Over on his website, country music legend, Charlie Daniels, expresses his distaste for Guitar Hero III (which includes his monster hit, The Devil Went Down to Georgia) and its questionable imagery. He’s apparently worried that the all of the RAWK-tastic visuals in the game will somehow send young players straight to hell, where they will burn forever in a lake of fire:
“Actually the game really has a dark side complete with grotesque monsters on stage with the band, strange, eerie lighting effects and all manner of weird things popping up on the stage.”
“The song, “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” which I wrote, is supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses. That is not the case with the Guitar Hero version which comes complete with a horned, guitar-playing devil who battles the player and very often wins.”
“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.”
So, apparently, as long as one of his songs isn’t included in the soundtrack, Mr. Daniels has no beef with any other video game — no matter how violent or distasteful it may be. Clearly, the message is that, exposing your children to a cartoonish grim reaper in a guitar-simulation game is a terrible idea, but exposing them to games like those in the Grand Theft Auto series aren’t even worth mentioning. Well, unless Grand Theft Auto IV features a CDB tune…perhaps something like Long-Haired Country Boy — a song which mentions getting “stoned” and “drunk” in the first verse, no less.
Oh, Charlie, you used to rock, man. Remember the early ’80s when you were getting played on rock radio? You know, during the Full Moon era? I know you’ve gone all super-churchy as you’ve aged, but is there not still some of that old-school country outlaw in ya? You can’t give Guitar Hero III a pass? Really?
Of course, this whole thing could have been avoided if Guitar Hero III didn’t have those stupid boss battles and hadn’t used an atrocious version of his song…
…just sayin’.
Can’t argue with that.
+1
I hate Guitar Hero to begin with. I feel it’s kind of like what Brad was saying about turn based Traditional RPG’s. I don’t even consider it an actual game, just pure memorization. Boring….
But yeah, Charlie Daniels is being a little silly when Guitar Hero is one of the few games these days that actually doesn’t feature some sort of violent content. You could say that your duel with the devil is just as light hearted as his song.
And by the way, I love the metal version in the game…. whats wrong with it?
For me, the original song is awesome as-is. It would have been fine to just leave it alone.
Also, the whole, “When WE cover (insert 80’s pop or country song here), we really RAWK it up. OMG THE IRONING! LOL” thing is SOOOO old.
But then again, being the spoof of the music biz that Guitar Hero is, I guess my last point is invalid. *shrug*