Family And Fans Outraged After Charlie Daniels’ Grave Is Vandalized

The family and fans of legendary country music star Charlie Daniels are furious right now after his grave at a cemetery in Mount Juliet, Tennessee was vandalized.

This comes exactly one week before the two-year anniversary of Daniels’ death on July 6. 

Daniels’ Grave Vandalized

Taste of Country reported that the Charlie Daniels Band team issued a statement letting fans know that a dogwood tree sapling was stolen, along with the watering bag that was keeping it alive.

“MJPD (Mount Juliet Police Department) will be increasing patrols near his grave & video surveillance will soon be installed,” the statement continued. 

Related: Charlie Daniels’ Wife Shares Private Letter From Trump Honoring The Late Country Legend

Social Media Users Respond

Social media users were livid over the vandalism.

“People are sorry as hell! RIP Charlie!” one user commented on the above Instagram post, with another adding, “People are ridiculous. I’m sorry this happened.”

“What this world needs is a little more respect For the Lord and the law and the workin’ man,” another user stated. A fourth wrote, “Sad excuses for human beings.”

“Sad times when you have to put surveillance on a grave,” another user wrote. “A grave of a well loved and respected legend no less.”

Daniels was buried at Mt. Juliet Memorial Gardens in July of 2020 after he died at the age of 83 following a hemorrhagic stroke. A grave marker with Psalm 91 was added to his burial site several months later.

While vandalism hasn’t occurred at the grave before, fans have shown their love for Daniels by leaving behind things like ball caps, coins, painted rocks, and stuffed animals. You can see some of these items for yourself in the video below.

Daniels Family Clarifies 

It was originally reported that the perpetrator who stole the tree also glued a military ID that belongs to his or her spouse to the grave marker’s marble edge.

However, the Daniels family has since clarified that “several months ago, an expired military dependent (spouse’s) ID of a woman who has since been divorced from her military spouse was superglued to the marble on the marker.”

“The family welcomes anyone leaving items, what they do not want is to have items glued to the marker, or have any trees that the family planted nearby (with the full consent of the cemetery owner) dug up and stolen,” they added. 

Related: Inside Charlie Daniels’ Incredible 50-Year Love Story With His Wife Hazel

Daniels’ Faith In God

In one of his final interviews, Daniels talked about just how important his faith was to him.

“If I didn’t have the Lord in my life, I couldn’t — I’d be — I don’t know where I’d be. I really don’t know where I’d be,” Daniels told Fox News one month before his death. 

“And there’s been times in my life when I did not have the Lord in my life, and things would — bad things would happen, and I wouldn’t know — you know, you don’t know where to go, you don’t know what to do,” he continued. “But I learned what my motto nowadays is, we try to walk by faith and not by sight.”

It’s sad that we live in a time where security has to be increased at a cemetery to stop a grave from being vandalized, particularly when that grave belongs to as godly a man as Charlie Daniels was. We hope and pray that whoever did this is held accountable for this despicable act.