David Allan Coe, one of country music’s most challenging and complex figures, has died at the age of 86.
rolling stone reported the death.
Born in Akron, Ohio, in 1939, Coe came to Nashville in the 1960s as a songwriter before breaking out as an artist in his own right.
Her profile rose considerably in 1973, when Tanya Tucker took her ballad Would you sleep with me (on a field of stone)? to the top of the country charts.
She signed to Columbia Records shortly after and released her debut studio album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboyin 1974.
Their 1975 album once upon a time there was a rhyme presented one of his most enduring songs, You didn’t even call me by my namewhile in 1976 Long Haired Redneck became another famous entry in his catalogue.
A year later, he scored another number one when Johnny Paycheck recorded his composition. Take this job and push it in 1977.
The walkhis 1983 single, featuring a supernatural encounter with Hank Williams, became one of his most recognizable recordings.
Coe was never a simple figure.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he released two X-rated albums explicitly titled, Nothing sacred in 1978 and underground album in 1982, which contained deeply offensive material, including racial slurs and homophobic and misogynistic language, and remains an important part of his turbulent legacy.
Legal difficulties arose in the 2010s.
In 2015, Coe pleaded guilty to impeding and obstructing the administration of the tax law and was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $1 million to the IRS.
He was 86 years old.
