TrueLife - Tribute to Charlie Daniels: Legacy, Music & the Spirit of the South

Episode Date: July 8, 2020

A simple man…Celebrating the life and legacy of Charlie Daniels — exploring his music, cultural influence, and the spirit that made him an icon of country and rock.

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Hears through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Kodex Seraphini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Welcome to Wednesday. It's hump day. Right in the middle. We're smack dab in the middle of the week. How you guys feeling?

Are you still coming up the hump? Are you on your way down the hump right now? I'm like almost at the top right here. Almost at the top. Getting ready just to start coasting down. Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday. So I was thinking about all the things that have been happening this week. And, you know, a couple days ago, we had, you guys know,

you guys know Charlie Daniels, the Charlie Daniels band. We lost that guy. We lost that guy. And I, if you don't know Charlie Daniels, Daniels. He's saying that the first, my first memory of Charlie Daniels was like the devil went down to Georgia looking for a soul to steal. He was at a bind because he was way behind. He's looking to make a deal. Remember that one? It was like the first song I remember where like they said the word bitch and I remember being like, oh my God, that guy said a bad word, you know?

And it's at the end of the song when, uh, if you haven't heard Charlie Daniels devil goes down to Georgia, you should definitely just look, Google. it and play it. It's kind of a song about pride. It's kind of a song about one man beating temptation. The devil jumps up on this hickory stump and he challenges this young fiddle player. And the young is, when you think about it from like a philat, like a philosophical point of view, it's kind of funny because here's this young man and he's going to challenge the devil. And so you got to think God's like, yeah, I want this young man to beat the devil. But at the end, he beats the devil and he tells the devil, just come on back, you son of a bitch. And then you think God's probably like, hey, wait a minute. The devil was lucifer.

He's an angel. His mom's probably not a bitch. He probably couldn't call him a son of a bitch. It's probably not his mom's fault. So that's probably what God's like, wait a minute, he shouldn't do that. But then he's like, yeah, he kind of beat the devil. So I just remember thinking like, man, what a conundrum that is. I don't, like, yeah, I'm glad he beat the devil.

I'm glad he got the golden fiddle. and I'm glad he said the kind of, I'm kind of glad he called the devil a bad name. But I don't know. Did his mom deserve that? Probably not. Probably not. But anyways, you know, as I grew older,

I didn't like buy a bunch of Charlie Daniels albums or whatever. However, I did listen to more of his music. And like, there's some songs in there that I really think capsulate the American spirit. And in a tribute, to Charlie Daniels. For all the times I got to listen to the music and he made me think about things.

Like I kind of wanted just to go over a little bit with him and a tribute to him and a tribute to America. One song in particular is called A Simple Man. We're going to go through it here a little bit and it starts off like this. I ain't nothing but a simple man. They call me a redneck. I reckon that I am.

But there's things going on that make me. mad down to the core. I think we can all relate with that. There's things going on right now that make us all mad to the core. I have to work like a dog to make ends meet. There's crooked politicians and crime in the street. And I'm madder than hell and I ain't going to take it no more. I think that pretty much sums up America right now.

I think we all kind of can channel our inner Charlie Daniels there. And agree with that. We tell our kids just say no. Then some panty waste judge lets the drug dealer go, slaps them on the wrist, and turns them back out on town. Well, if I had my way with people selling dope, I'd take a big, tall tree and a short piece of rope. I'd hang them up high and let them swing until the sun goes down.

Let's kind of decipher that a little bit and define who the drug dealers are. My vote for the drug dealers are like the big pharmaceutical companies, like the Sackler family, right? The people that sold drugs and get all the people addicted to like painkillers and opiates and just make massive profits off it. You know, some of the pharmaceutical companies that go into our medical schools and they pay for the curriculum, they buy the textbooks,

and that allows them to write part of the textbook. Thus, it sways the opinions of our doctors later in life. Those, to me, are the drug dealers. Right? Not the guy slinging a dime bag on the corner. You know, that's more medicine than what the pharmaceutical companies are selling, I think. You know, and it brings up a good point.

Like, where is the justice there? I don't think it would take a whole lot to set an example. But there's never an example. And there's tons of penny waste judge. They just slap them on the wrist. In fact, the judge will allow the pharmaceutical companies or the chemical companies to not even admit guilt. They don't even if they admit guilt.

And a lot of times the reason is because, you know, those judges, the lawyers, they usually are taking a little bribe. They're usually getting a kickback. They're usually not what they're supposed to be. Does that make sense?

