Guitar Hero III "perverts" song, says musician

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 April, 2008

Charlie Daniels gets cross.

American singer-songwriter Charlie Daniels has complained that Activision and RedOctane "violate the very essence" of one of his songs in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Daniels is the author of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", for which the player takes on the devil himself in a Guitar Hero III face-off, and the fact the devil "very often wins" has upset Daniels immensely.

Apparently the song is "supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses".

"I want any of you parents out there whose children have this game to know that I did not grant these people my permission to pervert my song and am disgusted with the result," Daniels wrote on his website.

Daniels apparently lost the rights to the song a while back, and had nothing to do with its inclusion of the game, admitting he doesn't know if he has any "legal resource".

"I would never grant permission for some company to create a video game version of a song I wrote in which the devil wins a contest and I'm sorely disappointed with the company who owns the copyright for not policing the situation," he wrote.

"As it is they have allowed these people to violate the very essence of the song."

He also had a message for parents: "This game looks innocent enough but if you have a child who is playing it, take the time to sit with him or her while they're playing along and take a serious look at the images on the screen."

We also have a message for parents: neither you or your child will get past Knights of Cydonia on Hard, so you might want to pick up Guitar Hero II at the same time.

We asked Activision for comment but haven't heard back yet.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • creepylizard #1 4 years ago

    christ, what a crybaby

  • Killerbee #2 4 years ago

    Nothing there that a share in the royalties wouldn't fix, I'm sure! :)

    I feel the urge to give Hard another go in career mode now... practice, practice, practice...

  • Der_tolle_Emil #3 4 years ago

    I would like to complain as well because I've lost this battle so often that I simply refuse to try again. It's so much more about luck than skill that it's simply no fun anymore.

    Anyway, Charlie Daniel's complaint is a bit ridiculous. At least I know absolutely noone who would even think about any sense in those battles and how to interpret them.

  • MBar #4 4 years ago

    the player takes on the devil himself

    No you don't.

  • mingster #5 4 years ago

    Ha-Haa.... 'perverts'.

  • Koochulainn #6 4 years ago

    From Charlie Daniels' site:
    "You may be surprised at the world they're being exposed to.
    Pray for our troops
    What do you think?
    God Bless America
    Charlie Daniels"

    Support our guys over there killing Iraqis...sure, but play a game that features a cartoon devil?



  • MBar #7 4 years ago

    We also have a message for parents: neither you or your child will get past Knights of Cydonia on Hard, so you might want to pick up Guitar Hero II at the same time.

    I did just that at the weekend! Ha!

    /flex

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #8 4 years ago

    "the player takes on the devil himself

    No you don't."

    Er, yes you do! Although he's called Lou.

  • MBar #9 4 years ago

    Er, yes you do! Although he's called Lou.

    Exactly. He's not "The Devil". He's a demon called Lou.

    Unless the Devil's taken to wearing hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. I might've missed that memo.

    Anyway: He needs to shut his mouth. We probably doubled his record sales for him. Steve Ouimette did the cover version if anyone is interested. It's on youtube etc.
    Edited by 1 at 08/04/08 @ 09:49

  • asphaltcowboy #10 4 years ago

    lol!

  • seasidebaz #11 4 years ago

    i thought the title meant there was a song about perverts in gh3!!

    that would be really funny...

  • kangarootoo #12 4 years ago

    "Nothing there that a share in the royalties wouldn't fix, I'm sure!"

    My thoughts exactly.


    "Just gotta imagine it like what if he were Muslim and had made a song where Mohammed always wins a fiddling contest, and Activision put it in the game that you play as Mohammed, but sometimes Mohammed loses and gets laughed at and succumbs to Satan's temptation. Blasphemous, right? Nobody'd be calling him a crybaby for complaining, then."

    I would. I'd call him a big old crybaby, with booties and a matching bonnet. I'd maybe even ticikle his tummy if I thought it would stop him crying (but I bet it wouldn't, 'cos he's such a big crybaby).

  • Stoatboy #13 4 years ago

    A demon called "Lou" in a song about the devil? That's subtle. :/

  • kangarootoo #14 4 years ago

    @MrED209

    "Jesus. Way to miss the point.
    Hang on, is he American? That would explain it."

    Oh change the record ffs. This has nothing to with nationality and everything to do with him being a bit of a tit. WHHHHYYY do people wheel out the same comment every time?

