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.
I have people talking about, "Boy, I hate to go to work." I love to go to work!
I wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world. I love what I do.
I had been on the road for a long time and was not really getting anywhere. Bob Johnston, a friend of mine, had taken over Columbia in Nashville. He asked me if I wanted to come down. I did - thank God I did.
I don't want to be without God's blessings. If it's inconvenient, then it's just inconvenient. If somebody don't like it, then somebody just don't like it. That is part of me. That's who I am.
I do more writing by myself than with anybody else. My best thing is sitting...around somewhere with a guitar, and having an idea. You never know where it'd come from. Songwriting is a God-given talent.
It's quite a traumatic thing for a lot of our veterans that come back... You're in a war zone, you're dodging IED's and bullets one day and a couple days later you're back in society again with a bunch of people that have no idea of what you've been through.
If I come across an issue, or something I feel strongly about, and I happen to think of a song that would go in that direction, then I do it. But that's not what I start out, necessarily, to do. Sometimes I may have an idea for a song - "Well, I'm going to write about a thing.
Little Jimmy Dickens has long been a musical hero of mine and one of the finest entertainers to ever step on any stage. I was deeply honored to call him a friend and will always remember the time I got to spend with him. The music world has lost one of our greatest treasures. Rest in peace, my little friend. You were loved by so many of us!
He may look dumb, but that's just a disguise.
I just can't imagine not having something to do.
If I can't take Jesus Christ with me, I don't want to go.
I love being Charlie Daniels for good, bad, or indifferent.
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.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I can't wait to get off the bus and... go on stage and entertain people. That's my thing, that's what I love. I love doing it... I thank God I can make a living doing it.
There's a lathered sorrel stallion running through the Joshua trees and a young man in the saddle with his coat tails in the breeze. He's got a six gun on his right hip and a rifle at his knees and he's dealing in a game that he can't win.
We can get rid of red tape.
My next project will be a Christian album, another one. I wrote the songs for the ones you're referring to, but I want to do some of my old gospel favorites. That's what my next album's going to be.
The word 'retirement' is not in my vocabulary right now.
