Can someone get the David Allan Coe documentary in the works already?
It’s been over four months since the country music icon passed away, and every time I learn something new about him, my mouth still continues to gape open more and more. Good ‘ole DAC, who died this past April 29 at the age of 86, left behind a decades-long career and a legacy of outlaw antics that continue to precede him
Well, thanks to another famous country music star’s booking agent, I learned a few other fun facts about the “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” singer. Back in the day, fellow rowdy singer Hank Williams Jr. actually spent some time on the road alongside Coe.
Coe was a big admirer of Jr, notably paying tribute to him in his 1980 track, “Hank Williams Junior-Junior.” Wayne Oliver, Jr’s Booking manager recently shared on the Pickin’ It Out podcast that back in the ’90s the two had been out touring together and would easily draw a crowd of “10 to 15,000 people.”
He then hilariously shares, “Only thing Hank hated about it is you know David was Mormon” (I know I found that fact a little hard to believe too). But sure enough, Coe claimed to be a true practitioner of the Mormon religion, although I think the tradition he most aligned with was their affinity for polygamous relationships.
With that being said, he had a whopping seven wives. Oliver confirms, though, that Coe put on a hell of a show, and for the most part never started any trouble— minus the fact that his bodyguards would whip out massive chains and start swingin’ ’em at people…oh how times have changed.
Apparently, Coe would end his sets and want to hop up on stage and be Hank’s “bodyguard,” which Bocephus didn’t seem to mind except for when he’d apparently bring along with him “those seven ugly wives. Now, not one of them was pretty” (his words not mine).
He continued stating, “Hank couldn’t put up with them up on the stage,” with him advising his manager that he either had to get Coe to stop inviting them or he couldn’t continue with the joint shows. Coe wasn’t aware of this disagreement and still wanted to be closer to his good pal Hank, so what did he do? Rent out a building near his Panama City, Florida home and convert it into his own combine.
Coe completely flipped an abandoned country club and extended an invite to Hank to come and dine at his new pad. “Hank said, ‘I’m not going over to eat brother.’ he said, ‘You go.’ I said, ‘Well, why I gotta go?‘ He said, ‘Well, you the booker, you book the shows.'” So sure enough being the good booking manager his is, Oliver went over there one night and was shocked at the state of his “home.”
“I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Barnum & Bailey Circus, but that’s what it looked like. We go in there and David has beds built up and sheets around it, and he’d have a hot tub. He had seven bedrooms like this.” Adding, “not only did he have the wives and if he had children, they’d stayed with him too but their mom and dad’s would come stay too.”
According to Oliver, Coe had about “40-something” people living in his makeshift Florida home. Not to mention, out back he had two bobcats, and two massive black jaguar chained up by just silver loops.
He says he got the h*ll outta there cause Lord knows what they were cookin’ up in the kitchen. “I get back over at the house, I was tellin’ Hank, and Hank was laughing.”
He finishes off the wild memory by saying he and Hank later went to the local boat dock and had a drink, when all of a sudden, Coe’s boat starts pulling up in the distance with him posted up at the front, a jaguar on each side of him and his ladies by him: “Hell, here comes the beverly hillbillies.”
Rightfully so, the guard at the waterfront restaurant kicked Coe out for the obvious fact that two jaguars on a chain leash aren’t necessarily good for business. And apparently, according to Oliver, Coe later got kicked out of his Mormon safari paradise thanks to a boot from the health department.
The country music legend has resurfaced in the news after his 8 children were exempt from his will, stirring up a lot of controversy for his remaining estate. Talk about the crazy lore that never ends.
As for the full conversation between Wayne Oliver and podcast host Andrew Pope, delving more in what it was like working for Jr throughout his career, the official episode will air this Wednesday, August 22 at 7pm.