Remembering one of the greatest outlaws in the genre. Last night, country music suffered a huge loss with David Allan Coe, who passed away at the age of 86 while in an intensive care unit. When you think of the genre “Outlaw Country,” Coe will undoubtedly be one of the first names to come to mind. The country legend had a rough upbringing in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, being sent away to reform school at the age of 9 and spending the majority of his childhood and early adulthood either in reform school or behind bars. But while serving time in prison in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, Coe developed a love for songwriting, and moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music after being released in 1967. Because he hardly had a dime to his name at the time, Coe lived in hearse that he would park outside of the Ryman Auditorium, standing on top and playing for audiences heading into shows on weekends. Sure enough, his plan worked worked, as a worker for an independent label liked what they heard and signed Coe to Shelby Singleton’s Plantation Records. Coe’s first two albums (which were much more blues in nature) were on Plantation, including Penitentiary Blues in 1970, and Requiem for a Harlequin in 1973. Despite being one of the quintessential names in the outlaw movement, up there with the names like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and more, the “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” singer actually butted heads with the trio, calling them sell-outs on multiple occasions. Even with some callouts in interviews, Jennings would admit that he still had a love and respect for Coe: “He could drive me crazy, but there was something about David that pulled at my heartstrings.” Among his legendary catalog, Coe is best known for songs like “Longhaired Redneck,” “The Ride” and of course the original version of “Tennessee Whiskey,” which later also became a hit for George Jones and Chris Stapleton who allowed the song to become just the third song in history to sell 20 million units and go double-diamond. Additionally, he also wrote songs like “Take This Job And Shove It,” which would become a hit for Johnny Paycheck. In honor of Coe’s passing, let’s take a look at 10 of his biggest hits throughout his storied career. 1. “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” Arguably Coe’s most signature song, “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” has been called the “perfect country song” on multiple different occasions. Unlike most of his discography, it actually wasn’t written by the Ohio native — instead being penned by the legendary Steve Goodman and John Prine (who asked to be uncredited). Appearing on his 1975 album, Once Upon a Rhyme, the track became one of a handful of Coe’s Top 10 hits throughout his career, peaking at #8. Additionally, it’s remained his most popular song in the 21st century, being his highest-streamed song on Spotify with over 129 million streams. Peak Chart Position: #8 2. “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile” A bit surprisingly, “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile” is actually Coe’s highest-charting song of his career, peaking at #2 in the summer of 1984 behind Eddy Raven’s “I Got Mexico.” It did, however, reach #1 up north, topping the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart on June 30, 1984. Peak Chart Position: #2 3. “The Ride” Another one of Coe’s signature songs, “The Ride” has remained one of his most popular songs into the 21st century. Upon its release, it would become his second-highest charting song, peaking at #4 in the summer in 1983. Like “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” it’s also remained a fan-favorite today, being his second-most-streamed track on Spotify with over 115 million streams. Appearing on his 1983 album, Castles in the Sand, “The Ride” famously tells the story of Coe meeting the ghost of Hank Williams Sr. on a drive back to Music City and has often made many’s best narrative country songs lists throughout the years. Peak Chart Position: #4 4. “Longhaired Redneck” Released as the lead single from his 1976 album of the same name, “Longhaired Redneck” was released immediately after “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” marking the most successful stretch of his career. Notably, Coe directly references the outlaw movement, calling out the suits who profited off of the movement. A protest about the commercialization of the movement at its core, “Longhaired Redneck” was undoubtedly one of Coe’s biggest statements early in his career. Peak Chart Position: #17 5. “She Used to Love Me a Lot” Originally a unreleased Johnny Cash song that was written