Before the Devil Went Down to Georgia

Long before the fiddle. Long before the cowboy hat, the beard, the packed arenas, and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” Charlie Daniels was simply a young musician from North Carolina trying to find his place in the world.

Born Charles Edward Daniels on October 28, 1936, in Wilmington, North Carolina, Charlie grew up surrounded by the sounds of gospel, bluegrass, country, rhythm and blues, and the music of the South. He learned guitar, fiddle, mandolin and other instruments and spent his early years playing wherever the road would take him. There was no guarantee of fame waiting for him. There were clubs, long drives, small paychecks and years of trying to make people notice what he could do.

But Charlie Daniels had something besides talent.

He could write.

And one of the most fascinating chapters of his career happened before most of America even knew his name.

CHARLIE DANIELS WROTE A SONG ELVIS PRESLEY RECORDED

Charlie Daniels helped write a beautiful ballad called “It Hurts Me.” The song eventually found its way to Elvis Presley.

Imagine that moment.

Charlie Daniels wasn’t yet the country music legend he would become. “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was still years away. Yet Elvis Presley—the biggest name in American popular music—had chosen to record a song Charlie helped create.

Elvis recorded “It Hurts Me” at RCA Studio B in Nashville on January 12, 1964. It was released the following month as the B-side of “Kissin’ Cousins.”

For Charlie, it was enormous.

Years later he remembered Elvis recording the song as one of the biggest things that had ever happened to him at that point in his life.

But the story didn’t end in 1964.

Elvis returned to “It Hurts Me” years later, and the song became part of the musical sequence in his legendary 1968 television comeback special. A song written before Charlie Daniels became famous had become part of Elvis Presley’s own comeback story.

Charlie never became famous because of Elvis.

But Elvis gave the young songwriter something incredibly important: proof that his music belonged.

THEN NASHVILLE OPENED ANOTHER DOOR

Charlie moved to Nashville in 1967 and began building a reputation as a session musician. Before millions of people recognized his face, his playing could already be heard behind some of the most important artists of the era.

He played with Bob Dylan, contributing to Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning. He worked on recordings involving Leonard Cohen and Ringo Starr and became part of a generation of musicians helping erase the lines between country, rock, blues and folk.

Charlie Daniels didn’t fit comfortably inside one musical box.

So he built his own.

In the early 1970s, the Charlie Daniels Band emerged with a sound that was unmistakably Southern but difficult to classify. It was country. It was rock. It was blues. It was gospel. It was bluegrass.

It was Charlie.

Songs such as “Uneasy Rider,” “Long Haired Country Boy” and “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” established him as something different. Then in 1979 came the song that changed everything.

“THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA”

A fiddle screamed.

A story unfolded.

And Charlie Daniels became permanently embedded in American music.

“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” became a massive crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on the country chart and No. 3 on the pop chart. Suddenly the musician who had spent years behind other artists was standing directly in the spotlight.

But his career was bigger than one song.

Charlie Daniels became one of the defining figures in the marriage of country music and Southern rock. Decades of records, touring and performing followed. In 2016, one of country music’s highest honors finally arrived when Charlie Daniels was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The young musician who once wondered where the road might lead had become part of the history of American music.

Charlie Daniels died on July 6, 2020, at the age of 83.

And perhaps one of the best ways to understand his life is to look backward.

Before millions knew his name, he wrote.

Before he stood in the spotlight, he played behind others.

Before the world heard a devil challenge a young man named Johnny to a fiddle contest in Georgia, Elvis Presley had already heard something in Charlie Daniels worth recording.

That is the part of success people rarely see.

The years before anyone applauds.

The miles before anyone knows your name.

The work done when nobody is watching.

Charlie Daniels didn’t begin as a legend.

He became one by refusing to stop.

RESTORED LIFE AFTER

Sometimes the door that changes your life doesn’t look like the destination. It simply proves you’re supposed to keep walking.

Charlie Daniels wrote a song.

Elvis Presley recorded it.

And Charlie kept going.

Years later, the whole world knew his name.