Charlie Daniels Never Claimed to Be ‘Country’

"I don't listen to the radio, I really don't. That's not a derogatory statement -- I don't understand the music anymore," Charlie Daniels admits to the Merced Sun-Star, when asked about the evolution of country music. "A lot of it sounds like the same song over and over again to me. Somebody was probably saying the same thing about my music when I first started, so maybe it's my age."

With a career that spans 53 years, the music legend may be best known for his No. 1 country smash, 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia,' but the fiddle virtuoso defends his genre-bending music, and refutes being labeled a country artist.

"I never claimed to be country," Charlie says. "I never claimed to be anything. I think people kind of categorized my music for 30 or 40 years. But I've never laid claim to a genre. I call it American music. We definitely play country music, but we play jazz, rock and gospel. I refuse to be categorized because I think that puts blinders on you."

No matter the genre, Charlie does admit to being a strong supporter of the military. The singer's most recent song, 'Let 'em Win or Bring 'em Home,' echoes his stance on our nation's inability to follow through with war initiatives.

"I have such a deep feeling for the military and their people and everything surrounding their lives, I wanted to do something special -- so I wrote that song," Charlie explains. "We haven't finished a war in 50 years. If you stop and think about it, we did not finish Korea, we did not finish Vietnam, we went to Iraq two times, we're over in Afghanistan -- doing what? I don't know. I know we're fighting the Taliban, but where are they?"

He adds, ''My point in the song is this -- our troops, either let them do their job and win this war and ferret out these people and get rid of them, or bring them back home. It's that simple."