David Allan Coe (September 6, 1939 – April 29, 2026), also known by his initials DAC, was an American outlaw country singer and songwriter.Tucker, Stephen R. (1998). "David Allan Coe." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 102. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons. He first came to prominence for busking in Nashville and initially played mostly in the blues style, before transitioning to country music, becoming a major part of the 1970s outlaw country scene. His biggest hits include "You Never Even Call Me by My Name", "Longhaired Redneck", "The Ride", "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile", and "She Used to Love Me a Lot".
Coe's most popular songs covered by other artists include the number-one hits "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)", sung by Tanya Tucker, and Johnny Paycheck's rendition of "Take This Job and Shove It". The latter inspired the movie of the same name. Coe's rebellious attitude, wild image, and unconventional lifestyle set him apart from other country performers, both winning him legions of fans and hindering his mainstream success by alienating the music industry establishment, while his use of profane lyrics, including racial slurs, in some of his songs also drew controversy during his career. Regardless, Coe remained a popular performer on the country music circuit until his death.
Early life Coe was born in Akron, Ohio, on September 6, 1939. His favorite singer as a child was Johnny Ace. After being sent to the Starr Commonwealth for Boys reform school at the age of nine, he spent much of the next two decades in correctional facilities, including three years at the Ohio Penitentiary and Lancaster Industrial School. Coe said he received encouragement to begin writing songs from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, with whom he had spent time in prison. He started writing songs in prison by 1963.
After concluding another prison term in 1967, Coe embarked on a music career in Nashville, living in a hearse, which he parked in front of the Ryman Auditorium while he performed on the street. He caught the attention of Shelby Singleton, owner of the independent record label Plantation Records and signed a contract with his label. Coe was a member of the Louisville, Kentucky, chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.10 Badass David Allan Coe Facts You Should Know countrythangdaily.com (March 27, 2022)
He was the father of Tyler Mahan Coe, the creator of the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast, which chronicles the history of country music. He had four children with Jody Lynn Coe.
According to news sources, in 2007, he owed over $300,000 in child support.
On September 14, 2015, before District Court Judge Timothy S. Black in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio, Coe pleaded guilty to one count of impeding and obstructing the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws. As a result of his charges, Coe faced a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. In the indictment, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Coe of owing "$388,190.94 for the 2009 income tax year, $35,640.10 for the 2011 income tax year, and $42,733.82 for the 2013 income tax year, which included the income taxes owed plus interest and penalties" and "restitution . . . for the taxes due and owing as a result of his 2008 and 2010 tax returns." On Monday, June 13, 2016, Coe was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay the IRS $980,911.86 for the 2008 through 2013 income tax years. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica W. Knight and led by Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.
Music career Early career (1970–1975) Early in 1970, Coe released his debut album, Penitentiary Blues, followed by a tour with Grand Funk Railroad. In October 1971, he signed as an exclusive writer with Pete and Rose Drake's Windows Publishing Company, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, where he remained until 1977. Although he developed a cult following with his performances, he was not able to develop any mainstream success, but other performers achieved charting success by recording songs Coe had written, including Billie Jo Spears' 1972 recordings "Souvenirs & California Mem'rys" and Tanya Tucker's 1973 single "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)", which was a number-one hit and responsible for Coe becoming one of Nashville's hottest songwriters and Coe himself being signed by Columbia Records. Coe recorded his own version of the song for his second Columbia album, Once Upon a Rhyme, released in 1975. AllMusic writer Thom Jurek said of the song, "The amazing thing is that both versions are definitive."
