David Allan Coe, one of the most defiant and unconventional figures in country music history, died at 86, according to Rolling Stone. The Akron, Ohio native spent more than five decades navigating Nashville on his own terms, accumulating a devoted following that outlasted his chart presence and outlived his considerable controversies.
Coe's early life gave little indication of what was to come. Born in 1939, he was sent to reform school at nine and spent much of the following two decades cycling through correctional institutions in Ohio for offenses including possession of burglary tools and auto theft. Music found him behind bars. In 1967, a free man, he made his way to Nashville.
His break as a songwriter came fast. Tanya Tucker took his ballad "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)" to the top of the country charts in 1973, and Columbia Records signed him shortly after. His debut album, "The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy," arrived in 1974. A year later, "Once Upon a Rhyme" introduced "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," a song that became one of the genre's most beloved and oft-quoted works.
The hits kept coming. In 1976 he released "Long Haired Redneck." In 1977, Johnny Paycheck recorded Coe's "Take This Job and Shove It," which reached No. 1 and later provided the title and soundtrack for a 1981 feature film. Coe also landed eight singles in the Top 40 on the Country Singles chart during his career, including "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile," "The Ride," "If This Is Just a Game," and "Waylon, Willie, and Me." He was an in-demand writer for others as well, penning songs for Billie Joe Spears and Tanya Tucker among others.
His output blended country, rock, and blues in ways that didn't always fit neatly into Nashville's commercial machinery. That suited Coe. He was less interested in mainstream success than in his own mythology, which he cultivated aggressively. Stories circulated for years about him living in a hearse parked outside the Ryman Auditorium when he first arrived in town.
The controversies were real and lasting. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Coe released two so-called X-rated albums, "Nothing Sacred" in 1978 and "Underground Album" in 1982, both of which contained racial slurs and overtly homophobic and misogynistic content. Critics denounced him as a racist and misogynist. He denied the accusations but never fully escaped the fallout.
Legal trouble resurfaced in the 2010s. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to impeding and obstructing the administration of tax laws and was sentenced to three years of probation, ordered to pay nearly $1 million to the IRS. A story, unverified but widely repeated, held that when he couldn't pay, Coe sold his house and lived in a cave.
None of it kept him off the road for long. He was a near-constant touring presence for decades. In the late 1990s he forged an unlikely creative partnership with Dimebag Darrell, the guitarist for metal band Pantera, along with bassist Rex Brown and drummer Vinnie Paul. The resulting album, "Rebel Meets Rebel," was recorded but shelved; it finally came out in 2006, two years after Dimebag Darrell was murdered onstage in Columbus, Ohio.
His influence stretched well beyond traditional country circles. Kid Rock name-checked him as a touchstone. His songs appeared in films and television. And despite the gaps in his mainstream chart history, Coe built something rarer than radio hits: a loyal audience that treated his catalog like a shared secret, passed down across generations.
He was 86.
