David Allan Coe, a country singer notorious for outlandish, often obscene performances that made him central to the outlaw country movement of the 1970s and '80s, died on Wednesday. He was 86.
His booking agent David Wade shared he died at about 5:08 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29, but gave no other details.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, his wife Kimberly Hastings, who he married in 2010, shared: "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."
© Getty Images"David was a Country Music treasure and loved his fans," his rep also said. "Most importantly, he was a true outlaw and a great singer, songwriter, and performer."
David was best known for writing the working class anthem "Take This Job and Shove It" and other hits like "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," "The Ride," "Longhaired Redneck," and "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile."
Though he was associated with the outlaw country movement, which also had Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson as key figures, in contrast to those country legends, David was known for his blatant use of slurs and racial stereotypes in his songs, for which he was widely criticized, as well as for frequently using the Confederate flag.
© Getty ImagesIn 1990, he rereleased two albums "Nothing Sacred" and "Underground Album," which he had released in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and which in 2000 a New York Times music writer described as "among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter."
He long distanced himself from the albums — albeit making money out of them by selling them without his name on the packaging — and in 2004, he insisted to Swampland: "Anyone that would look at me and say I was a racist would have to be out of their mind."
David was born on September 6, 1939, in Akron, Ohio, to father Donald Mahan Coe and daughter Dorothy Ruth (née Wilson) Coe.
By nine years old, he had been sent to reform school, and subsequently spent the next two decades in and out of juvenile and adult correctional facilities, including three years at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
© Getty ImagesHe was released from prison in 1967, after which he moved to Nashville, and pursued a career in music, using his experiences from prison and brushes with the law — his crimes included auto theft and the possession of tools to commit burglary — in his lyrics.
David claimed to have killed another inmate who tried to rape him at the penitentiary, a story that was later debunked, and further boasted of having more than 300 tattoos, and claimed to be a practicing polygamist. Per the New York Times, he was also a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, a biker gang designated as a criminal organization by numerous law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world.
