Charlie Daniels was a country-music legend best know to the world for his work with his
eponymous band, dubbed the Charlie Daniels Band.
The band’s biggest hit undoubtedly remains “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, which
has been a staple in not only country music, but the entirety of popular music, since its
release in the late 1970s.
In 2020, Charlie tragically passed away from a stroke.
His son went on to detail the episode, which he described as the worst time of his life.
Join Facts Verse as Charlie Daniels’ true cause of death has been confirmed by his son.
Charlie Was Rushed to the Hospital One July Morning
On the morning of July 6, 2020, country-music legend Charlie Daniels passed away.
The legendary country musician and head of the Charlie Daniels Band was 83 years old
at the time of his passing and had apparently been suffering from health problems for around
a decade prior to the event.
The thing that ended up killing the musician was a stroke.
Charlie had already had a stroke previously, which he ended up surviving.
As a result of that first stroke, as well as other medical symptoms, the country-music
legend was put on blood thinners.
Ironically, Charlie Daniels’ son has since come to blame these blood thinners for his
father’s death.
According to Charlie Daniels’ son, watching his father die has been the worst time of
his life so far.
Given that Charlie Jr. is nearly 60 years old himself, this is certainly saying something!
Charlie Jr. has since recounted the tragic tale of watching his father die, which began
with a phone call from his mother.
According to Charlie Jr., he received a phone call from his mother asking him to come over
in the early morning hours of July 6, 2020.
At first, when his mother told him that his father was seriously ill, Charlie Jr. feared
that his father might have contracted COVID-19.
This was towards the beginning of the pandemic.
Charlie Jr. was initially relieved when he found out that it wasn’t the virus, but
this relief quickly turned to fear when he realized that whatever was afflicting was
likely something even worse.
Charlie Jr. has recounted how he came into his parents’ house after receiving the aforementioned
phone call from his mother and found his father slouched down in his chair.
Charlie Daniels’ son then had a sinking feeling, realizing that there was something
drastically wrong with the country musician.
Charlie Jr. proceeded to try and communicate with his father, asking him if he could breathe.
With all of his effort, Charlie Daniels managed to nod and convey to his son that he was still
breathing.
However, it wouldn’t be for long.
Charlie Jr. could tell that his father was in immense pain, and knew that he had to get
him to the hospital.
Charlie Passed Away Quickly After His Arrival It was Charlie Jr. who called emergency services,
while his mother called Charlie Daniels’ heart doctor.
It was that heart doctor who first suggested to the woman and her son that what the musician
was suffering from was likely a stroke.
The ambulance came and took the singer to the hospital, where they tried their best
to save him.
However, there ended up being not much that they could do.
Charlie Daniels had survived a stroke once previously, and it seems that the reason he
wasn’t able to survive the second one was because of the blood thinners that he had
been prescribed after suffering the first one.
It seems that these blood thinners prevented Charlie’s blood from clotting properly.
This, in turn, caused the country-music legend’s second stroke to be debilitating.
According to the doctors, they tried their absolute best to reverse the effects of the
blood thinners and get Charlie Daniels’ blood to clot after the singer was brought
into the hospital.
However, by the time that they were able to reverse the effects of the blood thinners,
Charlie was no longer showing signs of life.
Charlie Daniels' death occurred pretty fast, and it likely came as a huge shock to the
singer's aforementioned son and longtime wife.
However, the country-music legend had experienced numerous health troubles before, including
the first stroke that he suffered a decade previously.
Charlie Daniels had suffered his first stroke in 2010, after which he was prescribed the
blood thinners that would go on to aid in his death.
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Charlie Daniels Had a History of Heart Problems In 2018, around eight years after suffering
his first stroke, Charlie Daniels underwent surgery that was meant to improve the rhythm
of his heart.
Besides the 2010 stroke, Charlie Daniels had been suffering health problems for a while.
The singer had even been implanted with a pacemaker, and it seems that he had some significant
problems with his blood pressure.
Charlie Jr. has claimed that his father seemed like he was doing better than he had in a
long time after the 2018 surgery that was meant to aid with his heart rhythm.
