The singer of “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” and author of hits for Tanya Tucker has died at 86.
David Allan Coe, whose songs cut a direct line through country music’s outlaw era, has died. He was 86.
His wife, Kimberly Hastings Coe, confirmed the death to Rolling Stone. “One of the best singers, songwriters, and performers of our time [and] never to be forgotten,” she said in a statement. A cause of death was not immediately available.
Coe’s influence sat between mainstream Nashville and the rougher edges of honky-tonk. He wrote “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)” for Tanya Tucker and co-wrote “Take This Job and Shove It,” later recorded by Johnny Paycheck. His own recordings, like “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” and “The Ride,” carried a self-mythologizing weight that blurred fact and outlaw legend.
Part of a generation that rewrote country music’s boundaries, Coe’s persona was as central to his story as his output. His life, much like the music, resisted tidy summary. The songs remain.
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