The final album from the late country music legend David Allan Coe will reportedly be released later this year.
The controversial singer’s longtime manager, Ken Madson, told TMZ on Thursday that he owns Coe’s final album and hopes to release it on Sept. 6, the “She Used to Love Me a Lot” singer’s 87th birthday.
Coe recorded the as-yet-untitled album for the label in 2017, but record company executives reportedly felt “cold” and shelved the project.
Madson also told the magazine that Coe’s final album will include unreleased songs and new music, including the song “A Million Reasons.”
Despite owning the record outright, Madson said he intended to approach Coe’s widow, Kimberly Hastings Coe, about releasing the record with him.
But the as-yet-untitled album isn’t the only project David’s loyal fans are looking forward to following the “Ride” hitmaker’s death.
Madson revealed that Johnny Knoxville began making a documentary about the country crooner, who passed away in 2018. However, it is up to the “Jackass” star to decide whether to release the documentary, according to reports.
Madson did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
David died on Wednesday at the age of 86, his representative told The New York Times, without providing further details.
“David is a musical treasure,” a rep said. “Despite his failing health over the years, David remained grateful for all his fans.”
Kimberly, who was Coe’s sixth wife, further confirmed her husband’s death in an emotional statement to Rolling Stone.
“One of the greatest singers, songwriters and performers of our time and should never be forgotten,” she told the outlet. “My husband, my friend, my best friend and my life for so many years. I will never forget him and I don’t want anyone else to either.”
Although the cause of death has not been confirmed, the “Long Haired Redneck” singer’s health is said to have been in decline over the years.
According to the Ocala Star-Banner, David narrowly escaped death in Florida in 2013 when a semi-truck ran a red light and crashed into his Suburban at an intersection at 1:30 a.m.
Rescuers spent two hours cutting the singer out of the wreckage, but he reportedly walked away with broken ribs, a bruised kidney and nearly 50 stitches in his head.
Then, in 2021, David tested positive for coronavirus and was hospitalized for a month.
David, remembered as one of the pillars of the outlaw country movement, was described as “obscene and racist” in a scathing 2000 report in The Times.
The newspaper reported, “In the early ’80s, outlaw country singer David Allan Coe released a miniscule pair of underground albums containing some of the most racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and obscene songs ever recorded by a popular songwriter.”
David, who famously wrote “Take This Job and Shove It” for Johnny Paycheck in 1977, later addressed the accusations in 2004.
“Anyone who looks at me and says I’m a racist must be crazy. I have waist-length dreadlocks, earrings in each ear, and a waist-length beard in braids,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“I’m a songwriter, and it always bothers me that actors can say whatever they want in a movie, kill people, rape people, do whatever they want, and no one personally condemns them,” David added. “But when you’re writing a song, all of a sudden you’re accused of something.”
