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David Allan Coe, the country singer-songwriter who wrote the working class anthem \u201cTake This Job and Shove It\u2033 and had hits with \u201cYou Never Even Called Me By My Name\u201d and \u201cThe Ride\u201d among others, has died. He was 86.<\/p>\n
Coe’s wife, Kimberly Hastings Coe, confirmed his death to Rolling Stone on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
She described him as one of the best singers and songwriters of our time.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband, my friend, my confidant and my life for many years. I\u2019ll never forget him and I don\u2019t want anyone else to ever forget him either,” she wrote to the publication.<\/p>\n
A statement from a Coe representative to People said he died around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The cause of death wasn’t disclosed.<\/p>\n
Whether he was labeled outlaw or underground, Coe was clearly an outsider in Nashville’s music establishment, even throughout his successes as an in-demand songwriter and singer, eventually developing a core following around his raw, often obscene lyrics and a checkered and somewhat mysterious past.<\/p>\n
His wife posted on Facebook in September 2021 that he had been hospitalized with COVID-19 and he made few appearances since then. <\/p>\n
He did concert tours with Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Neil Young and others. He wrote \u201cTake This Job and Shove It,\u201d a hit by Johnny Paycheck in 1977, and \u201cWould You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone),\u201d a hit by Tanya Tucker in 1974. He was also the first country singer to record \u201cTennessee Whiskey,\u201d penned by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, that has since become a genre standard and hits for George Jones and Chris Stapleton.<\/p>\n
His own country hit recordings included \u201cYou Never Even Call Me by My Name,\u201d written by Steve Goodman and an uncredited John Prine; \u201cThe Ride,\u201d and \u201cMona Lisa Lost Her Smile.\u201d Coe also appeared in a handful of movies, including \u201cStagecoach\u201d and \u201cTake this Job and Shove It,\u201d which was named after his song.<\/p>\n
Coe, born in Akron, Ohio, spent time in reformatories as a youngster, and served time in an Ohio prison from 1963 to 1967 for possession of burglary tools. He also has said he spent time with the Outlaws motorcycle club, but some of the tales about his prison time and his personal life have been wildly exaggerated over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d have never made it through prison without my music,\u201d he said in an AP interview in 1983. \u201cNo one could take it (music) away from me. They could put me in the hole with nothing to do but I could still make up a song in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recorded his first album, a blues album called \u201cPenitentiary Blues,\u201d using songs that he wrote in prison. He later told reporters that he tried not to lean too heavily on prison as a topic for songs because of the similarities to the backstory of Merle Haggard, but that his criminal history was all people seemed interested in focusing on. <\/p>\n
Coe recorded next for Columbia Records and did the album \u201cThe Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy,\u201d which became his nickname after performing in a rhinestone suit and wearing a mask.<\/p>\n
During the heyday of the outlaw movement, Coe placed himself at the center of the scene, with songs like \u201cLonghaired Redneck,\u201d which featured lyrics about performing in dive bars, \u201cWhere bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they\u2019ll get out of here alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was featured in the acclaimed documentary about the outlaw country movement called \u201cHeartworn Highways,\u201d in which he performs a concert at a Tennessee prison.<\/p>\n
Coe, himself heavily tattooed and sporting long hair, claimed a diverse fan base that included bikers, doctors, lawyers and bankers. His last record, released in 2006, was a collaboration with Dimebag Darrell and other former members of the heavy metal group Pantera.<\/p>\n
He released two R-rated albums, 1978\u2032s \u201cNothing Sacred\u201d and 1982\u2032s \u201cUnderground Album,\u201d that he sold via biker magazines. The songs on these albums have been criticized for being racist, homophobic and sexually explicit. He told \u201cBillboard\u201d magazine in 2001 that author and songwriter Shel Silverstein convinced him to record the songs he had written, something he had come to regret.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose were meant to be sung around the campfire for bikers, and I still don\u2019t sing those songs in concert,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Coe was ordered to pay the IRS more than $980,000 in restitution for obstructing the tax agency and was sentenced to three years\u2019 probation. Court documents say Coe earned income from at least 100 concerts yearly from 2008 through 2013 and either didn\u2019t file individual income tax returns or pay taxes when he did file.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n