Charlie Daniels Speaks with GRITZ About The Gulf Oil Crisis and More

by Michael Buffalo Smith

Charlie Daniels has had quite a year. More recording, non-stop touring and recovering from a stroke, and he is still doing it to it as fast as he can go. And then there's the now legendary Geico commercial. I spoke with Charlie yesterday to get his take on the Nashville floods, the Gulf oil spill and more.

Charlie, can you give us your thoughts on the great Nashville flood of 2010 and the aftermath?
I have never been prouder of a community than I have been of the middle Tennessee community. I live there, I choose to live there. I plan to spend the rest of my life living here. And I have seen other flooded areas. I have seen the devastation of floods in New Orleans and so many other places, the Midwest and many others. I watched the reaction of the people in Nashville during the flood.

I was sitting out in the next county. up on a hill with no flood problems. I watched people act in a self sufficient way in that they did not wait for the government, they did not wait for the Coast Guard to send helicopters to pick people up, they did not let people go hungry. They got in their bass boats and went out and rescued people and saved their lives. They took strangers into their homes. They helped people set up housekeeping again.

They went in and helped people tear out mildewed siding. They did all the things that good neighbors are supposed to do. This is the difference between what happened in Nashville and what happened in other cities like New Orleans. they got out and did it themselves. They didn’t wait for help to come. There was no time to wait. People were drowning. Old people were on oxygen and sitting in their rooms afraid to move. People whose food and water supply had been destroyed. They needed help. That meant neighbors helping neighbors and that's what happened in middle Tennessee. I am proud and happy to be a part of that community.


I know you are an honest, outspoken man. Would you share your  thoughts on the oil spill in the gulf?

I am disgusted, to be honest with you about it, Michael.  Instead of doing something about it, the government has been more in the way more than anything else. I have seen so m,any people who have good ideas. If you can’t stop the leak at least keep the oil from getting on the shore. We’re over two months into this thing and all the government seems to be able to do is have meetings about it. That’s gonna do no good. Bureaucracy can not solve this. It takes people with some knowledge, with some common sense.

There are people with ideas on how to clean this mess up but they are not allowed to. So you sit there and let the prime seafood breeding area of the entire coast be destroyed. You let the beaches that people make their livings on be destroyed. You shut down the drilling so you take away the last vestige of economic help that the people of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast have, and you leave them stranded and broke without jobs, without hope, without anything. I am disgusted. I think  it’s been just pure-T idiocy and lack of common sense and lack of experience. It’s the whole Obama administration. The man has never done anything but serve two years in the senate. The people that are with him haven’t got enough common sense to change a flat tire. They need to get the hell out of the way and let some people who know what they’re doing take care of this thing. It is stupid to stand in the way and watch part of America and part of American life destroyed.

Charlie you stay so busy. What are your upcoming plans. Can we expect another record anytime soon?
We’ve got an album that’s made up of all the patriotic things that we’ve done coming out in August. It’s called “Land That I Love.” We’ve got a couple of singles from it now available for download, one is called “When I Get Home from Iraq,” or “The Iraq Blues” and the other is called “What This World Needs is a Few More Rednecks,” which is an old song that I did but it has been updated to fit the present day. “Iraq” is a three verse song that I wrote on three different trips to Iraq. Everyone can understand it, but I am sure it will mean more to the people who served in the sand box. Full touring schedule. Same ol same ol Michael. Just keeping busy doing what I’ve been doing for these past many years. I just enjoy it and thank God I can make a living in a business I enjoy so much.

See also:

Legends of Southern Rock, The CDB

Charlie Daniels Six Degrees of Swampland

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