Doff your caps and bow your heads, gentlemen, we’ve lost a great patriot:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Grammy-nominated country music firebrand Charlie Daniels has died of a stroke at 83; had hit with ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’.

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.

“I can ask people where they are from, and if they say `Waukegan,′ I can say I’ve played there. If they say `Baton Rouge,′ I can say I’ve played there. There’s not a city we haven’t played in,” Daniels said in 1998.

Most of you can probably tell by now that I’m not a fan of country music in general. I find it too twangy and sappy and cheesy, most of the time. But I do make exceptions for stuff like this:

Charlie Daniels was a supporter of the God-Emperor and by all accounts a legendary musician. Now, he never actually said the words highlighted in the picture above, apparently they are hearsay misattributed to him. But there is no doubt about his qualities as a musician and his love for his country.

Gone too soon, is all I can say.