Controversial singer-songwriter David Allan Coe died at 86 Wednesday.
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Country Outlaw David Allan Coe Dies at 86
Controversial singer-songwriter David Allan Coe died at 86 Wednesday.Coe's representative told People that the musical artist died at around 5:08 p.m., describi...
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Coe's representative told People that the musical artist died at around 5:08 p.m., describing him as a 'Country Music treasure [who] loved his fans.'
'Most importantly, he was a true outlaw and A great singer, songwriter, and performer.'
Coe - a divisive figure for his use of racial slurs in his material and fondness for displaying the Confederate flag - had been in an intensive care unit when he died, Page Six reported.
Coe was known for songs including 1975's You Never Even Called Me by My Name, 1976's Longhaired Redneck, 1983's The Ride and 1984's Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile.
Coe went on to put out a total of 42 studio albums over nearly 60 years as a performer.
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Controversial singer-songwriter David Allan Coe died at 86 Wednesday, his rep said. Pictured in Texas in 2019
The singer was born in Akron, , and was incarcerated for a chunk of his 20s, where he began to develop a fondness for music.
in 1993 about the outlaw musical genre, Coe said, 'I was singing that stuff for years. I was living it for years.
'Willie [Nelson], Waylon [Jennings] - they just got more famous. I was the original outlaw.'
Regarding the aforementioned race controversy, Coe 'in the early '80's ... released very small quantities of two underground albums of songs that are among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter,' according to a 2000 report from The New York Times.
Coe went on to release the bootlegged material in 2000 via his website, but did not put his name on the material, the paper reported.
He denied the allegations of racism to the Country Standard Time, telling the publication that year the newspaper hadn't given him a proper chance to issue a response to their report.
Coe told the Country Standard Time that he told the newspaper off-the-record, 'They couldn't call me a racist or White supremacist because that wasn't true.'
He had dealt with health issues in recent years, including a 2021 hospitalization after catching COVID-19, Page Six reported. Two years prior to that, he had undergone a surgery to replace his knee.
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