Charlie Daniels recognized that look in Ira Dean‘s eyes because he had been there himself. When Dean’s band, Trick Pony, opened for Daniels around 2002, Daniels sent his tour manager to fetch Dean after the show and bring him to his dressing room. Dean didn’t understand. He tried to grab his bandmates, Heidi Newfield and Keith Burns, and bring them with him.
Daniels’ tour manager told him no.
“Trick Pony was at our peak, and my self-destruction was at its peak,” Dean said. “With drinking and pharmaceuticals, my self-medicating got out of control. “I went back in his dress room, and he was sitting there. We started talking, and he was the first one to call me out.”
Daniels told Dean he had been watching him. Dean didn’t understand. He thought he was hiding his addiction well.
“He said, ‘I know that look,’” Dean recalled. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘You’re probably just counting down the minutes until you can have a drink right now, aren’t you?’”
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Charlie Daniels: “I Know That Look”
Dean was stunned. Daniels told Dean he hadn’t done anything that Daniels hadn’t done, drank or taken anything that Daniels hadn’t done, drank or taken himself.
“He goes, ‘I’ve been there,’” Dean said. “‘You forget, I hung out with the Skynyrd boys.’”
Daniels put his hand on the back of Dean’s neck and told him there was a better way. Then Daniels prayed with Dean.
“It was the most emotional, crazy thing ever,” Dean said. “He didn’t have to do that. He was probably the first one to plant the seed to be sober — other than my father. He’s like, ‘Any time you need me, I’m here.’”
Dean opened for Daniels right before Daniels died in the summer of 2020. Dean hadn’t seen him in a long time, and Daniels recognized the clarity in Dean’s eyes.
“I walked up to him, and I said, ‘Charlie, (it’s) Ira,’” Dean said. “And he grabbed me by my face, and he looked at me and said, ‘There you are. I’ve been waiting years to see that.’ He goes, ‘I can see you now. Look at you.’”
Dean told him it had taken a long time but that he was finally “here.” The men hugged, and Dean played Daniels a song he had written for him called “Jesus and John Wayne.”
“He reminded me of 50 percent Jesus, percent John Wayne,” Dean said. “He was going to cut it, but he passed away before he cut it.”
Ira Dean Wrote Charlie Daniels a Song
With the help of one of his childhood heroes, Ted Nugent, Dean honored Daniels on his new album I Got Roads. Dean regards the project as his solo debut. His Charlie Daniels hat-tip starts at track five, which is a bombastic introduction – courtesy of Nugent. “WWCD,” which stands for “What Would Charlie Daniels Do,” is track six. Dean wrote it with Jeffrey Steele. He so desperately wanted a Nugent guitar solo on the song that he made a 26-hour round-trip drive to Waco, Texas, to get it.
“I wanted to be just over the top, like Ted,” Dean said. “I wrote his name into the second verse.”
He sent the song to Nugent, who called him immediately and said he wanted to play on it. Dean laughed in disbelief as Nugent promised he’d put an epic solo on the track. But Nugent was hunting in Waco, Texas, and wasn’t available. Dean narrowed down Nugent’s hunting schedule, picked up his producer, and the men drove 13 hours to Waco. Dean arrived at Nugent’s house with recording gear the day after he agreed to play on “WWCD.”
They arrived in Waco at 5 a.m., rented a room, and slept until it was time to go to Nugent’s house at 10 a.m. Nugent was still wearing his camouflage and told Dean he thought he was joking when he told him he was coming.
Ira Dean Surprised Ted Nugent in Texas
“I said, ‘No, I told you. Pick up a guitar and let’s play,’” Dean recalls. “And he recorded it, and he recorded it quick.”
Nugent and his wife cooked him lunch – bacon-wrapped backstrap. And then Dean and his producer hopped back in the car and started the long drive back to Nashville. Dean’s producer asked to be dropped off in Dallas so he could fly the rest of the way home.
“We had a blast,” Dean said. “I said I looked at (my producer) on the way back. I said, ‘We’re definitely living up to ‘I Got Roads’ right now,” referencing the album title. “This is another road in the long list of roads I’ve taken in life.”
(Photo by Mindy Small/FilmMagic)
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