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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September 3, 2026 @ 10:38 am
Everybody knows Lou Reed invented rap.
https://youtu.be/t1Am45JrwQ4?is=Q_oaJyZzuT6Za7VB
But seriously, as much as I love DAC somehow I doubt this is very good. It does make me wonder though — anyone have suggestions of the best mid to late period Coe albums? I’ve never listened to much of anything post 1980.
September 3, 2026 @ 10:57 am
Castles in the Sand is a great album, but I think most of his stuff from the 80’s is great. Even into the 90’s. It’s a lot of thrown-together crap and compilations after that. I do get a kick out of Live at Billy Bob’s, though. There are some moments on that live album.
September 5, 2026 @ 2:20 pm
“Lay My Money Down” is a jam.
September 3, 2026 @ 11:01 am
His best albums of the 80’s, in my opinion, were Rough Rider and D.A.C (both from ’82) and Just Divorced (1984). I’m not as well versed on his output from the 90’s and beyond.
I share your assumption about this new album; but will be happy if proven wrong.
September 3, 2026 @ 11:15 am
I like Son of The South and Castles In The Sand , both after 1980. I’d call that time period of his music a very mixed bag. Rough Rider is OK too.
September 3, 2026 @ 11:39 am
I think the 80s albums are real good. I haven’t listened to a al ot of them in a while but Unchained I really enjoyed. As good as a songwriter as he was he also picked really interesting songs to cover. This one has Snowblind Friend buy Hoyt Axton, I’m Gonna Hurt her on the Radio buy Mac McAnally, and a Bobby Braddock song.
September 3, 2026 @ 5:33 pm
Coe had the best straight version of “I’m Gonna Hurt her on the Radio,” better than the Bellamy Brothers, who did it first, in 1985, or Keith Whitley.
But I always thought it should be a woman’s song because like “What’ll You Do About Me.” it’s hard to hear a man sing it without wondering if he’s a future stalker or worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqP8ntuwtfs&list=RDVqP8ntuwtfs&start_radio=1
Charley Pride fixed that by changing “hurt” to “love” and it totall chaged the vibe. [I imagine the producer called in McAnally to make the change.] Charley’s positive take on it was also the only version of the song to actually “climb the country music chart,” landing in the top 15 in 1988–his final hit single.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdnIia3Ne10&list=RDsdnIia3Ne10&start_radio=1
The song was finally issued by a gal singer in 2022, the excellent Kristina Murray, who’s been covered on SCM, but has never broken through/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-asKimZrig&list=RD9-asKimZrig&start_radio=1
September 3, 2026 @ 7:26 pm
Coe-Coe Coe-Coe
Booya !! Booya !!
September 3, 2026 @ 11:23 am
Standing too close to the Flame and Living On The Edge are my choices post 1980. A calm Coe. But good sipping music. 90s.
September 4, 2026 @ 11:54 am
They both rip my heart out.
September 3, 2026 @ 11:29 am
The new version of “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” is inauspicious. It’s not bad, but it’s not really better than the original, either. It sounds more than anything like they laid down a new vocal track on top of the old production. No reinterpretation, no different production, no new verses that reflect his age and experience.
His voice sounds good for his age, and he sings it well, but is this the best they could do off this album? Or the second or third best? Eh.
September 6, 2026 @ 7:47 am
That was all new production in the studio with musicians ….some of the best session players in Nashville. DAC did one take….that is all he wanted to do for that song. Hopefully you enjoy the rest of the album better.
September 3, 2026 @ 11:58 am
What does Doja Cat think about this release?
September 3, 2026 @ 2:14 pm
If Ms. Cat actually likes DAC’s country rap, someone ought to send her his Underground Album for a review.
September 3, 2026 @ 12:11 pm
Glad Ric Flair took a break from berating bartenders in Florida for cutting him off long enough to record the intro.
Really don’t understand the choice to have – at a minimum – what is the “AI aesthetic” for the album cover and video image. Maybe it isn’t AI, but it sure has hell has that fake “graininess” associated with AI slop.
September 3, 2026 @ 6:29 pm
Ric Flair is a legend and right from the same era and the same kind of guy as DAC. If Ric was willing to contribute an intro, I think that’s great.