Unlike Coe's first two albums, his third showed full commitment to country music, and Coe played a part in the evolution of what became known as outlaw country. The title of Coe's third album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, refers to the gimmick Coe adopted several years before Glen Campbell had a hit with the song "Rhinestone Cowboy", dressing up in a rhinestone suit and wearing a Lone Ranger mask. In 2004 the singer recalled to Michael Buffalo Smith, "I guess I have to blame it on Mel Tillis. I met him when I first went to Nashville, and he had an office down on Music Row. I was over there talking to him in his office, and he opened up the closet to get something, and he had a whole closet full of rhinestone suits. I just freaked out on that. He looked at me and said, 'You like that shit, I don't even wear those, if you want 'em, take 'em!' He gave me those rhinestone suits and I wore them everywhere." Coe maintained the idea for the mask came from his father:
Coe's second album, Once Upon a Rhyme, contains one of his biggest hits, "You Never Even Call Me by My Name", written by Steve Goodman and John Prine, and which first appeared on Goodman's 1971 debut release. Coe's version became his first country top-10 hit single, peaking at number eight in 1975, and includes a spoken epilogue where Coe relates a correspondence he had with Goodman, who stated the song he had written was the "perfect country and western song". Coe wrote back stating that no song could fit that description without mentioning a laundry list of clichés: "mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk". Goodman's equally facetious response was an additional verse that incorporated all five of Coe's requirements, and upon receiving it, Coe acknowledged that the finished product was indeed the "perfect country and western song" and included the last verse on the record:
Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prisonAnd I went to pick 'er up in the rainBut before I could get to the station in my pickup truckShe got runned over by a damned ol' train.
Coe was a featured performer in Heartworn Highways, a 1975 documentary film by James Szalapski. Other performers featured in the film included Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Steve Young, Steve Earle, and the Charlie Daniels Band. Coe also wrote "Cocaine Carolina" for Johnny Cash and sang background vocals on the recording that appeared on Cash's 1975 album John R. Cash.
Outlaw years (1976–1982) By 1976, the outlaw country movement was in full swing as artists such as Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were finally enjoying massive commercial success after years of fighting to record their music their own way. Coe, however, was still somewhat of an outsider, almost too outlaw for the outlaws, a predicament summed up well by AllMusic:
Longhaired Redneck was Coe's third album for Columbia in three years, and the first where he wrote or co-wrote all the songs; the outlaw country zeitgeist was summed up well in the title track, which recounts playing in a dive "where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they'll get out of here alive". The song features Coe impersonating the vocal styles of Ernest Tubb, Bill Anderson, and Merle Haggard. About the term "Longhaired Redneck", Coe later said, "It was terminology that I'd made up at the time. I was trying to tell people that not everybody with long hair was a hippie. Not everyone was the kind of person that thought you could punch them out, take their money, and that they'd say, 'I won't do nothin' about it'."
By 1977, the outlaw movement was nearing its apex, having seen the release of Willie Nelson's blockbuster album Red Headed Stranger and country music's first platinum-selling album, Wanted! The Outlaws. Coe considered himself as integral as anyone in the evolution of the outlaw country genre and began saying so in his music. As noted in AllMusic's review of the album, "On Rides Again, by trying to make a conscious outlaw record and aligning himself with the movement's two progenitors on the opening track, "Willie, Waylon, and Me"...Coe already set up self-parody unintentionally – something that continued to curse him." The songs on Rides Again cross-fade without the usual silences between tracks, which was unusual for country music, and feature Coe's heavily phased guitar. Coe was also permitted to use his own band on several tracks, a major concession for Columbia at the time. However, some of his peers resented Coe placing himself in such exalted company and felt he was exploiting his relationship with his fellow outlaws. Jennings' drummer Richie Albright called Coe "a great, great songwriter. A great singer. But he could not tell the truth if it was better than a lie he'd made up. Waylon didn't make him comfortable enough to hang around. But Willie did. I was around Willie quite a bit and David Allan was with him 80% of the time. Willie allowed him to hang around." Coe managed to maintain friendships with both Jennings and Nelson, despite the former's cool treatment of him at times. In his autobiography, Jennings mentions Coe once (in a chapter titled "The Outlaw Shit"), calling him "the most sincere of the bunch" of bandwagon jumpers, but contends, "when it came to being an Outlaw, the worst thing he ever did was double-parking on Music Row", adding: