Charlie Daniels Discusses New Album

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," July 5, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

HANRETTY: Welcome back to "Hannity & Colmes". I'm Karen Hanretty,
filling in for Sean Hannity. Recently, Sean and Alan sat down with country
music legend Charlie Daniels, to discuss his new album, "Live from Iraq".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: Our good friend, Charlie Daniels, is back with us.

Now, Charlie, this is a special program because next week, you and I
are involved in Atlanta. This is all for the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund our Freedom Concert. And we're going to have the sing-off. You want
to tell everybody about it?

CHARLIE DANIELS, COUNTRY MUSIC STAR: Let me — I think I got the
ground rules right on this. We're going to play it, and you're going to
sing it. And is Neal going to join you, or is it just going to be you?

HANNITY: I'm going to get Neal to join me, Clark Howard (ph) to join
me, Scott Slade (ph). They're all friends of mine.

DANIELS: So you guys, you guys are going to do it the first time.
Right?

HANNITY: We'll do it first. This is "The Devil Went Down to
Georgia".

DANIELS: Right.

HANNITY: So we're going to do it first.

DANIELS: Right.

HANNITY: Then you're going to be — you're going to be playing.

DANIELS: Then the band and myself are going to do it. Right?

HANNITY: And then you — then we do the real version so we don't
spoil it for the crowd.

DANIELS: That's going to be fun, buddy.

HANNITY: Now, I've done this twice. The first time was pretty bad,
right? You can be honest.

DANIELS: Well, I'm going to be honest. You know what? I figured out
what the problem was, Sean. We do that song a lot faster than we recorded
it. So you're used to the recorded version. We'll slow it down to the
recorded version's tempo in Atlanta, and you'll have a good fair shot. And
we'll give you a fair shot, you know.

HANNITY: Listen, Charlie, it sold out. We've got 12,500 people. I'm
going to be embarrassing myself in front of them there next Tuesday. So
I'm looking forward to it.

DANIELS: That's wonderful. I'm so glad. Such a good cause.

HANNITY: Well, you now — this is our fourth concert together. And
you have helped us, and this leads right into your CD you have our, you
just released now in the last week, "Live from Iraq".

DANIELS: Yes.

HANNITY: You've been over there many, many times to see the troops.
Your heart and soul is with these guys. And now you decided to take one of
those trips — and we're actually showing video of it right now — and put
it on CD, for everybody to — you also had a DVD portion of this, I
understand. Right?

DANIELS: Yes, well, there's two disks in the package. One is a CD.
And one is a DVD. So our DVD is kind of behind the scenes and shows, you
know, talking with some of the guys and gals. And just showing you, kind
of, a little different view.

Of course, we're not doing news. So we — you know, we just kind of
take a public interest kind of approach to it. So I'm very proud of the
package. I'm very happy to have done it. It was a great experience, and I
hope we've got it documented in the CD and DVD.

HANRETTY: How many times have you been over there with the troops?
And how many concerts did you perform for these guys?

DANIELS: We did — we went — we've been over twice. And the first
time we were there, we did seven concerts in country, I think it was. And
this last time we were supposed to do four, but our transportation got
delayed one day, and we only did three.

But we spend — when you do concerts, you're constantly going out,
because everybody can't come to the main concert area. So you go out and
hit these other places, the forward operating bases.

HANNITY: Right.

DANIELS: Or just some of the places around the bases. And you know
somebody will pop up with a guitar, and you end up doing a little mini
concert.

HANNITY: A little impromptu. When I — when I went over there — and
I know you've also been to Walter Reed and Bethesda, and you've met these
injured guys. You also do work in — in Nashville for the troops. I know
you have over the years. You're doing our Freedom Concerts.

But when you go in there, and you have the same experience I did, when
you begin to corkscrew down, quickly. And you literally go from 35,000
feet and you land in Baghdad.

DANIELS: Oh, yes.

HANNITY: You just notice from the minute you get there, just going
there for these guys is an act of courage. And then they've got to spend a
year or two there.