BTW, I just got a new car. Well, 2025 6-speed manual Jetta with 20,00 mi., but it’s from the dealer and new to me. No CD player, so I have to move into the 21st century. But it did come with Sirius XM, at least for awhile, so I get to hear that. And they have “Hillbilly Jim” DJ’ing the Outlaw Country channel. I actually remember when “Hillbilly Jim” started in the WWF. He started out as just a spectator, dressed in hillbilly overalls, but wound up becoming Hulk Hogan’s tag team partner. Ther rest is history.
September 4, 2026 @ 8:12 am
Flair has also been (pretty credibly) accused of some sexual assault allegations in the past.
He was a great wrestler – one of the all-time greats certainly – but also a massive douche outside the ring.
And his post-retirement life has basically been him having health problems, getting drunk, and acting like a fool – rinse and repeat.
September 6, 2026 @ 7:44 am
That is a real picture taken at the Mansfield Reformatory during the making of a music video with the Moonshine Bandits when they did a version of “Take This Job”. DAC was sitting in the actual cell he occupied when he was locked up there in the 60s. He told us he actually penned some of the songs for “Penitentiary Blues” while there as well.
September 3, 2026 @ 12:36 pm
Intro by Ric Flair and two songs co-written by Kid Rock?
I’ll reserve judgement, but not expecting much.
September 3, 2026 @ 2:31 pm
When spending a hundred hours distilling his library like I did, you have to realize that you get a few insane gems here or there. Even if this album is not killer in total, there may be some wins. He descended more into his name dropping and less than ideal bazar world more and more, but we can’t forget that Recommended for AirPlay had some killer tunes on it and that was not super far earlier than this!
September 3, 2026 @ 6:34 pm
Have you ever listened to the Doug Supernaw Version of You Never Even Called Me By My Name? It’s pretty good! It also features Coe, Waylon, Charley Pride, and Haggard. I bet they’re all singing this in Heaven now.
September 3, 2026 @ 11:19 pm
I’d forgotten about that. It was on his second CD, “Deep Thoughts from a Shallow Mind,” released in 1994. It’s noteworthty because Doug Supernaw somehow got three “Mount Rushmore” H-o-F’ers–Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride and Merle Haggard–to come in and impersonate David Allan Coe impersonating THEM in a goofy song from 20 years earlier. And, got DAC himself to wrap it up. Presumably, his producer tracked them each down seaparately to record their parts. I guess it shows that they were all good sports. And they must have liked Doug or had free time on their hands. Supernaw had a handful of excellent songs before he was overtaken by some sort of mental illness. Sad story.
September 4, 2026 @ 6:38 am
Waylon didn’t like anyone, nobody liked Coe, so my bet is that Merle and Charley spends their time fishing together, keeping a pole ready for Bare, and Waylon will probably tail around Holly. Coe will sit in a dark cave and feel sorry for himself, cursing whoever passing by.
And this isn’t happening in Heaven, to put it that way. They went where the majority goes.
September 4, 2026 @ 1:00 pm
“Waylon didn’t like anyone”
I hear this crap all the time and see very little evidence for it. From dozens of interviews I have seen with other musicians and recording personnel, roadies, etc. of their remembrances of Waylon, most all of them liked him and he seemed to like them. Otis Gibbs has numerous videos of guys that played with Waylon in his band or on his albums. Go watch them.
September 4, 2026 @ 3:26 pm
DAC’s in heaven?!?!
September 4, 2026 @ 8:27 pm
Were you with him, in his close personal interactions, for the past five years? How could you know?
September 4, 2026 @ 9:13 pm
Heaven forbid.
September 4, 2026 @ 11:56 am
DAC is my favorite singer/songwriter ever.
But this looks like mostly recycled releases.
I’ll get and listen to it, of course, but I’m not expecting a lot of gems in it.
September 5, 2026 @ 3:56 pm
Best songwriter ever. Family Album, Castles in the Sand, I could listen to him all day. I do wish he would have performed more of his original stuff when in concert instead of other artists songs. But DAC will always be my favorite.
September 5, 2026 @ 9:05 pm
Compass Point is one of the very few “perfect” albums I’ve ever heard, where the songs all fit together seamlessly into a perfectly cohesive collection. I think its his best album, even though it doesn’t contain any of his biggest or best known songs.
September 9, 2026 @ 1:52 pm
There’s no holes in these hands.
Can’t wait to hear any version as it touched me deeply. Where are the young bucks of outlaw/roots/reddirt/country music to propel this classic into a new stratosphere?