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #15 4 years ago

    He's not "The Devil". He's a demon called Lou.

    May I suggest you watch the movie Constantine, and look out for Peter Stormare...



  • skillian #16 4 years ago

    I don't think it's to do with him being American or being a tit, it's just that he's obviously a religious man.

    In that context you can understand why he might be upset, but that's what happens when you sell the rights to your music.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #17 4 years ago

    Just like the people at Manchester Cathedral, he has the right to complain, but not a lot else.

    So he's said his piece, I doubt very many people will listen, leave him be.

  • kangarootoo #18 4 years ago

    @skillian

    I have to remain slightly cynical on this one I'm afraid and refer to Killerbee's previous comment "Nothing there that a share in the royalties wouldn't fix".

  • estoo #19 4 years ago

    Parents, if your child is under 12, they shouldn't be playing it at all (in the uk).
    Keep taking the pills mr.

  • Darkedge #20 4 years ago

    Christian fool

  • bloodflowers #21 4 years ago

    What an imbecile.

  • SpigleyMcCheese #22 4 years ago

    Meh. I'd complain, but he did write a great song. If he's uncomfortable with how it's being used, even if I don't agree with his discomfort, then that's fine. A bit crap he doesn't get any say out of the use of his own song though...

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #23 4 years ago

    hmmm... on his Wikipedia page, it attributes the quote:

    "In the future Darwinism will be looked upon as we now look upon the flat earth theory,"

    So I've changed my mind: the old, fat, beardy, ignorant, warmongering, cousin-fucking redneck tool is fair game.

    What can we diss on Amazon that he did?

  • monkie_king #24 4 years ago

    christianslol

    Incidentally, speaking of Knights of Cydonia, what possessed them to tranpose the keyboard part onto guitar? That feels really wrong. I guess it's better than Sabotage, where the guitar part has you playing turntable scratches.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #25 4 years ago

    Miserably SOB.

    Sounds like good old fashioned envy going on there.

    If the song is taken out of context then he shouldn't have written a song that could be taken out of content in such a way in the first place. Bloody religious nutter.

    And its a game for fox sake. Who cares if the devily guy wins.

    I imagine he must get pissed off when Hellboy kicks ass in the movies because, well, he is the devil as well innit?
    All red and horny ;)

  • gingerlink #26 4 years ago

    "We also have a message for parents: neither you or your child will get past Knights of Cydonia on Hard, so you might want to pick up Guitar Hero II at the same time"

    I did that ages ago, but still havn't been able to beat Lou, but I know a few people who are stuck on KoC on expert..

  • skillian #27 4 years ago

    Yes, he's the quintessential right-wing Southern evangelical - denies evolution and climate change, supports Bush and the Iraq war and fiercely believes in the USA. He may not be appealing to many of us God-haters here in the UK, but I think it's fair to say his objections to having the Devil emerge victorious in a video-game version of his song are not only financial. He believes in the message of his song - for real, like.

  • Transcendent #28 4 years ago

    People like him will win one day. Say hello to the apocalypse.

  • Kyle #29 4 years ago

    Daniels is the author of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", for which the player takes on the devil himself in a Guitar Hero III face-off, and the fact the devil "very often wins" has upset Daniels immensely.

    n00b lolololololololol

  • monkie_king #30 4 years ago

    Guitar Hero III makes the Baby Jebus cry!

  • Aretak #31 4 years ago

    Typical mature responses here. Never in doubt.

  • creepylizard #32 4 years ago


    "Oh, everyone will bash him for this, 'cos nobody takes that stuff seriously.

    Just gotta imagine it like what if he were Muslim and had made a song where Mohammed always wins a fiddling contest, and Activision put it in the game that you play as Mohammed, but sometimes Mohammed loses and gets laughed at and succumbs to Satan's temptation. Blasphemous, right? Nobody'd be calling him a crybaby for complaining, then"

    I would and have

  • r3n #33 4 years ago

    Meh, I'd feel bad if it was anyone else's song but the guy is clearly a moron.

  • Fwing #34 4 years ago

    So it's lighthearted fun if you win but somehow wrong if you lose your battle with "the devil". Right.

    And even if you do beat Knights of Cydonia on Hard, you'll never beat One or Raining Blood. Dammit.

