David Allan Coe

David Allan Coe was an American singer and songwriter who was a leading figure of 1970s outlaw country. Born in Akron, Ohio, he began writing songs in the early 1960s and started his music career in Nashville in 1967, living in a hearse and busking outside the Ryman Auditorium until Shelby Singleton signed him to his Plantation Records label. His 1970 debut album, Penitentiary Blues, preceded a publishing deal and a Columbia Records contract that came after Tanya Tucker scored a number-one hit with his song Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone). His own hits included You Never Even Call Me by My Name, The Ride, Longhaired Redneck, Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile and She Used to Love Me a Lot, and he wrote Take This Job and Shove It, which Johnny Paycheck made a number-one record and which inspired a film of the same name in 1981. He died in 2026.