David Allan Coe’s New Posthumous Album Comes with Serious Questions

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Photo: Matthew Woitunski


Whenever a country legend passes away, it creates a moment where most fans reflect back on their catalog of favorite songs and albums, recalling the memories and the moments they had with the music over the years. This is what fans of David Allan Coe are doing in the wake of his passing at the age of 86 on April 29th.

These moments also often stimulate interest in if there might be any music out there that has not been heard by the public before, whether it’s archived material that was left on the cutting house floor during their peak era, or perhaps songs or albums that were recorded later in life, but that never saw the light of day for whatever reason. When it comes to David Allan Coe, the latter is definitely the case.

A new David Allan Coe album that was supposed to be released in the summer of 2017, but was delayed specifically until after his death when it was believed it might be more economically viable. Though it’s exciting to hear that David Allan Coe has a new album out there waiting to be heard, the situation brings up fair ethical questions of how Coe’s final album was handled.

In 2017, David Allan Coe started working with Colt Ford’s country rap label Average Joes Entertainment on a new album. As the Bucaryus-Telegraph Forum newspaper out of Crawford County, Ohio reported at that time, “Thanks to the help of Colt Ford of the Average Joe’s Entertainment record label, the outlaw singer is now embracing his storied past more closely than ever. Coe plans to release a new album in the summer of 2017.”

The story goes on to state, “Ford, an acclaimed country artist himself, decided this year that it was time for Coe to return to the spotlight. Ford brought him to the studio, and the legend started recording.”

Saving Country Music also reported on this in January of 2017, coinciding with Loretta Lynn coming out and endorsing David Allan Coe for the Country Music Hall of Fame.

But of course, the summer of 2017 came and passed without a new David Allan Coe album being released. In fact, no studio album from Average Joes or anyone else was released in the last 20 years of Coe’s life, aside from compilations, live albums, and collaborations. So what happened with the 2017 Average Joes studio album?

For years, numerous sources from within the industry have told Saving Country Music that the people who bankrolled the album decided to delay the release because they were worried it would not sell well. At one point around the time the album was supposed to be released, David Allan Coe’s wife Kim Hastings posted on his Facebook page to tell people to follow it as the official page since they had to get their social media following up before new music could be released.

For many years, David Allan Coe’s official (or unofficial) websites(s) were a mess, as were his social media accounts, with many claiming to the the “real” and “official” accounts, making it difficult to impossible to find the right ones.

Then as the Average Joes album remained unreleased, the rumors emerged that Average Joes was holding onto the album until David Allan Coe’s death, hoping this would create a swell of interest that could then be capitalized from.

On cue, On Thursday, April 30th (the day after Coe’s death), an “Exclusive” was published by TMZ, quoting David Allan Coe’s manager “near the end of his career,” a guy named Ken Madsen, saying he “owns” David Allan Coe’s final album, and likely plans to release it on September 6th, 2026, which would have been Coe’s 87th birthday.

The TMZ article states, “We’re told Coe recorded the album with a label … but, execs got cold feet and decided not to drop it. Madson plans to reach out to Coe’s widow—Kimberly Hastings—about releasing the album.”

The “cold feet” coincides with Saving Country Music’s previously-known information. But what seems strange is why someone would reach out to TMZ to give them an “exclusive” mere hours after David Allan Coe’s death, and before reaching out to David Allan Coe’s widow about the record. According to sources, Coe’s wife Kim Hastings wanted the album released back in 2017 so they could tour behind it.

The way the TMZ story portrays manager Ken Madsen “owning” the record also seems somewhat strange. Why wouldn’t you portray it as David Alan Coe’s album, even if someone else is the one who has the rights to release it?

Even before this TMZ exclusive, there were concerns that the new album could have helped support David Allan Coe in his final years—and that he wished to have released while he was still living. But it was shelved for the shrewd financial reason of cashing in on his death. The TMZ “exclusive” and the timing of it seems to verifies this.

Strangely, neither Average Joe’s Entertainment, nor Colt Ford are mentioned in the TMZ article, only Ken Madsen, who might have bankrolled or purchased the album from Average Joes. Saving Country Music has reached out to Average Joes for comment, but has not heard back from them. Saving Country Music also reached out to F3 Media Group where Ken Madsen was said to work, but did not hear back.

In a post on social media remembering his late father, Tyler Mahan Coe said in part,

“I do hate the choices he made for how to spend the final decade or so of his life, but I didn’t hate him. And those were his choices to make. Anyone who knows anything about that man knows how useless it would be to try to get him to make different choices … If that were possible, his career would have gone way differently and his legacy would probably be a lot better than whatever it’s going to end up being now. Presumably some kind of eternally confused and confusing mess.”

Some might not care about the drama, and just want to hear the previously-released album. But traditional country music fans might want to keep their expectations measured. Though the Average Joes album never was released, a song and a video was, with David Allan Coe being paired with The Moonshine Bandits on a country rap remake of “Take This Job and Shove It.”

“I probably made the first rap album that was ever made,” Coe is quoted as saying at the time—something he claimed throughout his career. “I’ve been doing rap for a long time, long before anyone knew anything about it. I just didn’t know to call it rap.”

However we got here, it’s likely the last David Allan Coe album will be released in September, finally. The TMZ article also mentions a documentary “started” by Johnny Knoxville in 2018 that might also be released. Saving Country Music can confirm there has been a documentary in the works, with filmmakers recording the last, definitive interview with David Allan Coe around 2018. But the film is not finished, and has no tentative release date at the moment.

After David Allan Coe was hospitalized during COVID-19, he never made another public appearance. But it’s unlikely we’ve heard the last from him. The only question is, why did it take so long?

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