Charlie Daniels wears his signature bull rider hat and belt buckle big and bold like Teddy Roosevelt carried a big stick. But don’t expect this Southern rocker to speak softly.

Daniels will tell you he speaks his mind like any proud American should — even if it means offending people in the process. It’s his fierce love of the land and that slang-slingin’ candor that has made him and his country music legendary to so many fans over three decades.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Daniels earned his reputation as a renegade in his younger days. When he first recorded “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” more conservative radio stations had him record a separate version that replaced “son of a bitch” with “son of a gun.” “Uneasy Rider” stars a hippy that gets the best of a bunch of rednecks. Another song, called “Mary Jane,” is a nickname for marijuana.

These days, Daniels is still a renegade, stirring up powerful emotions about current events and social issues that divide Americans.

The song “Simple Man” is based on the principle that society is too light on criminals and looks at a group of men taking punishment into their own hands. “Uneasy Rider ’88,” a follow-up rendition of the original, features two rednecks who get the best of gays in a gay bar.

Daniels didn’t pull any punches after 9/11 when he came out with the song, “It Ain’t No Rag, It’s a Flag.” Its tough response to the terrorists was a little too tough for many radio stations who refused to play it fearing a public backlash. The song was a war cry against the terrorists, warning the world that “the flag’s flying high and the fur’s gonna fly.” Daniels told the terrorists they could crawl back in their hole, but the U.S. was coming for them: “When you look up in the sky and you see the eagle fly, you better know he’s a-headin’ your way.”

Daniels does a web blog twice a week on political topics, aptly called “The Soapbox.” The War in Iraq, patriotism and terrorism are among the most common subjects, but he also delves into debates on school vouchers, display of the Ten Commandments, Social Security, and third-world poverty.

Most opinions fall into the camp most would consider conservative.

“I know that some of the people who read this column think that I am a barely educated, redneck, Bible-thumping, opinionated kind of son-of-a-gun who is actually proud of his birthplace and his Southern heritage and red state philosophy, who believes that God created and rules The Universe,” Daniels wrote on one blog. “And you know something? You’re right. I make no bones about my beliefs or my opinions and will probably continue to do so until the good Lord calls me home.”

But Daniels says his views are based in freedom, not one political party. He supports the war in Iraq for the same reasons the American Revolution against England had to be fought and that World War II had to be fought to defeat Hitler.

But don’t go pigeonholing him.

Despite his patriotism, he’s an equally strong supporter of free speech and doesn’t believe in a constitutional amendment that would ban flag burning. Despite his Southern Pride, he doesn’t own or use a Confederate Flag. He campaigned for Jimmy Carter but is a strong Bush backer today.

Despite your political leanings, seeing Charlie Daniels live is seeing a legend that has helped shape American culture over the past 30 years through his music with songs that celebrate a hoopin’, hollerin’ damn good time.

SMN: How do you think the rest of the country views the South now compared to 30 years ago?

Daniels: “How many people do you know that have moved to the south from the north and other places? I think that speaks for itself. I think for all the rhetoric and all the things that people had to say about the South many years ago they have found out for themselves that it is a great place and great culture and one of the best places in the world to be.”

SMN: With songs like “The South is Going To Do It Again” and “Southern Boy,” do you think your music or southern rock in general played a role in the South overcoming stereotypes of inferiority held by the rest of the nation, or energizing Southerns to stand up and be proud of their culture?

Daniels: “I don’t think it had any particular role. I think people had already been doing that, but I think the music gave them a rallying point. The younger generation that was around at that time started having a lot more respect for southern lifestyles and southern things and maybe the music introduced them to look a little further into this place called the South. But the first big music venues we had were in the north. The same with the other bands. People in the north started wearing cowboy hats.”

SMN: Coming from Western North Carolina, we’ve had to overcome both Southern stereotypes and the Appalachian stereotypes held by the rest of the nation.

Daniels: “It’s because the only thing the major media ever concentrates on in Appalachia is the pockets of poverty. They never look at places that are prosperous. They go to somewhere where the coal mine has shut down. That’s not all there is to it. It’s like with the War in Iraq. They tell you about the bad parts and the parts they want you to know about. It is very selective national media.”

SMN: Where did you develop this deep patriotism?

Daniels: “I’m 68 years old and I came up during the second World War. It was very real to us in Eastern North Carolina. We had German U-boats out in the ocean sinking tankers heading to Europe with oil. We had air raid drills and rationing and blackouts. It was a time I didn’t know anybody who was not patriotic and I didn’t know anybody who did not believe in God.”

SMN: You went to Afghanistan and Iraq to play for the troops this year. What was that like?

Daniels: “We’re winning the war. We are winning the war. We are winning it.”

SMN: You have done a lot to support the war in Iraq, but weren’t a big backer of the war in Vietnam?

Daniels: “We weren’t allowed to win it. We needed to go in with guns blasting and get it over with and bring the troops home. But the politicians got involved in it and we were wasting lives. We were not going to free South Vietnam; we were just dribbling lives down the drain.”

SMN: At the same time though, you have been pretty anti-establishment in some of your song lyrics, especially earlier. Have your views changed over the years?

Daniels: “Establishment changes from time to time. We’ve gone through a mountain of changes since the second World War. The pendulum swings left and it swings right. I’m not a democrat or republican or a conservative or a liberal. I just go day to day and make up my mind on each issue.”

SMN: Do you think the South is more patriotic than the country as a whole?

Daniels: “I find patriotism to be very high in this country. I go coast to coast, border to border about every year in this country and it gives me a fairly good idea about how people feel about patriotism. It’s not reflected in the major media. You aren’t going to read about it in The New York Times or see it on CNN.

We have become such a media oriented people. We are so affected by what comes across that little screen. We have certain people that have wormed their way into top positions in the media world that have their own views and political agendas and want to propagate those.”

SMN: Is that why you started the Soap Box?

Daniels: “I started out writing whatever happened to be on my mind. I started doing one a week and our readership started picking up so I started doing it twice a week. I enjoy writing it. It is kind of fun for me. It is kind of a little outlet for me from time to time if there’s something I feel strongly about.”

SMN: What about the book named after your song “Ain’t No Rag”?

Daniels: “It is a collection of the Soap Box articles actually. A publisher came to me and said ‘we’d like you to write a small biography at the front and let us put some of the soap box pieces behind it.’ I’m going to do another book here pretty soon.”

SMN: Do you consider yourself an activist?

Daniels: “No. Not from what I see of other people who are described as activists. Activists are mostly involved in one cause. They are anti this or pro that. I am very liberal in some ways. I am all over the map.

I never had one group I could go along with on everything.”