The narrator reacts violently to sexual harassment from a customer, which instigates a fight with the locals. They decide to stop at the Cloud 9 Bar and Grill in Houston, Texas. Two men decide to travel to New Orleans to party, but on the way get pulled over by a police officer for speeding. The Charlie Daniels Band's 1988 album Homesick Heroes featured the single " Uneasy Rider '88" that was musically and thematically similar to "Uneasy Rider" but with a story set in a gay bar in Houston, Texas. The song's title, which does not appear in the lyrics, is a play on the film Easy Rider, which follows two counterculture motorcyclists on a journey in the opposite direction, from Los Angeles to New Orleans, Louisiana and eventually to Florida.ĭaniels' counterculture attitude was consistent with that of others in the outlaw country music movement but is in contrast to his later right-wing attitudes expressed in songs such as 1989's " Simple Man". Unlike with most country music of the time, Daniels' protagonist is a member of the counterculture. The lyrics reflect cultural divisions in the Southern United States in the early 1970s between the counterculture of the 1960s and more traditional Southern culture. After chasing the rednecks around with his car for a short time, he speeds away quickly and resumes his journey to Los Angeles already on a northward track to Arkansas, he decides on the fly to reroute through Omaha, Nebraska. The distraction lasts long enough for the narrator to escape just as his tire is repaired. As the others begin to believe the narrator's story, the man defends himself by saying he has lived in Jackson all of his life, has no garage, is a faithful Baptist, and adheres to the teachings of "Brother John Birch". In order to extricate himself from a potential physical altercation, the narrator accuses one man of being a federal agent working undercover to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan, who removes George Wallace bumper stickers, voted for George McGovern, and has a Communist flag on his garage wall. He is alone at first, to his relief, but several local residents soon arrive and question his manners, physical appearance, and choice of car. When one of the narrator's tires goes flat in Jackson, Mississippi, he stops at a " Redneck" bar and calls a gas station to come repair it. The narrator protagonist of "Uneasy Rider" is a long-haired marijuana smoker driving a Chevrolet with a " peace sign, mag wheels, and four on the floor." The song is a spoken-word description of an interlude in a trip from a non-specified location in the Southern United States to Los Angeles, California. ( February 2009) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. This article possibly contains original research.