This makes it all the more tragic that the singer would go on to die only a few years
later.
Many People Paid Their Respects After Charlie’s Passing
There are a few saving graces in the tragic story of Charlie Daniels’ death, and one
of those is the fact that the country-music legend was always a man that held a very strong
faith.
It seems that Charlie Daniels wasn’t afraid of what awaited him after death.
As Dolly Parton put it in a memorable Tweet that she made after Charlie’s passing, “the
devil went down to Georgia, but Charlie went straight to heaven”.
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” remains Charlie Daniels’ most notable song.
Though the song deals with the Devil and may have shocked some listeners when it was first
released back in the late 1970s, Charlie Daniels himself was always a man of God.
Later on in his life, Charlie even decided to take some of the cuss words and references
to illicit substances out of his songs for all future performances.
While Charlie’s lyrical content was never all that profane, the country singer claimed
that he had changed a bit in his old age and no longer wanted to talk about smoking pot.
Dolly Parton was far from being the only notable musician in the country-music scene that came
out the woodwork to pay their respects to the late Charlie Daniels in the wake of his
2020 passing.
Charlie is one of the rare country-music artists that transcended time and had become a true
legend by the time of his death, and there likely isn’t a country musician alive who
doesn’t count themselves as being influenced by the singer’s work growing up.
Some of the modern country stars that publicly paid their respects to Charlie Daniels after
his passing include Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan.
Charlie Had a Long and Storied Career Though Charlie Daniels was one of the biggest
names in country music history by the time of his 2020 death, the singer started out
small.
Charlie got his start as a session musician in Nashville long before striking it big with
his band.
During his early days in the music industry, Charlie could be heard playing guitar on Bob
Dylan's Nashville Skyline.
That album was released in 1969, and Charlie’s band started getting some attention of its
own in the early 1970s.
The group would go on to rise in fame over the course of the ensuing decade, leading
up to the release of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” in 1979.
Following the song’s release, the Charlie Daniels Band transcended the world of country
music and became a full-blown pop sensation.
It may have seemed to the general public like the Charlie Daniels Band had achieved success
overnight with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, but this couldn’t have been further from
the truth.
Both Charlie and his band had worked incredibly hard to get to where they were by the end
of the 1970s.
During the decade, there were periods where the Charlie Daniels Band was playing close
to 300 shows a year.
By the time of Charlie Daniel’s death, the country-music legend had played shows in nearly
every corner of the world.
He even toured the Middle East for American troops.
In 1980, while “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was taking the world by storm, Charlie Daniels
made an appearance as himself in the film Urban Cowboy.
The John Travolta-led film proved a major box-office success, and it helped to popularize
Charlie even more.
The movie also led to country music becoming more mainstream in general, and the Charlie
Daniels Band became the perfect gateway between traditional country music and more modern
pop music.
Charlie Daniels Worked with Many Legendary Musicians
In addition to getting a chance to play with Bob Dylan during his early days as a session
musician, Charlie Daniels also got the chance to play with such notable legends as Ringo
Starr, Leonard Cohen, Claude King, and Marty Robbins.
While Charlie was never afraid to use his voice, it’s undeniable that the country
musician’s greatest talent was on the guitar.
The musician could shred with the best of them, as evidenced by his band’s most iconic
track.
Charlie Was a Man of Many Talents Charlie Daniels didn’t just perform country
music; he also dabbled in gospel music.
The singer was certainly a man of faith, and his gospel work led to him earning a few Dove
Awards.
Despite Charlie Daniel’s immense success in the music world, the musician wasn’t
invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry until he was in his 70s.
Upon being invited, he gladly accepted.
Several years later, in 2016, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Though Charlie Daniels Jr. says that bearing witness to his father’s 2020 death has been
the worst time of his life so far, Charlie Daniels was a man of faith that had no fear
of what waited for him in the afterlife, even if it was the Devil!
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Charlie Daniels played on albums
by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen during his early career and that he was also a gospel
musician?
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