The final recordings from David Allan Coe.
The legendary country singer passed away back on April 29, 2026 at the age of 86 in an intensive care unit in Florida following years of health battles. And today, it was announced that his final studio album, which has been rumored for a while, A Million Reasons, will be released on October 16th.
It will include a new version of his signature song “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” which was released today, and the entire album was actually recorded almost a decade ago, in 2017, by Average Joes Entertainment. The project was spearheaded by Colt Ford and originally produced by Noah Gordon and Lex Lipsitz, but as these things go sometimes, the album itself remained unreleased.
Several years later in 2022, David Allan Coe’s former co-manager, Ken Madson, acquired the master recordings from Average Joes Entertainment, and he set out to finish it for an eventual commercial release. Of course, the album didn’t end up getting released while Coe was alive, but Madson felt it important to finish it anyways and ultimately get it to his fans:
“A few years ago, I was able to acquire the master recordings from Average Joes Entertainment. After David’s passing earlier this year, finishing what we started and sharing what has now become his final completed studio album has felt more important than ever.
When I began working with David Allan Coe in 2017 to record this album, my goal was to capture his voice and musical legacy in the best way possible. The project ultimately took a different path than we anticipated, but I remained committed to seeing the recordings completed and made available to his fans.
The tracklist features 11 songs and previously-unreleased material, which includes an opening track with an introduction from wrestling legend Ric Flair, as well as Johnny Cash tribute on “Corner of Cash and Coe,” in addition to the nine other songs. Two of them, “Single Father,” and “Only God Knows Why,” were actually co-written with Kid Rock, so I’m sure that will be interesting. There’s also a cover of Johnny Paycheck’s 1978 hit “Take This Job and Shove It.”
Former DAC co-manager and songwriter David Wade also revealed some really fascinating information in that the title track to this album was a song that started being written on the afternoon they took Coe to federal court in Cincinnati in 2015, when he found out he was guilty of owing the IRS a million dollars.
Wade says he “wanted that to be part of his outlaw legacy”:
“This album’s title track ‘A Million Reasons’ started being written the afternoon we took David Allan Coe to federal court in Cincinnati, where he was found guilty of owing the IRS a million dollars. This album contains songs that David Allan Coe has lived during his later years of life. He wanted that to be part of his outlaw legacy.”
Coe released his last solo studio album all the way back in 2002 when he dropped Sings Merle Haggard, which is pretty much what it sounds like: DAC doing Merle Haggard songs. His last album of original music came in 1999 with Recommended for Airplay, a nod to his X-rated albums that were marked “Not Recommended for Airplay.”
He also released a country metal album in 2006, featuring Coe and members of rock band Pantera including Dimebag Darrell, Vinnie Paul and Rex Brown, branded as “David Allan Coe and Cowboys From Hell.” Since then, the only releases we’ve gotten from Coe have been live or compilation albums, with some albums containing unreleased bonus tracks.
There’s no doubt that Coe had quite a career, but he was a prolific songwriter, releasing 42 studio albums over the course of his career. His first two albums, including Penitentiary Blues in 1970, and Requiem for a Harlequin in 1973, came after being signed to independent record label Plantation Records, and leaned more heavily into blues than country.
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).” Coe managed to catch the attention of the major labels and eventually signed with Columbia Records.
In terms of his personal life, it was tumultuous to say the least, though he made a name for himself as an outlaw of sorts who certainly never conformed to what anyone else wanted him to be, and his fans loved him for it.
You can listen to the first song from the album, the re-recording of “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” here:
A Million Reasons Tracklist:
1. Ric Flair Intro (Ric Flair)
2. “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” (Steve Goodman)
3. “A Million Reasons” (Jim “Moose” Brown, David Wade, Shane Grove, Erik Westfall)
4. “Take This Job and Shove It” (David Allan Coe)
5. “Roll Me A Smoke” (David Allan Coe)
6. “Corner of Cash and Coe” (Rick Troyer, Erik Westfall, Shane Grove, David Wade)
7. “Free My Mind” (David Allan Coe)
8. “Only God Knows Why” (John Travis, Matt Shaffer, Robert Ritchie)
9. “Single Father” (Robert Ritchie, David Allan Coe)
10. “No Holes in These Hands” (David Wade, Gary Edwards, Rick Troyer, David Allan Coe)
11. A Million Reasons (Acoustic)
