The fate of posthumous Charlie Daniels music documented in unseen interview

Did the rowdy ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’ fiddle king object to unreleased songs emerging after his death? An archival conversation cuts to the bone

In a decade of extreme fashion, Charlie Daniels prefers a working cowboy ensemble on the black and white cover of “Simple Man,” the country rocker’s 16th studio album dropped on October 17, 1989, via Epic Records. The 10-track, platinum-certified LP was Daniels’ second collaboration with hit country producer James Stroud [e.g. Clint Black, Hank Williams, Jr., Randy Travis, Tim McGraw] after the previous year’s “Homesick Heroes” and submitted three charting singles including Daniels’ final hit [the title cut, No. 12 C&W], “Mister DJ” [No. 34 C&W] and “[What This World Needs Is] A Few More Rednecks” [No. 56 C&W]. Photography by David Michael Kennedy / Sony Music Entertainment / Amazon

A little over a year after the Off the Grid Bob Dylan tribute album earned Charlie Daniels coverage in Rolling Stone, the bearded cowboy called this writer ahead of a gig at the Waterville Opera House in South Maine. Before suffering a fatal hemorrhagic stroke at his Mt. Juliet, Tennessee ranch on July 6, the energetic 83-year-old entertainer was still crisscrossing the United States with his Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, searing fiddle, and five-member band [48 shows in 2019].

Daniels’ earliest brush with fame materialized in 1964 when Elvis Presley selected “It Hurts Me” as the B-side of the pedestrian “Kissin’ Cousins” movie title cut. Selling half a million copies, Presley thought enough of the 27-year-old fledgling songwriter’s heartfelt ballad that he resurrected it on the ballyhooed ’68 Comeback Special. Daniels fondly told Ken Sharp in Writing for the King that “hearing Elvis sing my song was like a sugarholic waking up in a candy store…it gave my career a real shot in the arm and also gave me some validity as a writer.” Paying the…