by Dennis Morgan, Charles Quillen and Kye Fleming, “She Used to Love Me a Lot” became one of Coe’s biggest hits from a chart perspective. Appearing on his 1985 album, Darlin’ Darlin’, the track would peak at #11 in 1985, becoming Coe’s final Top 20 hit of his career. Peak Chart Position: #11 6. “If This Is Just a Game” Unlike the last five tracks, “If This Is Just a Game” is a Coe track that received more love years after its release. Upon its release as the second single from his 1978 album, Human Emotion, the song would be a middling single, only peaking at #45. With that being said, it’s been one of his most popular song in the 21st century thanks to TikTok. Despite being a single that failed to reach the Top 40 upon its release, “If This Is Just a Game” has remained one of his most popular songs on the social media platform, garnering a staggering 44,000 unique video uses over the years. Because of this, its currently his #1 trending song on both Apple Music and Spotify, where it has over 36 million streams. Peak Chart Position: #45 7. “Willie, Waylon and Me” As mentioned previously, “Willie, Waylon and Me” created some problems for Coe due to the fact he criticized the pair after releasing the track. Despite this, it was still one of his most popular songs from a chart-perspective. Shortly after its release in 1976, it would become one of six Top 25 hits in his severely underrated career. Peak Chart Position: #25 8. “D-R-U-N-K” Just like “If This Is Just a Game,” “D-R-U-N-K” is another song that received a whole lot of love on social media and boosted it to the top of Coe’s discography in the streaming era. Unlike “If This Is Just a Game,” however, the track was not even released as a single, appearing as a deep cut on his 1981 Tennessee Whiskey album. Despite its status as a deep cut, it began going viral on TikTok in 2025, garnering over 18,700 unique video uses over the years. Thanks to the virality, its currently Coe’s sixth-most streamed song on Spotify with over 22 million streams. Peak Chart Position: N/A 9. “Need a Little Time Off for Bad Behavior” As one of Coe’s final officially-released radio singles of his career, “Need a Little Time Off for Bad Behavior” ultimately became one of his highest-charting songs of his career. Appearing on his 1987 album, A Matter of Life… and Death, the track was his final Top 40 hit, peaking at #34. Peak Chart Position: #34 10. “Tennessee Whiskey” As mentioned previously, despite George Jones popularizing the track and Chris Stapleton blowing it up into the stratosphere, Coe was the first one to record the track. Written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, “Tennessee Whiskey” appeared on his 1981 album of the same name. Famously, the song was not very successful for Coe as a single, peaking all the way down at #77 in 1981. With that being said, however, it would be remiss not to include the track on this list thanks to its importance to the genre 45 years later. Peak Chart Position: #77 The post Remembering David Allan Coe: 10 Of The Biggest Hits From The Late, Outlaw Legend first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Sounds like they’ve come a long way. Kacey Musgraves is gearing up to release her highly-anticipated album Middle Of Nowhere tomorrow, May 1st, which was produced by Musgraves produced alongside longtime collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk. She put out two songs from the 13-song tracklist in the lead-up to the release, including the lead single “Dry Spell,” as well as the title track “Middle of Nowhere,” and Kacey will have four features from some fellow artists as well, an absolutely stacked lineup that features Willie Nelson, Billy Strings, Gregory Alan Isakov and Mrs. Miranda Lambert herself. The Miranda duet in particular feels huge, partially because the two had a years-long feud that stemmed from Miranda’s song “Mama’s Broken Heart,” which was released as the fourth single from Lambert’s 2011 Four the Record album in 2013, and was written by Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and of course, Kacey Musgraves. The song peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Country Airplay chart and has since been certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA, which means it has moved over 1,960,000 units. The story goes that Miranda really wanted the song, and Kacey was reluctant to give it up, clearly knowing that it was a hit, and it was apparently pitched to Miranda without Kacey’s knowledge. She ended up giving it to her (though she does sing background vocals on it), mostly for the sake of her co-writers because Miranda was the much bigger artist at the time, but it created some resentment, understandably, that lasted for years. Their beef