Here's How Much Charlie Daniels Was Worth When He Died

Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Daniels died on Monday, leaving behind a beaten devil, a slide into right-wing political talking points, and a pile of worth. 

While Rolling Stone tracks his early years supporting Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Ringo Starr on their albums, Daniels would later pivot to a solo career in the seventies, writing his first hit, "Uneasy Rider," in 1972, when he was 32. By the end of the decade, he wrote his most famous song, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," describing how Old Nick failed to win a fiddler named Johnny's soul in a fiddle-playing contest against for the Devil's golden fiddle. So they play, traversing a wide range of country/folk sounds, until Johnny beats the Devil: "I done told you once, you son of a b—-, I'm the best that's ever been." The song ensured Daniels's career, even making an appearance in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, much to his displeasure, as he expressed on his website's personal soapbox: "I would never grant permission for some company to create a video game version of a song I wrote in which the devil wins a contest... As it is they have allowed these people to violate the very essence of the song." Presumably, the player's loss would lose Johnny his soul.

The rest appears, as in Variety, as a footnote. Daniels's career remained strong with his fans, but his increasingly right-leaning soapbox missives caused controversy.

Regardless of controversy, Daniels still retained a more than reasonable valuation, at least by the divining-like process with which we value the incredibly rich. Celebrity Net Worth pins Charlie Daniels at $20 million. WealthyPersons says $25 million. And Net Worth Post estimates his value to be — again — $20 million.

Obviously, having hit country songs and selling millions of records will line one's pockets better than a single golden fiddle. However, his appearances in various films and TV programs, either a character, a contributor to soundtrack, or, as in Urban Cowboy, both, ensured an even more prolonged income that saw him lead a comfortable life in Tennessee. Probably more important to him, however, is the recognition he received, being invited to the Grand Ole Opry in 2008, and being inducted the Musicians Hall of Fame Museum in 2009, as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016. As the Tennessean quotes him reacting to the final induction: "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."