No problemo – as long as the little nippers stay the heck off my lawn! 
Part of John Denver’s slide downward is he got too much into politics and environmentalism.
Bullshit, his “slide” was caused by problems in his personal life–drunk driving/flying, marital infidelities, drug use. His professional/musical decline was due to younger people taking control of the recording industry and trying to pigeon-hole his music and being unable to. He wasn’t “country” enough, he wasn’t “pop” enough, and the music industry’s motto is “What have you done for me in the last twenty minutes?” Selling 33 million records means nothing, apparently. Record companies wanted the money from the young adults and Denver was forced out. If he had lived, he might have been able to go the digital distribution route a la the Eagles with “Long Road Out of Eden,” but that was still several years away.
His politics and environmentalism bolstered his musical career, and gave him other avenues to pursue when said career tapered off.
I think both Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard are older. But their ideas have not fossilized. Many years ago, Haggard pointed out that he had never smoked marijuana in Muskogee.
They are both closer to being Country Legends than Daniels. And Django & Jimmie is the #1 Country recording at Amazon…
Huh. I saw him circa 1995 at a country fair! A friend worked for his record label so I got to take my kids onto his tour bus to meet him. He was very nice; told my kids their dad was a great guy and all, they were really impressed. Dude was enormous girth-wise. Has he slimmed down?
Funny story: After meeting him on the bus, I realized an autographed pic would be cool. My friend asked him to sign one. My name is Mark. Charlie asked her, “how does he spell it?” My friend said, "M . . … A . . . " and he interrupted, “with a “k” or a “c”, dammit!?”
Good catch! 
Is it just me, or does anyone else think the devil’s fiddle music was clearly better in that song?
Perfect examples of true legends. The term gets tossed around too easily. And longevity does not necessarily equate to legendary status.
I sure liked the devil’s 32 bars better, but I’m not sure whether it’s down to his actual fiddle playing, or the 70s cop show backing music behind him.
“Closer to” being legends? They are both bona fide country legends but that doesn’t make Daniels less so.
Charlie Daniels was the keynote speaker at my graduate school graduation ceremony. One of the student do-gooders tried to get his invitation repealed. Typical campus “we don’t agree with you so don’t let them speak” nonsense.
Daniels actually wrote a response to the student newspaper discussing the concepts of being able to listen to people you don’t necessarily agree with, and expanding yourself outside of your own echo chamber, etc. I think I actually saved that somewhere because it was very insightful.
(I also got his autograph on my ceremony program.)
OK – semi-obligatory Robot Chicken link
And the Jamaica version - broken for drug referencesht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4iCaDCX3jY
Listening to the radio the other day, I heard an interesting take on TDWDTG: the devil actually won. When Johnny took the bet, he lost his soul, even if he did get a golden fiddle. The minute he accepted the challenge, even acknowledging that it was a sin, he belonged to Satan.
Everyone keeps missing the point of stuff like this. Graduation ceremonies aren’t about listening to people’s views. They are a celebration of the accomplishments of the people in the class. The time for having someone challenge your views is not graduation.
Heck, since graduation is an official function of the school, and not optional, you’re representing the school.
Now, if he’d said he’s not going to be political, I could understand it. If the class voted for him to show up, I can understand that–though I’d still look askance at them for forcing those who disagree to sit through it.
You talk of freedom of speech, but a key part of that is the freedom to leave the conversation–whether you think that’s good for people or not.
Hell, since it’s a graduation speech, I doubt you could respond back–another key part of freedom of speech. And then, of course, that freedom of speech includes the ability to voice your displeasure with something and try to change the outcome.
You’ve got it all wrong, death by alligator is for rapists and child abusers. The penalty for drug dealing is “a big tall tree and a short piece of rope”.
Cite: The Charlie Daniels Band - Simple Man Lyrics | AZLyrics.com