Charlie Daniels has died of a hemorrhagic stroke, his publicist Don Murry Grubbs confirmed to Pitchfork. The country music fiddler was 83 years old.
Charlie Daniels was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1936. As a teenager, he co-wrote the single “It Hurts Me,” which Elvis Presley recorded in 1964. By the late ’60s, Daniels moved to Nashville where he became a session musician, playing on Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline and Leonard Cohen’s Songs From a Room.
In 1970, Charlie Daniels released his self-titled solo debut via Capitol Records. Shortly after, Daniels formed the Charlie Daniels Band, who are best known for the 1979 hit “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” The track earned the band the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.
Charlie Daniels was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. Daniels was later inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016.