Like they're not providing justice? That's for damn sure. And the song goes on. And this is kind of a, I mean, this is one of the most philosophical parts right here. See what you think. Well, you know what's wrong

with the world today. People done gone, put their Bibles away. they're living by the law of the jungle, not the law of the land. Well, the good book says it's so I know it's the truth. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. See, there he's kind of getting back into the Old Testament, right? And that's, I mean, that's what happened. You want to live, when there's no law,

when you don't live by the law of the land, you live by the law of the jungle. And it takes a while for the law of the jungle to reach the top. See, in the beginning, you got these people at the very top that think they're the apex predators. But slowly the environment evolves until those apex predators become weak. Because they don't have to fight for anything. They just get fat and lazy. And then all of a sudden, there's a new twist in evolution.

There's a new genetic anomaly that happens in a... and a different animal. And it begins to prey on the weakness of the former apex predator. Like that's what I think is happening. It seems to me like the political class and that the billionaire class and the corporate class,

like they're so blinded with ambition. They're so blinded by greed. Like what they don't understand is that the American, like the working man, the simple man, the working woman, the simple woman, the stay at home mom. Like what they don't understand is like right now we're dating.

Banner and this billionaire class of oligarchs they think that they're so tough they're coming up and they're pushing and they're pushing and they're running their mouth and they're running this and they flapping their gums like right now we're David Banner but we are one minute away from becoming the incredible Hulk fucking one push away one word one one more thing and we become the incredible Hulk and you can trust me they won't like us when we're angry They will not like us when we're angry. Because we're coming for them. And here's, here's, the song continues. And this is, this is Charlie Daniel's. This is Charlie Daniels idea of some justice right here. Now, I'm the kind of man that wouldn't hurt a mouse. But if I catch somebody breaking in my house, I got a 12-gauge shotgun waiting on the other side.

So don't go pushing me against my will. I don't want to have to fight you, but I darn sure will. If you don't want trouble, then you better just pass me on by. As far as I'm concerned, there ain't no excuse for the raping and the killing and the child abuse, which is, if you think about the Epstein scandal, the Weinstein scandal, Maxwell right now, the Bronfman scandal, these people are just raping and killing and just having a field day with children. I don't know Like that's not a race thing

Like every all of us Brown black white Red yellow Like these are our children And there's this class of people up here That think they're above the law They're above the law Are you kidding me?

What's going to happen to Maxwell? That girl's going to get out She might not get out immediately But she's got enough money Where they're just going to She'll pay off the judge the judge is probably already compromised. That girl's got enough money hidden in enough places

to pay off enough people to walk out of there. You know, they'll start her off with like a life sentence that you get plea bargain down to like 10 and she'll do five, maybe. But old Charlie Daniels here, he says, look, I got a way to put an end to all that mess. You just take them rascals out to the swamp. You put them on their knees and tie them to a stump.

Let the rattlers and the bugs and the alligators do the rest. Imagine that. Imagine that. Right? Like, imagine this. Like, we have a TV show. You just drive up and you're like, hey, call up Harvey.

Hey, Harvey, Jeffrey. Dude, I'm taking you guys for a ride. We're going to go pick up Maxway. Yo, Julio, get the stretch. Have Julio bring the stretch over. You pick up these knuckleheads. All televised, right? It'd be like a reality show.

We could even have people like submit ideas on how to get rid of these knuckleheads. Like that could be a contest and like the winner gets a million dollars. Hey, that was a great idea. But imagine just driving those guys around and just being like, look, so we're going to take you out here to the swamp. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to tie you up to this stump over here and then we're going to leave you. What kind of, what kind of, you might be thinking what kind of animal would do that? well the Incredible Hulk would do that

the people who were once David Banner who became the Incredible Hulk would do that I think it would be justified I mean if we're not going to play by the law of the land let's play by the law of the jungle and you could say oh George and I for an eye makes the world blind

but I say to you the one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind that's what I say you know I don't think it would take much to fundamentally change the actions of the people in this elite class, the bankers, the top attorneys, the government officials who let all the lobbyists write the bills. Look, we just have to make an example. There needs to be consequences. And if there's not going to be consequences at the judicial level, then there needs to be

consequences at the human level. Like a spectacle. There needs to be a spectacle. Like, if indeed, hypothetically, the Charlie Daniels solution was made public, how many more people would want to do what Epstein did? How many more people would want to do what Weinstein did? Not many. You know, and that brings me to the next step of, hey, let's start putting up some new statues. You know what I mean? How about we put, like, a picture of Jeffrey Epstein. just tied to a stump, like all just ruined, like all eaten by all

eaten by alligators with like a freaking arms cut off, just wrecked. Let's put up a statue with that. Let's put up a statue of like Gislane Maxwell just crushed by like a guillotine. Like, right here's what we do. This is our new form of justice. And we can put those up in the center squares. Like that's what I mean about symbolism. Like if you have the right symbolism,

people will understand what those statues mean. Hey, here's somebody that decided that they wanted to ruin our children. And here's what we do to people like that. Don't ever grow up and be like that. You know, a new century, a new millennium, a new time calls for new symbols. So if we're taking down some old statues,

