Charlie Daniels song "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag."-Truth!

Charlie Daniels' Letter About the Country Freedom Concert and his song, "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag"-Truth!

Summary of eRumor: According to this eRumor, Charlie Daniels was scheduled to appear on the CMT (Country Music Television) Country Freedom Concert, a benefit for victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11. The organizers of the program, however, told Charlie that he could not perform one of his songs because they felt the lyrics might offend someone. Charlie decided to pull out of the show and released a public letter both explaining his reasons and showing the lyrics to the song titled "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag."

The Truth: TruthOrFiction.com checked with Charlie Daniels' office and they confirmed that the story, the letter, and the song are true.

A real example of the story as it has been circulated:
This is a statement from Charlie Daniels. I simply say, "AMEN" !!!!! =========================== There are probably some of you folks out there who are wondering why we didn't appear on the CMT Country Freedom Concert for the Salvation Army to benefit the victims of the September 11th Attack on America. We were announced and scheduled and had every intention of doing the show, until we gave the CMT folks the lyrics to a new song I had written and wanted to perform on the show. After receiving the words they informed us that we could not do the song on the show and when we asked them why they said that the show was a healing type show and they were afraid that the song would offend someone. I would never do anything to hurt the show but I knew that they had the very epitome of country stars and didn't particularly need us to sell tickets. With this in mind, I decided to pull off the show for personal reasons which I would like to share with you. Let me preface my remarks by saying that I respect CMT's right to not allow anything they don't agree with to go out over their airwaves. And in all fairness, I guess they were taking the sensibilities of the victim's families into account. But I respectfully and vehemently disagree with their stand. First of all, I don't feel that this is the time for healing. I feel that this is the time to rub salt in the wounds and keep America focused on the job at hand. We lost almost seven thousand people in the Trade Towers and Pentagon and we're worrying about offending somebody? We have seven month old babies infected with Anthrax and we're afraid we'll hurt someone's feelings? Brave Americans forced a plane down in a field in Pennsylvania and we're worried about ruffling someone's feathers? We're sending our sons and daughters off to fight and perhaps die in a war we had nothing to do with starting and we're concerned about insulting somebody? I felt to give into this political correctness would be to turn my back on the people who lost their lives on 9-11 and on the brave men and women who defend this country. The title of the song is "This Ain't No Rag It's A Flag", and I don't apologize for a word in it. I'll let you all decide for yourselves: **** This ain't no rag it's a flag and we don't wear it on our heads It's a symbol of the land where the good guys live are you listening to what I said You're a coward and a fool and you broke all the rules and you wounded our American pride Now we're coming with a gun and we know you're gonna run but you can't find no place to hide We're gonna hunt you down like a mad dog hound and make you pay for the lives you stole We're all through talking and messing around and now it's time to rock and roll These colors don't run and we're speaking as one when we say united we stand If you mess with one you mess with us all every boy, girl, woman and man You've been acting mighty rash and talking that trash but let me give you some advice You can crawl back in your hole like a dirty little mole but now it's time to pay the price You might have shot us in the back but now you have to face the fact that the big boy's in the game The lightning's been flashing and the thunder's been crashing and now it's gettin ready to rain Chorus: This is the United States of America the land of the brave and free We believe in God, we believe in justice, we believe in liberty You've been pulling our chain, we shoulda done something about you a long time ago But now the flag's flying high and the fur's gonna fly and now the whole world's gonna know This ain't no rag it's a flag old glory red white and blue The stars and stripes and when it comes to a fight we can do what we have to do Our people stand proud the American crowd is faithful and loyal and tough We're as good as the best and better than the rest you're gonna find out soon enough When you look up in the sky and you see the eagle fly you'd better know he's headed your way This ain't no rag it's a flag and it stands for the USA What do you think? God Bless America Charlie Daniels A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.