Loretta Lynn is mourning the loss of her good friend, Charlie Daniels. The 88-year-old posted a touching tribute to Charlie, shortly after he passed away in a Nashville hospital, following a hemorrhagic stroke.
“Country music will never be the same,” Loretta wrote. “Charlie was a heck of an artist. I can’t even begin to count the number of times we worked together. He was so much fun! He was always such a good friend to me and I loved him. We’re all going to miss him so much.”
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Loretta and Charlie were both Grand Ole Opry members, although Loretta was inducted in 1962, while Charlie didn’t become an official member until 2008. They were both also members of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, with Loretta’s induction in 1988, and Charlie’s induction taking place in 2016.
“The grandiose words it would require to adequately describe the sea of gratitude and the mountain of honor I’m feeling tonight, simply do not exist in my vocabulary, and I’m not sure if the words to describe the emotions I’m feeling in my heart right now exist at all,” Charlie began his acceptance speech during his induction (via CNS News). “When I look around me at the images of those who I have admired, respected and emulated, whose very shoulders I stand on, and to think that I will be represented in that same manner and on those same walls, is a very humbling thought indeed.”
The Country Music Hall of Fame also issued a statement on Charlie’s sudden passing.
“Charlie Daniels was a reverential innovator. He was a fiddle-playing bandleader, like King of Country Music Roy Acuff. His music fused the immediacy of Southern Rock with the classic country storytelling that he heard as a child in Wilmington, North Carolina,” said Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “He brought new audiences to country music, pointing people to the sources even as he explored the edges. He was also a delight to be around, always with wife Hazel at his side. Just as fiddler Johnny did in the famous song, Charlie Daniels beat the Devil.”
Charlie was 83 years old at the time of his death. Funeral services are pending.