David Allan Coe, controversial 'outlaw country' pioneer, dies at 86

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David Allan Coe, a controversial figure who helped pioneer the 20th century “outlaw country” musical subgenre, penning hits including “Take This Job and Shove It” and “Would you Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone),” has died.Coe died Wednesday night, his representative David Wade confirmed to The Times.He was 86.

No other details were available.The origins of outlaw country music, popular in the 1970s and ‘80s, are largely credited to Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, but Coe was a seminal figure in the subgenre.He began writing and releasing music in the 1970s and was surrounded by some mystique.

His debut effort, “Penitentiary Blues,” released in 1969, was compiled with tracks written while Coe was in prison.The Ohio-born musician entered a reform school in Michigan at 9 years old and spent the following two decades in and out of correctional facilities.His offenses included burglary and auto theft.

More recently, he pleaded guilty in 2015 to failing to pay income taxes for several years and, the following year, was ordered to pay the IRS nearly $1 million and was sentenced to three years’ probation.Coe’s background was suitable for finding a home in the outlaw country movement.He claimed to have been inspired by blues legend Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, who he said was a fellow inmate at one point.Upon his release from Ohio State Penitentiary in 1967, Coe headed to Nashville and attempted to break into the country music scene.

He was said to have lived out of his car, sometimes camping outside the city’s Ryman Auditorium — former home of the Grand Ole Opry — in hopes of gaining notice.It wasn’t until two years later that Coe would snag a record deal with Shelby Singleton’s SSS International and Plantation Records and release “Penitentiary Blues.” The album failed to sell well but was received with warmth by critics and fans.He then hit the roa...