By the Associated Press and KFDI News:

Country music firebrand and fiddler Charlie Daniels, who had a hit with “Devil Went Down to Georgia,“ has died at age 83.

A statement from his publicist said the Country Music Hall of Famer died Monday at a hospital in Hermitage, Tennessee, after doctors said he had a stroke.

He had suffered what was described as a mild stroke in January 2010 and had a heart pacemaker implanted in 2013 but continued to perform.

Daniels, a singer, guitarist and fiddler, started out as a session musician, even playing on Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline” sessions. Beginning in the early 1970s, his five-piece band toured endlessly, sometimes doing 250 shows a year.

His edgy, early music raised eyebrows in Nashville, with “Long Haired Country Boy” celebrating marijuana smoking and “Uneasy Rider” poking fun at rednecks. But he softened some verses in the 1990s and in 2008 joined the epitome of Nashville’s music establishment, the Grand Ole Opry.

Connection to Wichita:

• Charlie first played the Hi-Ho Club (47th & Broadway) in 1967 before he was a household name.
• He had a song called “Wichita Jail” that went to #22 on the Country Charts in 1976.
• Charlie played the Kansas State Fair four times – 1983, 1990, 2002, and 2017.
• The first Charlie Daniel’s Golf Tournament for Starkey was in 1984. By the time the 20th was held in 2004, Charlie had helped raise more than $700,000 for the Starkey Foundation.
• Charlie was a personal friend of former KFDI co-owner Mike Oatman. Charlie sang at his funeral in 2003 with KFDI’s Orin Friesen.

Daniels was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. He was also a member of the Grand Ole Opry.  His record sales exceeded 13.5 million albums according to the RIAA.  He won four Country Music Association Awards during his career.

Funeral arrangements will be announced in the next few days.