David Allan Coe’s Final Album “A Million Reasons” Set for Release

It’s been rumored for many years. It was recorded all the way back in 2017, so almost a decade ago. In 2022, former David Allan Coe co-manager and former Average Joes Entertainment partner Ken Madson acquired the master recordings from Average Joes to begin the process of completing the project for release. Now in the wake of David Allan Coe’s passing, his final album called A Million Reasons is set to be released on October 16th.

The album is a diverse mix of song material and genres, ranging from singer/songwriter traditional country, to contemporary country rap. After all, it was recorded under the auspices of Average Joe’s Entertainment, which is Colt Ford’s country rap record label. In 2017 around the recording, David Allan Coe released a country rap version of “Take This Job and Shove It” with the Moonshine Bandits with mixed reception.

Two of the songs on the album were also co-written with Kid Rock: “Single Father” and “Only God Knows Why.” It’s probably also worth noting that one of the many bold claims that Coe made over his career is that he “invented” rap music when he released his 1970 album Requiem for a Harlequin that featured entirely spoken word performances set to music.

But A Million Reasons also includes a lot of heartfelt country too, including both a full band and acoustic version of the title track. The album will be led off by a new version of Coe’s signature song “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” (listen below) that will be officially distributed to streaming services on Sunday, September 6th, which also happens to be David Allan Coe’s birthday.

“When I began working with David Allan Coe in 2017 to record this album, my goal was to capture his voice and musical legacy in the best way possible,” says Ken Madson. “The project ultimately took a different path than we anticipated, but I remained committed to seeing the recordings completed and made available to his fans. After David’s passing earlier this year, finishing what we started and sharing what has now become his final completed studio album has felt more important than ever.”

Some have wondered if the recordings were help back to capitalize off of Coe’s death instead of being released while he was still alive. But the other issue was the affairs of David Allan Coe were in disarray over the last few years, making the release and promotion of the album prohibitive. In fact, that was part of the inspiration for the the project.

“This album’s title track ‘A Million Reasons’ started being written the afternoon we took David Allan Coe to federal court in Cincinnati, where he was found guilty of owing the IRS a million dollars,” former DAC co-manager and songwriter David Wade says. “This album contains songs that David Allan Coe has lived during his later years of life. He wanted that to be part of his outlaw legacy.” 


TRACK LIST:

1. Ric Flair Intro (Ric Flair)

2. “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” (Steve Goodman)

3. “A Million Reasons” (Jim “Moose” Brown, David Wade, Shane Grove, Erik Westfall)

4. “Take This Job and Shove It” (David Allan Coe)

5. “Roll Me A Smoke” (David Allan Coe) 

6. “Corner of Cash and Coe” (Rick Troyer, Erik Westfall, Shane Grove, David Wade)

7. “Free My Mind” (David Allan Coe)

8. “Only God Knows Why” (John Travis, Matt Shaffer, Robert Ritchie)

9. “Single Father” (Robert Ritchie, David Allan Coe)

10. “No Holes in These Hands” (David Wade, Gary Edwards, Rick Troyer, David Allan Coe)

 11. “A Million Reasons (Acoustic)” (Jim “Moose” Brown, David Wade, Shane Grove, Erik Westfall)

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