Randy Travis, Charlie Daniels, Fred Foster headed to Hall of Fame
In 1967, Charlie Daniels packed up his wife and the couple's 2-year-old son and “took off down to Nashville.” Before then, Daniels was based in Newport, Ky., making a living playing beer joints and honky-tonks.
“We got here with a $20 bill and a clutch out of the car,” Daniels recalled.
Nearly 50 years later, Daniels’ rowdy “Devil Went Down to Georgia” stands as a multigenerational anthem that the 79-year-old genre-jumping fiddler still looks forward to playing every night he’s on stage.
“I get a chance to play it better tonight than I did last night and better tomorrow night than I did tonight,” Daniels said of the song’s famous fiddle solo. “I haven’t played it perfect yet. I am in love with walking on stage and entertaining people with songs I have written. It’s one of the few times in my life that I feel like I know what I’m doing.”
Daniels, along with country music trailblazer Randy Travis and famed music industry executive Fred Foster, are now headed for country music's most exclusive club. On Tuesday, the three were announced as this year's inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The men will officially become members during the Medallion Ceremony at the Hall’s CMA Theater later this year, Country Music Hall of Famer Brenda Lee revealed during a news conference in Nashville.
“This year’s class features three individuals who are revered for their respect of country music’s deep traditions, but are equally regarded for forging their own unique paths, taking the industry in new directions and growing the fan base,” Sarah Trahern, CMA chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Daniels, Foster and Travis all hail from North Carolina and will be the 128th, 129th and 130th members of country music’s most esteemed organization. The Country Music Association created the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 as a way to trumpet the genre’s most accomplished and beloved members and preserve their legacy.
'Long Haired Country Boy'
Charlie Daniels was born Charles Edward Daniels on Oct. 28, 1936, in Wilmington, N.C. Growing up, he was musically inspired by church music, local bluegrass bands and Nashville’s WSM and WLAC, which streamed country and R&B music from Music City all the way through Daniels’ radio speaker in North Carolina.
Daniels merged those sounds in 1955 to create rock band The Jaguars, which had a song picked up by Epic Records for national distribution. From there, Daniels grew as a songwriter and musician penning songs for artists including Elvis Presley and appearing as a player on albums by artists ranging from Bob Dylan to Marty Robbins.
Daniels stepped into the spotlight with his self-titled first album in 1971, but it wasn’t until 1974’s “Fire on the Mountain” that music fans started to take notice. The album included Daniels’ hits “The South’s Gonna Do It” and “Long Haired Country Boy,” which drove “Fire on the Mountain” to platinum status.
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” — his crossover signature hit — was included on his next album, “Million Mile Reflections,” which came out in 1979 and was included on the soundtrack for “Urban Cowboy.” “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” won a CMA Award for Single of the Year in 1979 and also led The Charlie Daniels Band to a Grammy Award.
Thirty-seven years later, the hard-driving song about a fiddle duel with the devil remains a staple at Daniels’ concerts. And the singer still puts out new music. In 2014, Daniels released a tribute to the music of Bob Dylan. About one year later, he put out a 14-song live album, “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas.”
Daniels was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2008 and the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2009. The singer said his induction into the Grand Ole Opry was a “lifelong desire” but he was “weak” and speechless when he was surprised with the news he would be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“I was 70 years old when I (was made a member of) the Grand Ole Opry,” Daniels said. “I had decided I made it on pretty good without it and if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. Now I’m almost 80 and I had developed the same feeling (about being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame). If it don’t happen, it’s not going to kill me. But I’m so glad it went this way. This is the cherry on top of the icing. It doesn’t go any further. That’s where the cake stops.”
A 'gentle' giant
Randy Travis delivered his songs with a deep, pure baritone and North Carolina accent. His music both echoed his audience’s lives and altered the direction of country music, as Travis became a leading distinctive voice of a new generation of country singers. Three decades after Travis’ major label debut album, “Storms of Life,” he remains one of country music’s most beloved and respected artists.
“He changed the face of country music when he came out with ‘Storms of Life,’ ” said Randy Travis’ manager, Tony Conway.
