Why isn't the Charlie Daniels Band performing on A Capitol Fourth?
The producers of A CAPITOL FOURTH had this to say:
The Charlie Daniels Band and the producers of A Capitol Fourth have a contract for the Band to perform at this year's event. The songs that were discussed for their performance were intended to match the rousing and celebratory tone of the Concert, such as “The Orange Blossom Special,” “Talk to Me Fiddle” and “Boogie Woogie Fiddle Country Blues." These are the regular crowd pleasers that get people dancing and are consistent with the upbeat mood of the concert that has made the event so popular for the past 20 years and one of the most-watched live performance concerts on PBS. The proposed new song that Charlie Daniels wanted to perform is inconsistent with the celebratory mood of July 4th and would have been out of sync with the other musical numbers of the concert.
The National Memorial Day Concert that aired on PBS on May 26, 2002 devoted
a significant portion of the program to honoring the heroes and victims
of September 11. The program featured remembrances through song, dance
and dramatic readings. The readings included the words of four retired
firemen who lost sons at the World Trade Center, a letter from a daughter
to her firefighter father who was killed on September 11 and tributes
to the men and women who died at the Pentagon and on Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
The National Memorial Day Concert received extremely favorable reviews
from the media and accolades from viewers across the country, praising
the inclusion of the events of September 11 in the program. Charlie Daniels
would have added a fun element to the concert and it is regrettable that
this issue could not be resolved.
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
This is a partial transcript from The O'Reilly Factor, June 24, 2002.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the Personal Story segment tonight, PBS versus Charlie Daniels. For 21 years, PBS has broadcast a July Fourth concert entitled A Capital Fourth. This year, country singer Charlie Daniels was supposed to appear, but he will not. That's because Mr. Daniels wanted to play his new song called "The Last Fallen Hero." Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE DANIELS, COUNTRY MUSIC ARTIST (singing): Oh, the winds of war are blowing, and there's no way of knowing where this bloody path we're traveling will lead. But we must follow till the end or face it all again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: PBS says the song is too depressing, and Mr. Daniels is out. He joins us now from Nashville, Tennessee.
Mr. Daniels, what do you think?
DANIELS: Well, I think I can't be a part of a Fourth of July celebration where you can't mention the names of -- I mean, not the names, but the very mention it of people who died at the 9/11, the policemen, the firemen, the citizens, the emergency service people, the people who died in the Pentagon, the people who took that plane down.
I mean, this is the first Fourth of July after 9/11, and it's not even been a year, and I think that this is a very special time that these people should be remembered and...
O'REILLY: All right.
DANIELS: ... they deserve to be remembered.
O'REILLY: Now, this happened with ABC's special with Toby Keith, who wanted to sing a song where he (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, go get Usama bin Laden. Your song's a little bit more reflective than Mr. Keith's.
But the debate is between the producers -- and by the way, Peter Jennings didn't have anything to do with this at ABC, so...
DANIELS: No.
O'REILLY: .. the producers of ABC and the producers of PBS basically said, Look, we want a happy show.
DANIELS: Right.
O'REILLY: We want a fiddlin' show.We want a, you know, corn on the cob, 1927 show. But you say that's inappropriate this year.
DANIELS: I think it is.I think -- I mean, I was going to -- this is the only song like that I was going to do. I was going to do this, and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," which is a pretty up, fiddlin' sort of song.
But I think not to even, you know, not to even reflect on where we've come from, this country's in a lot of danger. I think we need to be reminded of it. And certainly those people need to be memorialized. And I think the Fourth of July's a perfect day to do it.
O'REILLY: Now, PBS says they did run a Memorial Day concert where they did that, but the Fourth of July is more celebratory. Can you see their point at all?
DANIELS: No, I can't, I really can't. I mean, I can't -- if it was, you know, some kind of song that was just totally radical and off the wall, I could understand it. But just -- it's just a song that's a tribute to, you know, to these people. It's not morbid, it's not -- you know, it's not real radical, it's not hateful, it's not angry, it's just a -- I thought it was the perfect Fourth of July song, and I had intended to do it ever since we had been invited to do the show.
O'REILLY: All right. Now, when you presented your argument, which seems reasonable to me, and I think to most people watching, what did they say to you?
DANIELS: They said, no, you know, this is it. You either do -- you don't do this song, or you don't do the show. So...
O'REILLY: Did they explain themselves?
DANIELS: No, nothing only what you said, that they wanted it to be a celebratory show, and, you know, they don't want any mentions of anything like -- You know, I just think it's another, another case of political correctness carried to the nth degree, myself.
I certainly believe in celebrating the Fourth of July. We should eat our hot dogs and our watermelon and shoot off our fireworks. But how can we forget the victims of 9/11? I can't.
O'REILLY: All right. Now, when you heard what they said, did you get angry?
DANIELS: I got frustrated, to be honest with you about it. I mean, I couldn't understand the reasoning behind this. I mean, one song out of how ever many hours this thing lasts, that somebody couldn't step up to the microphone and say, We would like to remember the people who lost their lives at 9/11, and sing this song, and then get on to something else, I...
O'REILLY: Yes, I mean, I...
DANIELS: ... mean...
O'REILLY: ... you certainly could have set it up. The show lasts 90 minutes. You certainly -- particularly somebody of your stature could have easily set it up.
You know what bothers me about this is, and I'm going to read the e-mails tomorrow when we come in, I mean, I'm -- I think most of the folks watching tonight will be on your side. In, on "The Radio Factor," we had you on earlier today. The feedback -- it was about four to two, about four to two in your favor. And there were some people who said, look, you know, Fourth of July, I'm with my family, I don't want to be depressed, we've grieved all this time. It's time for a more uplifting. And I understand that.
But I'm never one for censorship, and I, I see that here. Fifty-six million dollars, Mr. Daniels, of your money and my money and everybody's money goes to PBS every year.
DANIELS: Yes.
O'REILLY: Now, if ABC wants to censor Toby Keith, I don't have a problem with that. That's a private network. You know, they pick there (ph). But we're paying for this little concert here at PBS.
DANIELS: Oh, yes.
O'REILLY: I kind of want to hear your song for two reasons, number one, I think you're right, I think the people need to be reminded, and number two, it's because I don't think they should be censoring you flat out.
DANIELS: Well, I just did a show not long ago on PBS called "Speaking Freely," which was dedicated to free speech, and I thought that's what the -- I thought it was a public forum, I thought public broadcasting was a public forum where people could say pretty much what they wanted to.
And I -- you know, I just -- I really can't understand it, Bill, I'm just at a loss for trying to figure out where they're coming from, I...
O'REILLY: All right. I know where they're coming from, and you hit it on the head, political correctness...
DANIELS: Amen.
O'REILLY: ... run amok, and paid for by you and me.
DANIELS: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: Thanks very much. Good luck to you.
DANIELS: Thank you, Bill.
O'REILLY: All right.