David Allan Coe, the country music icon who wrote major hits including “Take This Job and Shove It”, has died at the age of 86.
His death was confirmed by his wife Kimberly Coe, who told Rolling Stone in a statement: “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 information on the cause of death was given.
Coe, who was born in 1939 in Akron, Ohio, was associated with the outlaw country movement alongside artists including Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. He wrote Tanya Tucker’s 1973 chart-topper “Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)” and Johnny Paycheck’s 1977 No 1 hit “Take This Job and Shove It”.
Over a career that spans nearly six decades, Coe released more than 40 albums and remained a central figure for the outlaw genre, with songs including “You Never Even Called Me by My Name,” “The Ride,” and “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile.”
He signed with Columbia Records and released his debut album The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy in 1974, followed by Once Upon a Rhyme in 1975, which featured his recording of “You Never Even Called Me by My Name”.
Coe’s career was marked by controversy, particularly the release of two independently issued “X-rated” albums, Nothing Sacred (1978) and Underground Album (1982), which drew criticism for their use of racial slurs and misogynistic language; Coe said the material was intended as parody.
Coe was sent to reform school at the age of nine and spent much of the next two decades in and out of correctional facilities on charges that included grand theft auto and possession of burglary tools. He moved to Nashville after his release in 1967, where he lived in a hearse parked outside the Ryman Auditorium that he performed in front of for passersby, and performed in rhinestone outfits and a Lone Ranger-style mask under the name “the Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy”.
His life and career were shaped by a tendency to blur fact and fiction, with Nashville producer Shelby Singleton telling Rolling Stone in 1976: “Ninety percent of what he tells you is probably bulls***. We thought it was a gimmick and we promoted it in that manner.”
He hit major commercial success with the 1983 album Castles in the Sand, which reached the Top 10 of the country albums chart and included “The Ride”, a song about a hitchhiker’s encounter with the ghost of the country singer Hank Williams.
He continued recording and performing into later decades, including collaborating with members of Pantera on the 2005 album Rebel Meets Rebel and working with Kid Rock.
According to Music Universe, Coe had been in intensive care at the time of his death. A representative described Coe as a “musical treasure” and told the outlet that the musician “appreciated all of the fans” despite his declining health.
In 2015, he pleaded guilty to impeding and obstructing the administration of tax laws and was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay nearly $1m in back taxes, according to Variety.
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