Born 90 Years Ago In North Carolina, He Played On Three Bob Dylan Albums Before Becoming A Star

Sometimes greatness touches greatness. Such was the case with Charlie Daniels, who played guitar and bass on three Bob Dylan albums — "Nashville Skyline" (1969), "Self Portrait" (1970), and "New Morning" (1970) — before forming the Charlie Daniels Band in 1972 and launching his own, highly successful country music career. If he hadn't died in 2020, he would have been 90 on October 28, 2026. 

Born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1936, casual music fans probably remember Daniels more from his fiddlin' than his guitar and bass playing. This is especially true of his biggest hit, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," which went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979 (featuring a fiddle competition between the Devil and a boy named Johnny). But, it was Daniels' guitar and bass playing that impressed Bob Dylan, as Dylan said in his 2004 memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One." Daniels originally got the gig on the first of his three Dylan albums, "Nashville Skyline," because another guitarist couldn't make the recording session. After that point, Dylan apparently requested Daniels, specifically. Daniels even co-wrote Johnny Cash's "The Folk Singer" in 1968.

The same year that Daniels finished his tenure with Dylan on 1970's "New Morning," he played on Ringo Starr's "Beaucoups Of Blues." With this resume and experience under his belt, he formed his very own band, the Charlie Daniels Band, who released their 1974 debut, "Fire On The Mountain." Finally, Daniels had a chance to unleash his full, multi-instrumentalist powers, and you can bet he wasn't fiddlin' around.

It didn't take long for Charlie Daniels to breach containment beyond country and southern rock. In 1975, "The South's Gonna Do it" from "Fire On The Mountain" hit No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is part throwback to '60s piano-driven, blues-based rock, but comes with an obvious southern rock ethos paired with some of Daniels' characteristic fiddle shredding. That's the Charlie Daniels Band's (CDB) entire schtick in a nutshell, bolstered by Daniels' impressive, multi-instrumental talents. He played acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, and banjo on "Fire on the Mountain," in addition to the fiddle and singing. So it was all the way until Daniels got inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2008 and beyond. CDB sold almost 15 million records across its lifespan. 

Out of CDB's seven songs to make it onto the Billboard Hot 100, "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" without a doubt represents the apex of their fame. In the song, the Devil says that he'll claim a boy's soul, Johnny, unless Johnny is better than him at playing the fiddle. The tale echoes all sorts of deal-with-the-devil Faustian bargains going back to stories of the wandering, 16th-century German scholar Faust, whom legends say traded his soul for power. For Daniels' part, he says the song arose organically in the studio, but might have come from a poem called "The Mountain Whippoorwill" from Stephen Vincent Benet (which features a fiddle competition).  

But no matter the inspiration, the song won CDB a Grammy in 1980 and locked their career into place from then on. It also featured Daniels on the fiddle at live shows, a staple that defined both him and his band across their career.