  • ThemisB #35 4 years ago

    Moan, moan, moan.

    If you're going to moan about anything to do with this game, ask Neversoft why their stupid game is so hard! Then maybe the "devil" would win less often!

    Also, surely everything is all the GH games has been tongue-in-cheek?!? Like playing in "hell"? It's not as if the game encourages you to sell your soul to the devil in exchange for better GH skills!! Though I must say I'd be tempted...

    Finished GH1 on Expert without too much trouble. GH2 was harder, couldn't quite finish it on expert. But GHIII? Are you joking? Scraped through Knights of Cydonia on Hard but, as Fwing says, anything beyond that needs several extra fingers. And the ability to slow down time.

    It's JUST NOT FUN! Medium is boring, Hard is a struggle. Sort it out!

  • Frosty840 #36 4 years ago

    Knights of Cydonia is deeply unpleasant to play, but doable.

    Raining Blood, on the other hand... Pfft.

  • doob #37 4 years ago

    bah, I did Knights of Cydonia on expert long ago. not many others yet tho...

  • bitesize #38 4 years ago

    If the song is taken out of context then he shouldn't have written a song that could be taken out of content in such a way in the first place.

    say what?!? when he wrote the song many years ago (it's a pretty old song), he was supposed to think that sometime in the future there might be a videogame where you could play the song on a plastic guitar and lose to the devil instead of winning?? now THAT would be foresight...

  • KreyAtiv #39 4 years ago

    He does realise it is a game right? Not everyone is able to beat it on the first go, depending on the difficulty of course.
    Not like the game makes the player lose. Although does seem it has an advantage once you up it to Medium and you use three power ups in a row near the end, just seems to annoy it even more. Just a matter of practice.

  • AHiFi #40 4 years ago

    @ Kooch - The fact that he's praying for the troops is nothing and I don't get the point you're going at. I was at a lecture from Dahr Jamail, famous unembedded journo during the main body of the Iraq War, yesterday and he was giving some stories he had heard from troops. He was quoting them, word for word, swearing and all...and I couldn't help but feel sympathy.

    They have been influenced from the top, they're in a place they don't want to be, they grow to hate the Iraqis for the reasons they (the troops) are there and sure...the stuff they do is evil, but when they've not had any fun for ages...they're in a Bradley Tank and there's a car there...it's wrong to run over it. But they're not evil people.

    Evil people, to me, are the Bill O'Reilly's of the World, further polluting a vast number of the American populace into being pro War. If you haven't looked at it already, go watch his debate, sorry, fight with Jeremy Glick on youtube. Why is there a Fox, when there's already a Pentagon Channel?

    Apparently, the troops now go on patrols, will stop in a street, get little kids come up to them with video games, movies etc. to sell. They tell the kids to go tell their parents and neighbours to come out and sell stuff to them which they will buy, that they don't want any trouble and they'll be leaving in a few hours.

    And, as I'm sure some of you know, there was the case of the patrol refusing to go out at one point. So, I pray for the troops too. I pray they get pulled out...

    /derail, crash...

  • Lukus #41 4 years ago

    This guy sounds a bit nuts. Perhaps he's a religious nutter. Or maybe he's just upset he no longer owns his own song.

  • AHiFi #42 4 years ago

    AsPic - Nope, just saying that stress and influence are big factors in what they do
    Edited by 1 at 08/04/08 @ 15:37

  • YourMessageHere #43 4 years ago

    I for one would also be pissed off if I wrote a song that ended up in a GH game, but I'd not relinquish control of it in the first place so that problem wouldn't arise. So: retain control over your song, or shut the fuck up, you've only yourself to blame.

  • Eraysor #44 4 years ago

    I have lost all respect for this fool.

    Also - Knights of Cydonia isn't too hard on expert, Raining Blood however, is insane. I have only ever completed it once by pure luck!

  • kangarootoo #45 4 years ago

    "he should pray for God to grant him a sense of humour"

    Heehee, +1

  • kokotoni-wilf #46 4 years ago

    That comment about Darwinism illustrates how resistant his brain is to new ideas, a 3d representation of your character controlled by a wireless guitar that can sense when you tilt it upwards must have blown his mind when he saw it!

    How badly is he going to flip out when he sees the kids playing against the devil at the bus stop on Guitar Hero DS?