Country musician Charlie Daniels honoured at memorial service

MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. — Country Music Hall of Fame musician Charlie Daniels received military honours at a memorial service in Tennessee on Wednesday night.

The country music icon, who penned the hit “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” died at the age of 83 on Monday after a stroke, according to his publicist.

The singer, guitarist and fiddler was also an honorary brigadier general in the Tennessee State Guard and founded the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center at Middle Tennessee State University, officials for the school said.

Tennessee’s adjutant general, Army Maj. Gen. Jeff Holmes, was joined by the university’s president and senior adviser for veterans and leadership initiatives to render the military honours at the outdoor service at a Mount Juliet funeral home.

The ceremony began with a flyover of Army Blackhawk helicopters. Holmes and university representatives later presented American flags to Daniels’ wife, Hazel, and son Charlie Daniels Jr.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee delivered remarks and country musician Trace Adkins, among others, performed.

Daniels, a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, started out as a session musician, playing on Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline” sessions. Beginning in the early 1970s, his five-piece band toured extensively, sometimes doing 250 shows a year. Throughout his career, Daniels performed at the White House, the Super Bowl, throughout Europe and often for troops in the Middle East.

The Associated Press