David Allan Coe, one of country music’s most defiant and complex figures, has died at the age of 86.
Rolling Stone reported the death.
Born in Akron, Ohio in 1939, Coe made his way to Nashville in the 1960s as a songwriter before breaking through as a recording artist in his own right.
His profile rose sharply in 1973 when Tanya Tucker took his ballad Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone) to the top of the country charts.
He signed with Columbia Records not long after and released his debut studio album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, in 1974.
His 1975 album Once Upon a Rhyme introduced one of his most enduring songs, You Never Even Called Me by My Name, while 1976’s Long Haired Redneck became another celebrated entry in his catalogue.
A year later, he scored yet another number one when Johnny Paycheck recorded his composition Take This Job and Shove It in 1977.
The Ride, his 1983 single featuring a supernatural encounter with Hank Williams, became one of his most recognisable recordings.
Coe was never a straightforward figure.
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw him release two explicitly titled X-rated albums, Nothing Sacred in 1978 and Underground Album in 1982, which contained deeply offensive material including racial slurs and homophobic and misogynistic language, and remain a significant part of his troubled legacy.
Legal difficulties came in the 2010s.
In 2015, Coe pleaded guilty to impeding and obstructing tax law administration and was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $1 million to the IRS.
He was 86.
