Controversial country singer David Allan Coe dead at 86

David Allan Coe has died. The “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” and “Pledging My Love” singer was 86 years old. In a statement given to Rolling Stone, Coe’s widow Kimberly confirmed her husband’s passing: “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.”

Coe was born in Akron, Ohio, in September 1939 and grew up on a steady diet of Johnny Ace. He spent more than 20 years in reform school and correctional facilities, including a brief stint at the Ohio State Penitentiary. During one of his incarcerations, he was cell neighbors with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. In the late Sixties, Coe left prison and headed for Nashville, where he tried to make it as a country singer, at one point living in a hearse parked by the Ryman. Shelby Singleton, owner of Plantation Records, discovered him and got his initials on a record contract. Coe’s debut album, Penitentiary Blues, came out in 1970. A year later, he joined Pete and Rose Drake’s Windows Publishing Company as a writer. 

Billie Jo Spears and Tanya Tucker found mainstream success covering Coe’s songs. But fame mostly eluded Coe, even as he earned a reputation as one of Music Row’s slickest songwriters. Columbia Records took notice and added him to their roster, and his third album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, confirmed his pivot from blues to country. In 1975, Johnny Cash sang Coe’s tune “Cocaine Carolina” and invited him to sing backup on John R. Cash. That same year, Once Upon a Rhyme yielded one of Coe’s biggest tunes: “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.”

Coe went full outlaw on Longhaired Redneck, impersonating Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard, and Bill Anderson in an era dominated by Waylon and Willie, who had just released country music’s first platinum album, Wanted! The Outlaws, with Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser. In 1977, Jimmy Buffett accused Coe of plagiarizing his song “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. Three years later, Coe released I’ve Got Something to Say with contributions from Dickey Betts, George Jones, Guy Clark, Bill Anderson, Kris Kristofferson, and Larry Jon Wilson. When the “urban cowboy” movement got stronger in the early Eighties, Coe doubled down on his outlaw sound. His “Get a Little Dirt on Your Hands” duet with Anderson was a moderate crossover hit.

Commercial success found Coe soon enough. Castles in the Sand reached #8 on the country albums chart, his highest placement in eight years. “The Ride” reached #1 on the Cashbox Country Singles chart and spent 19 weeks on the Billboard country charts. Another major single, “She Used to Love Me a Lot,” came out in late 1984 and nearly cracked the top 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. He went independent in the Nineties, eventually meeting Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell and striking up a heavy metal bond with him. His output from that period, namely Nothing Sacred and Underground Album, alienated audiences with racist, misogynistic, and homophobic lyrics. Coe denied the accusations, claiming that his satirical music was inspired by Dr. Hook’s album of Shel Silverstein songs. He later made Rebel Meets Rebel with members of Pantera, a landmark crossover moment for country and metal music, and became a Kid Rock collaborator. 

Coe’s career was marked by persistent controversy, outlaw mythology, and exaggerated personal lore. He insisted that he spent time on death row after killing an inmate who tried to rape him, but the claim was later disproven. Coe songs like “The House We’ve Been Calling Home” and “If That Ain’t Country (I’ll Kiss Your Ass)” were barred from country radio stations because of polygamous and racist lyrics. The singer’s association with the Confederate flag, which appeared on his guitars and a few of his album covers, including Son of the South, sparked significant backlash. Coe also refuted accusations of racism: “I have dreadlocks down to my waist with earrings in both ears and my beard is down to my waist and it is in braids… I was in prison with 87% black people, I hung around with black people, and I learned to sing music with black people. It was ironic that in prison the white guys called me a ‘n***er lover’ and now I write the word ‘n***er’ in a song and I am all of a sudden a racist. It is pretty ironic.” 

Requiem for a Harlequin featured criticisms against the KKK and Rebel Meets Rebel ridiculed the U.S. government’s treatment of Native Americans. On Nothing Sacred, an album released via mail order in the back of a motorcycle magazine, Coe included the song “Fuck Aneta Bryant,” a dig at Anita Bryant, who famously supported the repeal of anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws in Florida. But the Underground Album song “N***er Fucker” was so offensive that, in the ensuing years, Coe was often mistaken for white supremacist musician Johnny Rebel. 

During a legal conflict with the IRS in the early 2000s, Coe lost the publishing rights to the bulk of his catalog, including “Take This Job and Shove It,” in bankruptcy court. “All the songs on the X-rated albums were sold,” he said in an interview. “I don’t own that stuff anymore. I have nothing to do with that stuff. They have to give me credit as the songwriter, but I don’t make one cent.” In later years, Coe found a steady gig touring the motorcycle rally circuit, even recording a live album at Biketoberfest in 2001.

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