One last ride.
Outlaw country legend David Allan Coe died yesterday at the age of 86, with a representative confirming that the singer passed away in an intensive care unit following an unspecified illness.
Coe suffered several health issues in recent years, including a long battle with COVID in 2021. But his death comes just months after sharing photos of himself in the studio and giving fans hope that there may be new music on the way.
And as it turns out, there just might be.
Ken Madson, who was David Allan Coe’s manager, tells TMZ that Coe recorded his final album back in 2017 with a record label, but the label ultimately backed out and decided not to release it – so for the last 9 years, the album has remained unheard.
Madson says he hopes to release the album on September 6, 2026 which would have been Coe’s 87th birthday. The album reportedly features a mix of previously released songs and new material, including a new song called “A Million Reasons.”
But that’s not all: Apparently there was a David Allan Coe documentary by Johnny Knoxville that was in the works back in 2018, and Madson says that may still eventually come out – if Knoxville is still interested.
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.
Coe 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.
It was on his 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.
Coe has hinted in the past that he had hundreds or even thousands of unreleased songs that he’s written or recorded over the years, so it will be interesting to see whether any of those end up seeing the light of day after his death.
It definitely sounds like we’ll be getting at least one of them, but hopefully there are a lot more where that came from.
