David Allan Coe, the outlaw country songwriter whose pen produced the working-class anthem “Take This Job and Shove It” and whose voice carried “The Ride” into country music canon, died on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at the age of 86.
Coe died in a hospital around 5:08 p.m., according to a representative who confirmed the news to People. No cause of death has been disclosed. His wife, Kimberly Hastings Coe, confirmed his death in a statement to Rolling Stone. “My husband, my friend, my confidant and my life for many years,” she wrote. “I’ll never forget him and I don’t want anyone else to ever forget him either.”
A statement posted to Coe’s social media asked for privacy and described him as “more than a singer, songwriter, and outlaw country legend.” His wife had announced in September 2021 that he had been hospitalized with COVID-19, and his public appearances dwindled in the years that followed.
From Reform School to Nashville
Born Sept. 6, 1939, in Akron, Ohio, Coe was the son of Donald Coe, a Goodyear factory worker, and Lucille Coe, who worked at Sears and as a secretary to J.J. Buchholzer. He attended Betty Jane Elementary School, Ellet High School and Coventry High School between stretches at reform school, where he was first sent at age 9.
His youth was a churn of trouble. He served four months in the Army before being discharged when authorities discovered he was underage. Three stints at the Ohio Reformatory followed, with charges that included grand theft auto and possession of burglary tools. He served time in an Ohio prison from 1963 to 1967, and later claimed he killed a fellow inmate with a mop bucket in 1963 after being threatened in the showers — one of many tales from his past that grew murkier with retelling.
Music kept him intact. “I’d have never made it through prison without my music,” Coe told The Associated Press in 1983. “No one could take it (music) away from me. They could put me in the hole with nothing to do but I could still make up a song in my head.”
Paroled in 1967, Coe arrived in Nashville with 20 cents in his pocket, playing his guitar in bars to eat. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, whom he had met behind bars, is credited with steering him toward a recording career. His debut album, “Penitentiary Blues,” arrived in 1970 on SSS International Records — an indie label owned by Shelby Singleton alongside sister imprint Plantation — drawing on songs he had written while incarcerated.
The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy
Standing 6-foot-4, sporting long hair and, by the mid-1970s, 365 tattoos, Coe billed himself as the “Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy,” a nickname born of his rhinestone suit and a mask he wore on stage. He cut more than 60 singles that landed on the Billboard charts and built a cult following that crossed unlikely lines — bikers, doctors, lawyers and bankers all turned up at his shows.
His songwriting reach was vast. Johnny Paycheck turned “Take This Job and Shove It” into a 1977 No. 1 country hit that earned Coe his only Grammy nomination. Tanya Tucker carried “Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone)” to the top of the country charts in 1974. Coe was the first country artist to record “Tennessee Whiskey,” written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, a song that later became a signature for George Jones and Chris Stapleton.
His own hits included “You Never Even Called Me by My Name,” written by Steve Goodman with an uncredited assist from John Prine; “Longhaired Redneck” from his 1976 album of the same name; “The Ride” in 1983; and “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile” in 1984. He recorded “Rides Again” in 1977 and was featured in the documentary “Heartworn Highways,” which captured a concert he performed at a Tennessee prison.
A Career Built on Edges
After moving to Key West, Florida, Coe independently released two R-rated records: “Nothing Sacred” in 1978 and the “Underground Album” in 1982. Both contained material that Coe later said had been “meant to be sung around the campfire for bikers.” A stream of offensive, racist songs from those albums — which Coe insisted were parodies — continued to draw criticism for decades, as did his use of the Confederate flag as a stage backdrop.
His collaborations stretched the genre’s borders. Concert tours paired him with Willie Nelson, Kid Rock and Neil Young. His final record, released in 2006, was “Rebel Meets Rebel,” a country-metal fusion with Pantera alums Dimebag Darrell, Vinnie Paul and Rex Brown. He also appeared in the films “Stagecoach” and “Take This Job and Shove It.”
The road never quite let go. Coe performed at least 100 concerts a year from 2008 through 2013. In 2016, he was sentenced to three years’ probation for obstructing the IRS and ordered to pay more than $980,000 in restitution. His father, Donald, died Aug. 9, 1986, in Richmond, Indiana, while traveling on the road with his son; Coe dedicated the album “A Matter of Life … and Death” to his memory.
“Penitentiary Blues” had been a homecoming of sorts. “My song ‘Penitentiary Blues’ is all about Akron,” Coe once told the Beacon Journal. “I wrote it because I kept going to prison, where guys naturally talk about their hometowns.”
