NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Country music star Charlie Daniels, best-known for his band's 1979 track "Devil Went Down to Georgia," died Monday at a hospital in Tennessee after suffering from a stroke, his publicist announced. He was 83.
The Country Music Hall of Famer was a triple threat: He sang, played the guitar and fiddle. He even played himself in the 1980 John Travolta movie "Urban Cowboy."
During the early 1970s, the Charlie Daniels Band toured exhaustively throughout the country, logging up to 250 shows a year.
Throughout his careers he performed at the White House, the Super Bowl and for US troops overseas.
While Daniels was a Southern rock pioneer and earned accolades for his musical prowess, his opposition to same-sex marriage and DREAMers, his support of Confederate imagery and his viewpoint on other issues was deemed bigoted by many Americans.
ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, Daniels tweeted in May 2012, "Obama just endorsed same sex marriage, I guess his evolution is complete Is this a surprise to anybody but Rip Van Winkle who just woke up."
Daniels tweeted in April 2015, "The gay marriage bill before the Supreme Court has dire implications far beyond the legal union of two people The devil is in the details."
In March 2015, he tweeted, "Wonder if Eric Holder will sue the people of North Carolina for voting down the gay marriage initiative."
ON THE CONFEDERATE FLAG AND LGBTQ PRIDE, he tweeted in June 2015, "Obama insists Confederate flag b taken down over the SC capitol while rainbow colored lights at Whitehouse Anybody besides me c the irony"
ON CONFEDERATE IMAGERY, he tweeted in July 2019, "This political correctness thing is totally out of control When a fair cancels the Confederate Railroad band because of their name its giving in to facism, plain and simple and our freedom disappears piece by piece. Sick of it."
On July 2, he tweeted, "A mayor who takes away the protection of the people and allows the destruction of property and dismantling of monuments and historic symbols is not worthy of the job They have blood on their hands and look in the mirror at a coward every day."
ON SANCTUARY CITIES AND ABORTION:, he tweeted in March 2017, "How about some cities declaring themselves a sanctuary for the unborn and refuse to abide by the federal laws allowing abortion."
ON DREAMERS, he tweeted in Feb. 2018, "Note to the Dreamers First of all , don’t get in our faces and demand that you get to stay, you have no rights here and your nasty attitudes make you less desirable Secondly, if you think you mean anything except future votes to the democrats, you’re in for a big disappointment."