How Charlie Daniels Became Country Music’s Most Beloved Patriot

Charlie Daniels wasn’t born a patriot, but the era and area in which he grew up molded him into one of country music’s most ardent supporters of the United States Military. He died on July 6, 2020, from a hemorrhagic stroke at Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tennessee. Daniels was 83 years old.
For at least 78 of those 83 years, the Country Music Hall of Famer understood the importance of American soldiers to his core.

Daniels was 5 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He grew up in the coastal town of Wilmington, N.C., which had a shipyard. Wilmington was a port city that shipped supplies across the ocean to the American troops fighting World War II.

As a child, Daniels was terrified that Germans would invade his town. In 2019, he still remembered how he felt when enemy U-boats sank cargo ships right off the North Carolina coast. He heard people say they could see the boats burn from the beaches.

“We felt in danger,” Daniels told me. “We were vigilant. (The community) thought it was possible we could get involved in the shooting part of the war. I learned there were two things that protect America — the grace of God and the United States military.”

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Charlie Daniels: “We Felt in Danger”

He felt that conviction until the day he died. Not content for his legacy to be limited to being a master fiddle player and Southern rock pioneer, the singer of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” partnered with his longtime manager, David Corlew, to create The Journey Home Project.

Founded in 2014, The Journey Home Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to elevating and supporting veterans and their families. TJHP will help veterans find employment, assist them with relocation, provide transportation, and offer crisis support. However, its primary mission is to assist other nonprofit veterans’ organizations in securing funding to aid veterans of the U.S. armed forces.
In 11 years, the Journey Home Project has raised over $4 million to support veterans and veteran-related programs and charities.

“The agencies that are tasked with helping our folks who come back from their service are all bureaucracies,” Daniels said in 2019. “They are slow by nature. A lot of veterans’ needs are immediate. If someone has PTSD, he can’t wait. They need help today.”

Daniels made numerous trips overseas during his career to entertain troops. He entertained soldiers in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan and did a tour of German military bases. His understanding of deficits in veterans’ care extended back decades beyond recent conflicts. The singer watched as troops returned from Vietnam and struggled to acclimate to civilian life.

Charlie Daniels Understood Decades of Soldier Trauma

He explained that when veterans returned from World War II, they made the trip on ships, which allowed them weeks to decompress. Now, their journey home takes place in a single day. In a matter of hours, soldiers could go from being shot at to being in a grocery store stateside.

Middle Tennessee-area veterans and their families can take advantage of Middle Tennessee State University’s Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center. The center serves as a resource for veterans on and off campus who seek higher education and require additional support.
On a larger scale, the Journey Home Project donated $50,000 to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to research a unique kind of cancer that strikes mainly veterans and impacts all their organs.

“From helping the homeless to cancer research, that’s the pride I carry,” Corlew said. “It’s the mentality of the CDB employee. Everyone just jumps in and helps.”

In 2018, the Journey Home Project awarded its inaugural Patriot Award — an honor annually presented during the Charlie Daniels Patriot Award Dinner held in September in Nashville.

Country singer Chris Young was the first recipient. In 2019, Nashville businessman Donnie Mingus (Team Construction), music industry international talent buyer/promoter Judy Seale (Judy Seale International / Stars for Stripes), and the Shepherd’s Men, an organization dedicated to raising funds and awareness for the SHARE Military Initiative at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, were recognized.
Other winners include Gov. Mike Huckabee, country singer Darryl Worley, actor Gary Sinise, country singer Lee Greenwood, John Taylor, Bob Regan, and Don Goodman, founders of Operation Song.

Who Wouldn’t Want to Be a Patriot?

“I don’t know of anyone who wouldn’t be proud to receive a Charlie Daniels Patriot Award,” Corlew told The Tennessean. “I thought the award could live on after Journey Home because someone else could adopt it, and it could live on and carry Charlie’s name.”

The date for the 2025 Patriot Awards Dinner hasn’t been announced.

(Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images)