For others, he will be remembered as the songwriter behind Johnny Paycheck’s defiant working-class anthem “Take This Job and Shove It,” or as the performer who recorded “The Ride,” “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile,” and other songs that became part of the fabric of country music.
But David Allan Coe was never simply a singer.
He was a character.
He was a storyteller.
He was an outsider who seemed almost determined to remain an outsider, even after becoming an important figure in one of country music’s most influential eras.
His career was filled with music, controversy, hardship, reinvention, mystery, and larger-than-life stories.
And now, after more than five decades in music, that remarkable chapter has come to an end.
## A Life That Never Followed the Ordinary Path
David Allan Coe was born in Akron, Ohio, on September 6, 1939.
