Charles Edward Daniels (born October 28, 1936) is an American multi-instrumentalist, lyricist, and singer, known for his contributions to country, bluegrass, and Southern rock music. He is perhaps best known for his number-one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Daniels has been active as a singer and musician since the 1950s. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on January 24, 2008 and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009. Daniels was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016. He is known for portraying himself in Urban Cowboy, Yakety Yak, Take it Back, Trash Talk, The Fall Guy and King of the Hill, as well as appearances in The Lone Star Kid, 18 Wheels of Justice and Murder, She Wrote playing other characters. 　　Daniels was born October 28, 1936, in Wilmington, North Carolina, and raised on a musical diet that included Pentecostal gospel, local bluegrass bands and the rhythm & blues and country music from Nashville's 50,000-watt radio stations WLAC and WSM (AM). In 2016, he shared memories of his youth and baseball in Wilmington when he wrote the foreword for a book on the Tobacco State League. As a teenager, Daniels moved to the small town of Gulf, Chatham County, North Carolina. He graduated from high school in 1955. Already skilled on guitar, fiddle, banjo, and mandolin, he formed a rock 'n' roll band and hit the road. 　　In 1964, Daniels co-wrote "It Hurts Me" (a song which Elvis Presley recorded) with his friend, producer Bob Johnston, under his wife's name, Joy Byers. He worked as a Nashville session musician, often for Johnston, including playing guitar and electric bass on three Bob Dylan albums during 1969 and 1970, and on recordings by Leonard Cohen. Daniels recorded his first solo album, Charlie Daniels, in 1971 (see 1971 in country music). He produced the 1969 album by the Youngbloods, Elephant Mountain. 　　His first hit, the novelty song "Uneasy Rider", was from his 1973 third album, Honey in the Rock, and reached No.9 on the Billboard Hot 100. During this period, Daniels played fiddle on many of the Marshall Tucker Band's early albums: "A New Life", "Where We All Belong", "Searchin' For a Rainbow", "Long Hard Ride" and "Carolina Dreams". Daniels can be heard on the live portion of the "Where We All Belong" album, recorded in Milwaukee on July 31, 1974.[citation needed] The same year, he organized the first in a series of Volunteer Jam concerts based in or around Nashville, Tennessee, often playing with members of Barefoot Jerry. Except for a three-year gap in the late 1980s, the Jams continued until 1996. In 1999, the first of several Volunteer Jam Tours began, and in 2015 a Jam celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first Volunteer Jam was held at Bridgestone Arena and another followed in 2016 celebrating his 80th birthday. In 1975, he had a top 30 hit as leader of the Charlie Daniels Band with the Southern rock self-identification anthem "The South's Gonna Do It Again". "Long Haired Country Boy" was a minor hit in that year. Daniels played fiddle on Hank Williams, Jr.'s 1975 album Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends.