Outlaw country titan David Allan Coe dead at 86
Outlaw country leading figure David Allan Coe has died aged 86.
The veteran musician was responsible for huge hits, including ‘You Never Even Called Me By My Name’, ‘The Ride’, and ‘Take This Job and Shove It’.
In a statement, his wife, Kimberly Coe, told Rolling Stone, “One of the best singers, songwriters, and performers of our time [and] never to be forgotten. My husband, my friend, my confidant and my life for many years. I’ll never forget him and I don’t want anyone else to ever forget him either.”
No cause of death has been confirmed.
Coe, who was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1939, spent most of his youth in and out of prison for various crimes, such as burglary. But in 1967, Coe moved to Nashville in the bid to begin a music career and turn his life around.
His debut album, Penitentiary Blues, arrived in 1970, but success initially evaded him as an artist. However, as a songwriter, Coe wound up to be one of the most in-demand figures in the Nashville scene, penning songs for the likes of Tanya Tucker and Billie Jo Spears.
Thanks to the success of his songwriting, Columbia Records took a chance on him in the mid-1970s, which led to him finally gaining traction in his own route, and when he first started to become aligned with the outlaw country movement.
In the 1980s, Coe’s popularity continued to grow thanks to Castles in the Sand, which cracked the top ten of the Country Chart.
Coe was also a controversial figure who blurred the lines between fact and fiction despite already being a larger-than-life persona who could be seen driving around Nashville in a hearse.
He once claimed that he killed a fellow inmate while in prison in 1963, which was later debunked by documentarians. Nashville producer Shelby Singleton explained to Rolling Stone in 1976: “Ninety per cent of what he tells you is probably bulls***. We thought it was a gimmick and we promoted it in that manner.”
After reissuing Nothing Sacred and Underground Album, originally released in the 1980s, Coe was accused by author Neil Strauss of being responsible for “among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic, and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter”, which he denied.
The later years of his life, like his youth, were also scarred by brushes with the law. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to impeding and obstructing the administration of tax laws, resulting in three years’ probation and being ordered to pay almost $1 million to the IRS.
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