To honor those who both attend Lipscomb and have served our country in the past ten years, Charlie Daniels returned to Lipscomb Tuesday night to headline the third annual concert benefitting the campus’ Yellow Ribbon program.
Founded in 2009, the Yellow Ribbon program helps post 9/11 GI Bill veterans to obtain an education for little-to-no charge on their behalf at Lipscomb University. The current program currently offers more than 150 veterans the chance to attend the university.
Daniels expressed enthusiasm in getting another opportunity work with the program.
“I can’t think of a bigger honor or a more necessary thing to do than to try to take care of people who have literally gone out and stood between us and the enemy,” Daniels said. “I think that a lot of our servicemen and women have changed their dreams in midstream. Maybe they had something planned to do when they came back from the service that injuries may have precluded them to do, and this program helps prepare them for the rest of their lives. So, I don’t think we can ever do enough for our service people.”
The musician has a long history of holding servicemen and women in a very high regard.Daniels said that “you cannot beat the people in our military.”
Charlie Daniels fiddling away the strings
Daniels was very excited to play in front of a large crowd in Allen Arena Tuesday night and was not hesitant in saying so.
“It’s like when I hit stage, a crowd is a crowd and a show is a show, and I’m there to give everything all I’ve got,” Daniels said.
Daniels also offered a special message to any and all Yellow Ribbon students or troops.
‘“I just want to say thank you for serving, and I’m so glad that we can be part, hopefully at least a small part, of helping them get on with the rest of their lives,” Daniels said.
Daniels was joined by Academy Award nominated actor Gary Sinise, best known for his work as Lt. Dan in the film Forrest Gump and as Detective Mac Taylor on the television drama CSI: New York.
Sinise actively participates in charitable events for troops. He also helps those serving our country through his personal organization, the Gary Sinise Foundation.
The bass player from the Lt. Dan Band shared his appreciation for the troops and noted their importance to the nation.
“We can never take our freedom for granted,” Sinise said. “We have to thank God and the service members every single day for the freedom that we have. And going out and patting them on the back and trying to keep them strong and help their families get through these tough deployments that [the soldiers] are going through, especially after ten years of war and all the stress that they’ve had to endure and multiple injuries with so many of our wounded warriors and everything.”
“It’s just a privilege to be able to go out there and try support them and back them up and help them get through these tough times.”
Sinise joined Daniels onstage during the show in renditions of “Sweet Home Alabama” and Daniels’ biggest hit, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”.
Bluegrass group The Grascals opened the show. They were followed by Nashville Star winner and Murfreesboro native Chris Young and country singer Darryl Worley. Worley is best known for his hit singles “I Miss my Friend”, “Awful, Beautiful Life” and “Have You Forgotten”.
“Anytime that we get an opportunity to do something to help our troops, you know, we do it,” Worley said. “In my mind, this is a really special event with the Yellow Ribbon program because when I’m thinking about people joining the service and what motivates them to do that, I know, at least in my family, that that education is right there in the front of their minds.”
Worley also expressed his thanks to the soldiers.
“I would like to thank them for their service, and I would like to thank everybody in the organization for letting us be a part of this,” Worley said. “But more than anything else, I’m very, very thankful to see and to know and to hear that those people are going to be able to get their education. That’s the important part. That’s why I’m here.”
The surprise of the night came when surprise attendants country group Rascal Flatts appeared on stage to perform “Fast Cars and Freedom”, “What Hurts the Most” and their rendition of the classic “Life is a Highway.”
At the end of the night, all the Yellow Ribbon soldiers in attendance made their way to the stage to be honored as the David Lipscomb High School chorus closed the show with a short rendition of patriotic songs.
Daniels spoke for all the performers saying they were honored to be “helping hopefully restore some of the joy in some lives that have been shattered and interrupted.”
Daniels ended the night by saying, “God bless you son, God bless you daughter.”
Above photo by Whitney Jarreld. For more photos, visit our Flickr page.
To learn more about the Yellow Ribbon program at Lipscomb, visit http://www.lipscomb.edu/yellowribbon.
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