Biography:

David Allan Coe (September 6, 1939 – April 29, 2026) was an American singer and songwriter.[3] Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville. He initially played mostly in the blues style, before transitioning to country music, becoming a major part of the 1970s outlaw country scene. His biggest hits include “You Never Even Called Me by My Name“, “Longhaired Redneck“, “The Ride“, “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile“, and “She Used to Love Me a Lot“.

Coe’s most popular songs covered by other artists include the number-one hits “Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)” sung by Tanya Tucker and Johnny Paycheck‘s rendition of “Take This Job and Shove It“. The latter inspired the movie of the same name. Coe’s rebellious attitude, wild image, and unconventional lifestyle set him apart from other country performers, both winning him legions of fans and hindering his mainstream success by alienating the music industry establishment. Regardless, Coe was a popular performer on the country music circuit prior to his death.

Biography

Coe was born in Akron, Ohio,[4] on September 6, 1939.[5] His favorite singer as a child was Johnny Ace.[6] After being sent to the Starr Commonwealth for Boys reform school at the age of nine, he spent much of the next two decades in correctional facilities, including three years at the Ohio Penitentiary. Coe said he received encouragement to begin writing songs from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, with whom he had spent time in prison.[7]

After concluding another prison term in 1967, Coe embarked on a music career in Nashville, living in a hearse, which he parked in front of the Ryman Auditorium while he performed on the street. He caught the attention of Shelby Singleton, owner of the independent record label Plantation Records and signed a contract with his label.[4] Coe was a member of the Louisville, Kentucky, chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.[8][9]

He was the father of Tyler Mahan Coe, the creator of the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast, which chronicles the history of country music. He has four children with Jody Lynn Coe.[10]

According to news sources, in 2007, he owed over $300,000 in child support.[11]

On Monday, September 14, 2015, before District Court Judge Timothy S. Black in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio, Coe pleaded guilty to one count of impeding and obstructing the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws.[12] As a result of his charges, Coe faced a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.[12] In the indictment, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Coe of owing “$388,190.94 for the 2009 income tax year, $35,640.10 for the 2011 income tax year, and $42,733.82 for the 2013 income tax year, which included the income taxes owed plus interest and penalties” and “restitution . . . for the taxes due and owing as a result of his 2008 and 2010 tax returns.”[12] On Monday, June 13, 2016, Coe was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay the IRS $980,911.86 for the 2008 through 2013 income tax years.[13] The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica W. Knight and led by Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.[12]

Music career

Early career (1970–1975)

Early in 1970, Coe released his debut album, Penitentiary Blues, followed by a tour with Grand Funk Railroad.[4] In October 1971, he signed as an exclusive writer with Pete and Rose Drake’s Windows Publishing Company, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, where he remained until 1977. Although he developed a cult following with his performances, he was not able to develop any mainstream success, but other performers achieved charting success by recording songs Coe had written, including Billie Jo Spears‘ 1972 recordings “Souvenirs & California Mem’rys” and Tanya Tucker‘s 1973 single “Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)”, which was a number-one hit and responsible for Coe becoming one of Nashville’s hottest songwriters and Coe himself being signed by Columbia Records.[4] Coe recorded his own version of the song for his second Columbia album, Once Upon a Rhyme, released in 1975.[14] AllMusic writer Thom Jurek said of the song, “The amazing thing is that both versions are definitive.”[14]

Unlike Coe’s first two albums, his third showed full commitment to country music, and Coe played a part in the evolution of what became known as outlaw country. The title of Coe’s third album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, refers to the gimmick Coe adopted several years before Glen Campbell had a hit with the song “Rhinestone Cowboy“, dressing up in a rhinestone suit and wearing a Lone Ranger mask. The singer later recalled to Michael Buffalo Smith in 2004, “I guess I have to blame it on Mel Tillis. I met him when I first went to Nashville, and he had an office down on Music Row. I was over there talking to him in his office, and he opened up the closet to get something, and he had a whole closet full of rhinestone suits. I just freaked out on that. He looked at me and said, ‘You like that shit, I don’t even wear those, if you want ’em, take ’em!’ He gave me those rhinestone suits and I wore them everywhere.”[15] Coe maintained the idea for the mask came from his father:

Then I got the mysterious rhinestone thing from my father. He asked me, ‘You know the only way that the Lone Ranger can go into town? I said, ‘No, I don’t know what you mean.’ He said that he has to take his mask off. I thought, what is my dad talking about and trying to tell me? He said, ‘Well son, you have to wear a mask and then when you don’t want to be David Allan Coe, you can take your mask off and go anywhere and not be like Elvis with people messin’ with you all the time.’[15]

Coe’s second album, Once Upon a Rhyme, contains one of his biggest hits, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name“, written by Steve Goodman and John Prine, and which first appeared on Goodman’s 1971 debut release. Coe’s version became his first country top-10 hit single, peaking at number eight in 1975, and includes a spoken epilogue where Coe relates a correspondence he had with Goodman, who stated the song he had written was the “perfect country and western song”. Coe wrote back stating that no song could fit that description without mentioning a laundry list of clichés: “mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk”. Goodman’s equally facetious response was an additional verse that incorporated all five of Coe’s requirements, and upon receiving it, Coe acknowledged that the finished product was indeed the “perfect country and western song” and included the last verse on the record:

Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick ‘er up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned ol’ train.

Coe was a featured performer in Heartworn Highways, a 1975 documentary film by James Szalapski. Other performers featured included Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Steve Young, Steve Earle, and the Charlie Daniels Band. Coe also wrote “Cocaine Carolina” for Johnny Cash and sang background vocals on the recording that appeared on Cash’s 1975 album John R. Cash.[citation needed]

Credits:

Wikipedia