Doug Gray of the Marshall Tucker Band is paying tribute to his good friend, the late country music legend Charlie Daniels. Charlie passed away in early July at age 83. And Gray isn’t the only one honoring the “bigger than life” country star. Charlie Daniels’ legacy lives on via the star’s 1 million strong Twitter page. Messages continue to post on the topics closest to Daniels’ heart like Veterans, God, and 9/11.
Gray spoke with Fox News and recounted the moment he was told Daniels had died of a hemorrhagic stroke on July 6.
The Marshall Tucker Band lead vocalist said:
“It’s been a crazy little couple of weeks here. I got a call from Charlie’s people up there and it floored me. I had to sit down. I was downstairs and outside and it just floored me.”
“They said Charlie’s gone — and I said, Charlie who? You know — because, I mean — Charlie was supposed to live on forever. He was the one guy that had the strength of ten men.”
Gray, 72, said that he had talked to Daniels just three weeks before his death. They talked about ways they could continue entertaining people amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The two bands were going to kick off their “Fire On The Mountain” tour this spring before the pandemic hit.
“Three weeks ago, Charlie called me up,” he recounted. “We don’t talk on the phone very much — there was no need to because we’re going to see each other. We continuously played together on and off all these years, but we’d look forward to putting this ‘Fire on the Mountain’ thing together.”
To hear some of Charlie’s best fiddle playing, listen to Orange Blossom Special from the the ‘Fire on the Mountain’ album:
Gray added:
“And where our song ‘Fire on the Mountain’ had did [sic] good, his album ‘Fire on the Mountain’ had done good — so we have tried for 15 years or so to try to put me and him together and Marshall Tucker Band together with Charlie so that we could go out and do the show. And you never knew what was gonna happen.”
Here’s a video of the Marshall Tucker Band’s song, ‘Fire On The Mountain.’
RELATED: Charlie Daniels’ Wife Shares Private Letter From Trump Honoring The Late Country Legend
Gray and Daniels were friends for 50 years, and he got somber when he talked about his favorite memory of his late pal. This memory involved Daniels’ bond with former Marshall Tucker Band member Toy Caldwell:
“Toy and [Daniels] got along really good, it was almost like they were inseparable as far as being out on tour. And they were friends off stage as well. I remember walking down the hallway on the first floor of a hotel we were staying in — and we were doing 300 shows a year but we couldn’t afford but six or seven hotel rooms between both bands — and I look in the room because we never shut the curtains and I saw Toy sitting in a chair and Charlie sitting on the bed and they’re talking about another particular song that they heard from somebody else on the radio.”
Though he couldn’t remember what song they were talking about, Gray said that the two men’s friendship “got bigger and bigger and greater and greater until Toy passed away [in 1993].”
“It was never anything that we didn’t expect. We knew that we couldn’t live long forever, but we also didn’t expect Charlie to pass,” Gray said. “But because of the simple reason that he was bigger than life, he was a light that was never supposed to burn out. He was the gift to all the musicians that are sitting on their a– right now and not learning about the music business because they’ve got plenty of time to learn.”
“And Charlie was well-versed in that part of it because we all had built record companies and things like then and been tossed around with different management companies,” he continued. “But we got together on that.”
Gray concluded that he firmly believes that Daniels is playing to the masses on a stage in Heaven.
“There will always be a Charlie Daniels in everybody from now on,” he said. “And I think because of his ability to instill in all of us a moment of proudness for our flag and for other people, he’ll never be forgotten.”
RELATED: Inside Charlie Daniels’ Incredible 50-Year Love Story With His Wife Hazel
Since Charlie Daniels’ death, his legacy of raising awareness about key issues is being kept alive through his Twitter page.
The “Devil Went Down To Georgia” singer was known for being outspoken on Twitter. He relentlessly advocated on behalf of causes dear to his heart.
Charlie Daniels Twitter page is still regularly posting about veteran’s causes, pro-life statistics, and more.
One thing is for sure: Charlie Daniels will never be forgotten.
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