Songfacts®:

• The events that became known as The Iranian Hostage Crisis caused Charlie Daniels' patriot spirit to come alive in a big way, along with those of many other US citizens. This song is his tribute to that spirit. In a Songfacts interview with Daniels, he said: "It was a reawakening of patriotism. That was something that our enemies did that they had no idea what they were doing, because it galvanized America. You're not supposed to be able to go into the foreign embassies, that's like a little piece of American soil over there. And these people go in there and take hostages. And it made America mad. I kept hearing, 'Well, we ought to go over there and do this, we ought to do that, we ought to do the other thing, we ought to do something about this.' And I thought, patriotism is making a reappearance. And then the lines popped in my mind, 'Well, you never did think that it ever would happen again,' because after Vietnam, patriotism was at ebb tide. And all of a sudden here we were, we had people ready to go to arms or do whatever we needed to do to get the situation straightened out. America was just a flat-out piece of flag-waving patriotism. That's what I am, I'm a flag-waving patriot."
• The line, "Just go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan" stems from Daniels' feeling that the people in Pittsburgh are "The salt of the earth, the finest, just the greatest people. The strength of America." He says, "I've gone to ball games at different places, but I've always felt the Pittsburgh Steelers fans, especially in the old stadium - I mean, they're steel workers and they're good old guys with blisters, or calluses on their hands. The strength of America is not in Washington D.C., It's in our people, it's on the farms, in the factories. It's the people out here that make this country work. The truck drivers, the farmers. And these people, that's what they were, and I just felt like if you want to go to war, let me take some of these guys with me. Go lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and you're gonna find out what American anger is, because it's the kind of people they are."
• On November 4, 1979, the American Embassy in Tehran was seized by a group of approximately 500 Iranian militant university students, who took 52 Americans hostage. This event was in response to the exiled Shah's admission to the United States for medical treatment. On April 24, 1980, President Jimmy Carter launched a disastrous - and unsuccessful - rescue attempt, during which 8 people were killed, and three military helicopters were damaged. Although Iran tried to pass the hostages off as "Guests of the Ayatollah," they were submitted to isolation and blindfolding, and paraded through the streets and ridiculed. It wasn't until January 20, 1981, 444 days later and on the day of President Ronald Reagan's inauguration, that the hostages were released.
• This is one of many songs where the entire band share the songwriting credits, which read: Tom Crain, Charlie Daniels, Joel DiGregorio, Fred Edwards, Charles Hayward, Jim Marshall.