Southern Rock Giant Charlie Daniels Dies, 83

It is with sadness that we report that the biggest heart under the biggest hat in music, that of Charlie Daniels, has stopped beating after eighty-three glorious years.

Every year while I worked in Memphis following the October 20, 1977 plane crash which killed the road manager, pilots, and three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd including their lead singer and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, the father figure of the whole Southern Rock family, Charlie Daniels, would visit or call Memphis rock radio station ROCK 103 on that date to pay his fond respects. Here is one of those tributes circa October 1980.