DANIELS: Oh, yes. And as soon as you hit the ground, everybody's
carrying guns. You're very well aware that you're in a war zone. I mean,
I'll tell you what: the more I go among the military, the more I am
convinced they're the best we've got.

HANNITY: Yes, they are.

DANIELS: The very best of America.

COLMES: Hey, Charlie, it's Alan. Getting...

DANIELS: Hello, Alan.

COLMES: How are you?

DANIELS: I'm good.

COLMES: You know, Charlie was talking about what the problem was for
the first one. You know what the problem was? He can't sing. That's what
the problem was.

HANNITY: That's part of it. That's true.

COLMES: Now I'll tell you what. How much would it take if I could
raise the money to get him not to do it?

DANIELS: Gosh, I don't know. You'd have to bargain with Sean on
that, and I'm sure he's not going to sell...

HANNITY: Wait a minute. I've got a price here, Charlie.

COLMES: You know what his price — everybody's got a price, including
Hannity.

HANRETTY: A donation to the Freedom Alliance, we'd probably hit him
with a good number here. Might be good for the cause.

COLMES: You know what? This would not only help the Freedom
Alliance. It would help people's ears.

DANIELS: I'm staying out of this. This is between Hannity and Colmes
here.

HANRETTY: How did I do in San Diego, Charlie? I did a little better
the second time.

DANIELS: You did better. You did better than you did in New Jersey
the first time, yes. I want to hear you (ph) this time.

COLMES: Charlie, a lot of your — a lot of your performing is for
causes. We just talked about your second trip to Iraq. You went to
Kuwait. It's a special — I want to pick up on what you were talking about
in terms of it being a very special moment when you are performing for
Americans who are far away from home and they see a familiar face and
familiar music like yours. It's got to be a high for you.

DANIELS: It is very much of a high for me, Alan. It's — you know,
the first thing I do, when I go in, I say, I bring you greetings from the
United States of America, and what we're trying to do is kind of, you know,
just take them away from everything for a little while.

I say, let's get down. Let's have some fun. Let's have some fun.
We're going to play some music for you. We're going to sign some
autographs with you. Want to slap backs and hug necks and shake hands and
just have a good old American time here.

And it's so gratifying. It's so wonderful to see these young people
having a good time.

COLMES: I know the CD is "Live from Iraq", and there's some new stuff
on it. There are also some of your classics on it, as well.

DANIELS: Oh, yes. There's one song called "When I Get Back from
Iraq", that I wrote the first verse the first time I went over. The second
verse, the second time I went over. If I go back over about three or four
more times, I'll have a complete song.

COLMES: You also recently had a book out called "Growing up Country".
So define it for us. What is country?

DANIELS: Well, country is kind of a state of mind. It's, of course,
a geographical location, but I don't think you have to be raised there to
have a country attitude. There are a lot of people, you know, raised in
the city that like to go out and two-step and have a big time and wear
cowboy hats and boots, and you know, just eat grits for breakfast. You eat
grits for breakfast — right.

COLMES: If you eat grits for breakfast, you're — you're country.

DANIELS: Yes, indeed.

COLMES: Tell us about the music. I mean, your influence is
bluegrass. It's country. It's blues. It's a lot of different things that
you do, when you're on stage and when you record.

DANIELS: Well, you know, when I was a kid, the radio stations weren't
formulated to one kind of music. They played some of all of it. And I got
exposed to so much — different kind of music, so many different kinds of
music, I should say, that I think when I got ready to write original music
it all just kind of popped up there.

HANNITY: Charlie, you're a great American, my friend.

DANIELS: Thank you.

HANNITY: And I'm looking forward, Freedom Concert. It's going to be
you, Lee Greenwood, Montgomery Gentry and "get 'er done," Larry the Cable Guy. And little old Sean Hannity making a fool of himself. It's all for a
great cause.

Charlie, thank you for what you do, and thanks for helping these guys
out as much as you do, my friend.

DANIELS: Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.

HANNITY: All right, buddy.

And everyone, it's Charlie Daniels, new CD, "Live from Iraq".

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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