‘Southern Rock’ icon Charlie Daniels, advocate for Lipscomb vets, dies at 83

‘Southern Rock’ icon Charlie Daniels, advocate for Lipscomb vets, dies at 83

Charlie Daniels, who died Monday at age 83, used his stardom and energy to help veterans’ causes, including helping provide the educational costs for veterans attending Lipscomb. Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, died after suffering a stroke.  The funeral for the Grand Ole Opry member, best known for “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” and with his Charlie Daniels Band helping to define the “Southern Rock” genre, is at 11 a.m. Friday at World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro. Sellars Funeral Home in Daniels’ adopted hometown of Mt. Juliet will host a visitation from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Thursday. The singer played a part in Lipscomb’s Yellow Ribbon scholars program, which — along with the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill and Veterans Administration — funds the education of Post 9/11 veterans. For five years, Daniels put on a concert at Lipscomb for the Copperweld Charlie Daniels’ Scholarship for Heroes to raise funds for Lipscomb University’s Yellow Ribbon Enhancement Program.   The first installment of the Copperweld Charlie Daniels’ Scholarship for Heroes concert was held in spring 2010.  “Charlie Daniels was a talented musician, a man of deep conviction and principles, and a patriot,” said Lipscomb President Randy Lowry. “But most of all he was a compassionate person who tirelessly invested his time, talents and resources to make the lives of others better.”  Daniels was best known for his crossover hit from 1979, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which remains a staple on country and classic rock radio stations. The song made it to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Daniels the Grammy for...
Charlie Daniels, Luke Bryan, others perform for Yellow Ribbon Program benefit concert

Charlie Daniels, Luke Bryan, others perform for Yellow Ribbon Program benefit concert

Although Tuesday began with the chill of unexpected snow flurries, it ended with Charlie Daniels and a group of his high-profile musician friends heating up Allen Arena. The fifth annual Copperweld Charlie Daniels’ Scholarship for Heroes concert — the first installment of which was held in spring 2010 — raises funds for Lipscomb University’s Yellow Ribbon Enhancement Program. The program allows post-9/11 military veterans, as well as their family members, to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees from Lipscomb, either tuition-free or at greatly reduced costs. All proceeds from the concert go towards the scholarships of the more than 200 Yellow Ribbon students at Lipscomb. “War was very real to me,” Daniels said, “I realized that only two things protect America, and that’s the grace of God and the United States military. It’s that way then, it’s that way now, and as long as there’s an America, when these folks go and lay their lives on the line for us and come back, we owe them.  I don’t view [the concert] as something glorious that I do, I view it as it is my duty.” Lipscomb students, Nashville music fans and a flurry of other folks poured into Allen Arena to see Daniels and his band, Kellie Pickler, Clint Black, The Grascals, Lee Greenwood, the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters and the American Hitmen. The host for the night was Music City broadcast personality Storme Warren, described as the “Dick Clark of Nashville” in a profile by The Tennessean morning newspaper. Director of Veterans Services Jim Humphrey, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, provided the invocation. Humphrey, also associate dean of students and the head of Lipscomb Security, will be leaving the...