I think we should be putting up some new ones. And I think those new statues should be symbolic of working people destroying corruption. Just a little something to remind the people on top. Like, hey, take it easy. Don't get greedy. Don't do it. Don't do it, Chachi.

Don't get greedy on me, Chachi. Come here, let me show you this statue. Right? We could create a new history. And in classrooms, we could tell our kids, oh, you know, around the turn of the century, we had all these greedy bankers. We had all these greedy people up here

that were stealing from it. everybody. It was horrible. They wanted everyone to work like 80 hours a week and they wanted to pay him less and they didn't want anybody to have health care. And then there was this people's revolution. And that's what this statue is about. You see, here we are and here's, here's a black guy and a white guy and an Asian guy and an Indian. And we all have our knee on the neck of the banking people. Look at, isn't that beautiful? Oh, this guy's wearing a Wells Fargo jacket. This guy has a Goldman jacket. guy has a Bank of America. Isn't it beautiful, these different color, this rainbow coalition of people with the knee

on the neck of the knuckleheads who are trying to strangle our society? Think about that statue. And you go there and, you know, once a year we all go there. We throw a big party and black people and white people and Mexican people. We're just, dude, we're tearing it up, man, having a barbecue, just celebrating. Freedom, baby. Freedom. Singing the national anthem like, yeah, look at this.

We destroyed corruption. Walk into your bank and be like, hey, I'm David Banner right now. But if you push me, I'm going to be the Incredible Hulk. You won't like me when I'm angry. We just need to remind the people at the top they should be afraid of us. And that's what Charlie Daniels kind of meant to me. When he says he's a simple man, he's just saying like, look, just leave me alone. I don't mind paying taxes, but I don't want to see some politician get rich off it.

I don't mind kicking in. I don't mind helping society. I want to build something. But when I see the people at the top exploiting instead of exploring, that's when we have a problem. That's when the American spirit. And by American spirit, I mean the spirit that changes David Bannered into the Incredible Hulk. Listen, as Americans, we are gangsters. We are fighters.

That's what we do. That's what we do. Every one of you knuckleheads probably has a weapon in your house. Don't lie, man. Come on, don't lie. Some of you got serial numbers scratched off. I know what I've seen them. Right?

We're the type of people that wouldn't hurt a mouse. But if you catch somebody breaking in your house, you've got a shotgun waiting on the other side. Inside each one of us Americans is the incredible haul just ready to come out. Right? Sometimes you've got to restrain them. And we've been restraining them. But the time is coming. and we may have to let that animal out.

It seems like every, every hundred years, like, as Americans, you know, we sit back and we take it and we take it and take it until we can't take it. And that time I think is coming. And when that time comes, it's important for us all to focus on where the corruption is. Look, there's inequality without a doubt. There's racism without a doubt. But a lot of those are tools being wielding. by people on the top to divide the people on the bottom.

Can you imagine like what does the focused hatred have? What is the focused hatred of a country? What can that do? You know when you take a magnifying glass and you're going to, you focus the power of the sun and you can burn a leaf? Like, what can the collective anger of a nation do? Do you have any idea of the destructive power? or the creative power for that matter.

Do you have any concept of what the collective focused power can do? Nothing can get in our way. Nothing. I don't care how much money these people have. I don't care how much power they claim to have. If you focused our combined efforts, do we would mow down these people? And I think that that's what's important to know when you see this garbage, divisive crap on TV or you hear these people talking about stuff.

Like, that's not what's going on. What's going on is that the entirety of the American people are waking up and they're getting pissed. And the people on top are so scared because they know there's not enough money to pay everybody off. There's not a whole deep enough to hide. The world's not big enough to run. Like the American people are coming. We don't want anything for free, but we want a fair deal. And the times are changing.

I love you guys. And I hope you take a chance to listen to that song. Devil went down to Georgia. And Simple Man by Charlie Daniels. All right? Aloha. I love you.