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\n\tDavid Allan Coe<\/a>, the outlaw country music singer known for his unrepentant, confrontational image and songs such as \u201cYou Never Even Called Me by My Name\u201d and \u201cThe Ride,\u201d has died, Rolling Stone<\/em> has confirmed. He was 86. A cause of death was not immediately available.<\/p>\n \n\tCoe was one of country music\u2019s most complex figures. A walking tall tale who boasted about past exploits in prison and on the road, he was the author of his own mythology. Coe wrote mainstream hits for Tanya Tucker and Johnny Paycheck \u2014 \u201cTake This Job and Shove It\u201d was entirely his creation \u2014 and recorded country songs that still appear on multiple playlists and in radio rotation (countless jukeboxes include \u201cYou Never Even Called Me by My Name\u201d). Still, a period of offensive, racist songs that Coe claimed were parodies make many bristle to this day.<\/p>\n \n\tBorn September 6, 1939, in Akron, Ohio, Coe spent much of his early years in and out of reformatories and prisons, serving time for charges ranging from grand theft auto to possession of burglary tools. During one period of incarceration in the fall of 1963, he claimed to have killed a fellow inmate with a mop bucket after the man threatened him in the prison showers. In a 1975 interview<\/a>, Coe said he once felt like he belonged in the penal system. \u201cThere were a lot of times when I would actually be in the county jail after being busted and I\u2019d wake up the next morning and say to myself, \u2018Oh I\u2019m glad it\u2019s over; I\u2019m glad I\u2019m going back to prison now, where I know I\u2019ll be safe, where I\u2019ll be out of society,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe claim was a dubious one. \u201cNinety percent of what he tells you is probably bullshit,\u201d Shelby Singleton, the Nashville producer who discovered Coe, told Rolling Stone<\/em> in 1976. \u201cWe thought it was a gimmick and we promoted it in that manner.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAlthough Coe was wont to embellish details, he lived the type of unapologetic life that other outlaw country figures only sang about. He was a wildly eccentric character, eager to try any number of tactics to stand out in the music industry: he drove a hearse, wore a Lone Ranger mask, and, according to one report<\/a>, would work himself into a sweat outside of Nashville\u2019s Ryman Auditorium to appear to have just performed on the hallowed stage. Then he\u2019d sign autographs for tourists.<\/p>\n