Talk about an unlikely collaboration. In 1995, one yearafter Hootie & the Blowfish's debut Cracked Rear View album came out, Charlie Daniels recalls surprising fans on stage to sing with the rock band.
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"I didn't know them," Daniel says in an interview. "We had an afternoon show in Georgia, and it got rained out. So we were traveling through Savannah, and my bus driver said, 'Do you want to go see Hootie and the Blowfish?' So we pulled up and knew the promoter and went in, and I was sitting on the side of the stage."
Big fans of Daniels, the band asked if he wanted to sit in with them on a song.
"I said, 'But I don't know any of your stuff,'" Daniels remembers. "And they said, 'We'll do 'Mustang Sally'," and I said, "I'm your man!" I've never been onstage in my life before in a pair of Bermuda shorts and blue knee braces! But they're a nice bunch of kids."
What Charlie Daniels and Hootie & the Blowfish Have In Common
No one could have predicted at the time what Daniels and Hootie & the Blowfish's lead singer, Darius Rucker, would have in common. Rucker released his debut country album, Learn to Live, in 2008. Both men also became proud members of the Grand Ole Opry. Daniels was inducted in 2008, with Rucker's induction taking place in 2016.
Daniels may not have ever even had a career in country music, if not for Bob Dylan. It was Dylan's unintended endorsement of Daniels that gave him the courage to pursue a country music career.
"In 1969, Bob Dylan came to town to do Nashville Skyline," Daniels recalls on AXS TV.
"And when I got finished, I was packing my instruments up to leave. And Bob Dylan asked Bob Johnson, 'Where's he going?' And he said, 'He's leaving. I got another guitar player coming,'" he continues.
Dylan's response, "I don't want another guitar player. I want him," gave Daniels the boost he needed.
"Those nine words meant more to me, and were such a shot in the arm to me and such an encouragement to me," the country music icon says. "'Cause I'd had hit some pretty hard licks since I'd been here trying to compete, and Nashville is a really competitive town."
Daniels was 83 years old when he passed away in 2020.
