks in the house. But I got a chance to play in a beer joint, and that's how it started.

A brief candle,both ends burning An endless mile, a bus wheel turning A friend to share the lonesome times A handshake and a sip of wine So say it loud and let it ring We are all a part of everything The future, present and the past Fly on proud bird You're free at last

I just feel such freedom to do whatever. If a song's seven minutes or ten minutes long, then so be it - it's that long.

He may look dumb, but that's just a disguise.

So say it loud and let it ring We are all a part of everything The future, present and the past Fly on proud bird You're free at last