David Allan Coe Has Loretta Lynn’s Approval for the Country Hall of Fame

David_Allan_Coe
Photo: Matthew Woitunski

There could be a lot more David Allan Coe news in 2017 than we’ve seen from the country legend for quite some time. And depending on how you feel about the blending of country and rap depends on how you will likely receive it. It started off on New Years Day when Coe released a remake of his song “Take This Job and Shove It” with the hick-hop duo The Moonshine Bandits. And if you’re worried about what the mighty David Allan Coe is doing cavorting with country rappers, there might be more where that came from.

David Allan Coe has been working in the studio with Average Joes owner and country rap artist Colt Ford on a new album that will reportedly include his “Take This Job and Shove It” collaboration with The Moonshine Bandits, also scheduled to appear on the Bandit’s new album. This is according to a feature in the Mansfield News Journal posted during a video shoot for the new song filmed at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield where Coe once spent three years of hard time during his young adulthood.

The feature says Coe has another rap song worked up for his forthcoming album, and as long-time Coe fans have heard before, he professes to be one of the first rappers ever. “I probably made the first rap album that was ever made,” Coe said. “I’ve been doing rap for a long time, long before anyone knew anything about it. I just didn’t know to call it rap.”

Saving Country Music spoke to a representative from Average Joes who said David Allan Coe and Colt Ford are friends, but Coe hasn’t officially signed to the Average Joes label, and there’s no specific plans to release Coe’s new record at the moment. In June of 2016, Coe plead guilty to obstruction charges due to IRS back taxes, and ordered to pay fines and taxes totaling $980,911.86 for his tax delinquency between 2008 – 2013, and before. Perhaps a new record will help him recoup some of his losses.

The checkered past of David Allan Coe often has country fans pontificating on if he’ll ever make it into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Though many Hall of Fame experts believe he’s a long shot, one Hall of Famer thinks he belongs. Loretta Lynn, speaking to Broadway on The Electric Barnyard recently, and asked if Coe should be in the Hall, answered,

“I think he should.” When it was brought up that David Allan Coe has a checkered past, Loretta’s response was, “So does everybody else. You just don’t know about all of it.”

© 2023 Saving Country Music