Never been another like him.
The legendary David Allan Coe was always a controversial and complicated figure in country music. He developed his passion for songwriting while serving time in prison in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, and after moving to Nashville he camped out front of the Ryman Auditorium in a hearse, often busking for money.
Sure enough, his plan worked worked, as an employee for an independent label liked what they heard and signed Coe to Shelby Singleton’s Plantation Records. Coe’s first two albums (which were much more blues in nature) were on Plantation, including Penitentiary Blues in 1970, and Requiem for a Harlequin in 1973.
His career really began to take off in 1973, when Tanya Tucker had a #1 hit with Coe’s “Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)” in 1973. Coe managed to catch the attention of the major labels and signed with Columbia Records.
It was on that third album, his first with Columbia Records, that Coe began to make a name for himself in country music. The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy was a minor success, but his next album Once Upon a Rhyme ended up giving birth to one of his biggest hits, “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” which became his first top 10 hit.
Along with hits like “The Ride,” and “Longhaired Redneck,” he was also the original artist to release “Tennessee Whiskey,” and he even wrote Johnny Paycheck’s megahit “Take This Job and Shove It.” But he also released a couple of “underground” albums that featured (extremely) vulgar and racist lyrics, which made his legacy even more complicated – and the discourse even more toxic when he passed away earlier this year.
But one thing about Coe was that he never cared what others thought of him, and he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.
David Allan Coe always did things his own way, even when it came to his career – and meeting with the heads of record labels.
Back in 2003, Coe released a live album record at the legendary Billy Bob’s Texas, and along with Live at Billy Bob’s Texas he recorded an extended interview that covered much of his life and career. And in one particularly graphic story, the outlaw country legend recalled a meeting he had with a record exec that turned heated when he was kept waiting for hours.
According to Coe, things started off poorly when they misspelled his name on a sign in front of the building:
“I went to New York City. They had a sign said, ‘Welcome David Allen Coe.’ They have my name spelled A-L-L-E-N. Well, my name is spelled A-L-L-A-N.”
And it only got worse when he ended up having to wait for HOURS on the guy he was supposed to be meeting with – and when he finally showed up, Coe let him know exactly how he felt about it:
“So, I go there and I’m supposed to talk to the president of the record company. And I sit in a chair for four hours.
Finally, they said, ‘You can go in now.’ This guy was sitting behind a desk smoking a cigar. There was a chair in the front of his desk.
I walked up, stood on the chair, stepped up on his desk, unzipped my pants, took my d–k out. I said, ‘Let me explain something to you, motherf—er. If I ever wait for you four hours again, you need to have someone sucking my d–k or you’re going to have to do it when I get in here.’
I said, ‘My time is just as important as your time.’ Okay? If you want to see me at 5:00, you tell me 5:00. Don’t tell me 10:00 on a f—ing morning. Have me sitting here now. F–k you. F–k your record company. F–k your interview. I’m out of here. Boom. I went and caught a plane back to Nashville.”
Coe said the incident caused quite a disturbance and was “a big deal” in music industry circles, but that he never had to wait on him again after that day.
Of course there probably aren’t a lot of artists who could get away with that these days, but David Allan Coe was one of a kind, somebody who was respected not only for his insane talent and songwriting but his willingness to always speak his mind.
You just better hope you didn’t keep him waiting.
If you want to hear some more gems from Coe, check out his entire Live at Billy Bob’s interview:
