That story, later debunked, was typical of the outlaw aura that surrounded Mr. Coe — and that often obscured his gifts as a singer, songwriter and performer. He boasted of having more than 300 tattoos and claimed to be a practicing polygamist. He was also a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, a biker gang designated as a criminal organization by numerous law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Coe released two albums — “Nothing Sacred” and “Underground Album” — that were later reissued as a compilation called “18 X-Rated Hits.” In 2000, the music writer Neil Strauss of The New York Times described the material as “among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter.”
For years, Mr. Coe distanced himself from those songs. “Anyone that would look at me and say I was a racist would have to be out of their mind,” he insisted in a 2004 interview with the site Swampland.
David Allan Coe was born on Sept. 6, 1939, in Akron, Ohio, to Donald Mahan Coe and Dorothy Ruth (Wilson) Coe. His parents soon divorced, after which his father married a woman who, as Mr. Coe told Review magazine, didn’t want him.
Deemed incorrigible by the authorities, young David was sent to reform school at the age of 9. He spent the next two decades in and out of juvenile and adult correctional facilities, including his years at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. He claimed to have met and received songwriting tips while there from the R&B shouter Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (of “I Put a Spell on You” fame).
After his release from prison in 1967, Mr. Coe moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music. “I was into rock ’n’ roll and rhythm & blues,” he later recalled of that period. “I was listening to Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters and Hank Ballard and the Midnighters.”