Regardless of fame, the singer’s life has been far from smooth. Travis was born Randy Traywick on May 4, 1959, in Marshville, N.C. He was raised on a farm and formed the music group The Traywick Brothers with his brother Ricky as a child. The singer didn’t get along with his father, dropped out of school and had run-ins with police that continued until he won a country music talent contest as a teen at a club in Charlotte run by Elizabeth Hatcher.
The pair started a personal and professional relationship that lasted 25 years. Hatcher was first Travis’ manager and then his wife. After they moved to Nashville, Travis was signed at Warner Bros. Records in the mid-'80s. His first single, “On the Other Hand,” failed to make an impact at country radio, but his second song, “1982,” was a Top 10 hit. The label then re-released “On the Other Hand” and it became the singer’s first No. 1 song and the first of 10 consecutive No. 1 hits. When “Storms of Life” was released, it was the first of eight platinum albums for Travis.
“Forever and Ever, Amen” was the first single from Travis’ 1987 album, “Always & Forever,” an album that won the first of the singer’s seven Grammy Awards. “Always & Forever” also won Album of the Year, and Travis also won Male Vocalist of the Year and Single of the Year at the 1987 CMA Awards.
Over the span of his music career, Travis had 16 No. 1 songs and sold more than 25 million albums.
In the 1990s, Travis pursued an acting career and landed about 40 roles in movies and television shows.
By 2002, Travis’ music career received another boost — his song “Three Wooden Crosses” was a No. 1 hit on the country and Christian charts and was the 2003 CMA Awards Song of the Year.
“He lived and he loved the songs that he wrote and the songs that he sang,” said Travis’ wife, Mary Davis-Travis. “He’s a man of great courage. He’s kind. He’s gentle and he has God-given talents. He chose a career he was hoping he could make a difference in. That career made a difference in him."
In 2013, the singer’s life took another dramatic turn when he suffered a life-threatening stroke as the result of a viral infection in his heart. Doctors had little hope for survival, but today Travis is able to walk and he’s working to improve his speech — currently, he struggles to answer questions with more than one word. However, he can sing — Travis recently performed "Amazing Grace" at a friend's funeral.
"Whenever Randy and I would talk about (the induction), it was that million-dollar smile of Randy's," Davis-Travis, seated beside her husband, said after the news conference. "I knew he understood the last 30 or 40 years of hard work were all worth it. This is the greatest of honors in country music. I know he understands that." Travis smiled broadly and nodded yes.
Backstage icon
Music industry executive Fred Foster never saw his name on the spine of an album case or heard thousands of adoring fans chanting his name, but the decisions he made in the name of country music are the sparkling threads in the fabric of the genre.
“I thought it was a joke,” Foster said of news of his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. “That’s (not something) you ever expect. I know I’m a big dreamer, but I’m not ridiculous. I just tried to make good music.”
Foster was born July 26, 1931, in rural North Carolina. At 15, he took over the family farm when his father died and moved to Washington, D.C., two years later where his sister lived. Foster wanted to be anything but a farmer and started to write songs.
A job in a record store was Foster’s first introduction to the music business. He was hired at Mercury Records in 1953 and worked his way up to head of national country promotion. After a brief run at ABC/Paramount in 1956, Foster started Monument Records and publishing company Combine Music in 1958. He moved the companies to Nashville two years later and went on to launch the careers of Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. He also signed Roy Orbison, whose iconic songs including “Only the Lonely” and “Oh, Pretty Woman” inspired artists ranging from The Beatles to Bruce Springsteen.
Some recordings, Foster said, he loved more than others. Jeannie Seely’s “Don’t Touch Me” and Grandpa Jones’ “The Christmas Guest,” a song Foster helped complete, were at the top of his list.
“I tried to do the best I could every time,” Foster said. “I tried to do something time would not be critical of. It’s like Orbison said to me one time, ‘What’s the most important thing we’re going to do?’ I said, ‘We’re going to eliminate every gimmick you come up with. They don’t endure.’ ”
Foster, 84, sold his history-yielding companies in 1990. We was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2009 and he was given a Trustees Award to honor his career in music from the Recording Academy in early 2016.
“Musically I’m most proud of the relationships I had with the songwriters, artists and engineers,” Foster said. “These people are responsible for me being here. I didn’t do it by myself.”
Reach Cindy Watts at 615-664-2227 or ciwatts@tennessean.com.