Rocker Ted Nugent, country star Ira Dean team up to honor country music legend Charlie Daniels

Musicians Ted Nugent and Ira Dean teamed up to honor country music legend Charlie Daniels in a new song titled, "What Would Charlie Daniels Do?"

"Charlie was a great, dear friend of mine," Dean said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show on Wednesday. "He was a patriot. He was the poet of America. He loved the red, white and blue...he loved the whole Constitution."

Daniels helped make "Southern Rock" a viable musical form

Daniels brought country fiddles and hillbilly folk tales together with hard rock guitars, and the recipe — called "Southern Rock" — was a success, helping carve a wider path for contemporary musical acts such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band and ZZ Top.

 The Country Music Association says that Daniels’ lifetime record sales exceeded 13.5 million discs, "putting him on par with musical legends like Paul Simon, John Lennon, Natalie Cole, Yes, the Temptations, and Jefferson Airplane." Over the course of his career, Daniels had nine Gold, Platinum or multi-Platinum albums. His hit songs included "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and "Long-Haired Country Boy." Daniels passed away as a result of a stroke in 2020. 

Dean is a country music artist who was in a group named Trick Pony that recorded three studio albums, and Dean described Daniels as "Jesus and John Wayne wrapped up into one."

Nugent: The "Motor City Madman"

Ted Nugent is a singer and guitarist who began his road to fame with The Amboy Dukes in 1963 before going solo. In the course of that career, Nugent, who hails from Michigan, dubbed himself "The Motor City Madman" after he struck the big time with songs such as "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Wango Tango." 

Apart from being a best-selling rocker, Nugent, like Daniels, is no stranger to constitutional issues. A hardcore Second Amendment activist, Nugent is an avid hunter and has embraced conservative politics, even making campaign appearances on behalf of Donald Trump.

Steadfast against political correctness

While Daniels was a prominent recording artist, he was also a proud and outspoken Christian. He also spoke out against political correctness.

Dean said, "I think being in the music business, you have to have pretty thick skin to be a conservative and be a Christian."

"Charlie Daniels always stood up, especially against political correctness when it was getting really toxic and stupid," Nugent said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "He always stood like a wall against that."

"I've always stood strong for God, family, country, [the] Constitution, [the] Bill of Rights, the 10 Commandments, the golden rule, law and order, work ethic, good over evil, self-defense, conservation [and] constitutional absolutism," Nugent said. "And that just described Charlie Daniels."