also led to an iconic internet moment, which resulted from Miranda’s 2013 speech at the CMA Awards, when she won Female Vocalist of the Year, a category Kacey was also nominated in. That same year, Kacey won the CMA Awards for New Artist of the Year, and they were both also nominated for Single of the Year and Song of the Year with the aforementioned “Mama’s Broken Heart,” and there’s a reason you’ve never seen them really interact, and certainly not work together, all of these years. But thankfully, that’s about to change, and Kacey assured everyone that the beef was very much real, and in an interview with Variety, she described it as “grass-fed, grade A” beef: “Oh, there was. It was grass-fed, grade A.” It only made the song that much more authentic, and Kacey said Miranda was immediately down to write it together after Kacey reached out following years of them not really speaking to each other: “I mean, it’s real and that’s why I love this song, because it’s not coming from some contrived place in a writing room. We’ve come together after years of really, honestly, not being friends. I had this idea one day when I saw her on Instagram, riding one of her horses, and I thought, ‘Well, I guess we have two things in common: horses and divorces.’ And I was like, ‘Wait, that’s a song.’ Then I took it a step further: ‘What if I write it with her? What if it’s a duet? F*** it, I’m gonna reach out.’ I hadn’t spoken to her in years and was like, ‘Hey, I have this idea. If anybody would get it, it would be you. We’ve had our s*** over the years, but this would be really funny.’ And she was like, ‘I’m down.’” They wrote “Horses and Divorces” with their friend and incredible songwriter Shane McAnally, and Shane explained how huge it was to get to be part of this moment, likening them to “Dolly and Loretta” of this generation, which I’m not going to argue with. He said Miranda knew he’d never forgive either one of them if they didn’t include him in the writing session, and I’ve loved his work with both of them, so I think that was definitely the right call (no pun intended). Kacey went on to explain that they talked through whatever past grievance they had with each other, and it ended up being a very “full circle” moment for both of them, and Miranda told Kacey she wouldn’t have had the career that she has without “Mama’s Broken Heart”: “We talked about everything, and we’re both older now and have less energy for dumb s***. I don’t love having weirdness with anyone out there.” Of course, they bonded over the obvious “horses and divorces” thing and all that comes with that which became the song title, but also, their shared love for their fellow Texan and country icon, Willie Nelson. This song marks a huge moment in country music, at least for me, as a superfan of both of these women. They were the soundtrack to my life as a young teenager, and still to this day (I’m not going to tell you exactly how long it’s been), and I can’t believe it’s really happening that they’re putting out a song together. It’s a dream come true, and I know it won’t disappoint. “Dry Spell” Middle of Nowhere Tour Dates: May 3, 2026 Gruene Hall – New Braunfels, TX May 4, 2026 Gruene Hall – New Braunfels, TX May 5, 2026 Gruene Hall – New Braunfels, TX Aug 21, 2026 United Center – Chicago, IL Aug 24, 2026 Scotiabank Arena – Toronto, ON Aug 28, 2026 TD Garden – Boston, MA Aug 31, 2026 Madison Square Garden – New York, NY Sep 1, 2026 Madison Square Garden – New York, NY Sep 4, 2026 Xfinity Mobile Arena – Philadelphia, PA Sep 5, 2026 CFG Bank Arena – Baltimore, MD Sep 8, 2026 PPG Paints Arena – Pittsburgh, PA Sep 9, 2026 Schottenstein Center – Columbus, OH Sep 11, 2026 Fiserv Forum – Milwaukee, WI Sep 12, 2026 Enterprise Center – St. Louis, MO Sep 22, 2026 Target Center – Minneapolis, MN Sep 23, 2026 T-Mobile Center – Kansas City, MO Sep 25, 2026 Bourbon & Beyond – Louisville, KY Sep 27, 2026 Bridgestone Arena – Nashville, TN Sep 28, 2026 Bridgestone Arena – Nashville, TN Sep 30, 2026 State Farm Arena -Atlanta, GA Oct 2, 2026 Spectrum Center – Charlotte, NC Oct 5, 2026 Toyota Center – Houston, TX Oct 7, 2026 Moody Center – Austin, TX Oct 10, 2026 American Airlines Center – Dallas, TX Oct 13, 2026 Ball Arena – Denver, CO Oct 15, 2026 Delta Center – Salt Lake City, UT Oct 17, 2026 Mortgage Matchup Center – Phoenix, AZ Oct 18, 2026 Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA Oct 19, 2026 Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA Oct 23, 2026 Oakland Arena – Oakland, CA Oct 26, 2026 Climate Pledge – Arena Seattle, WA Oct 27, 2026 Climate Pledge – Arena Seattle, WAThe post Kacey Musgraves Describes Her Years-Long Beef With Miranda Lambert As “Grass-Fed, Grade A” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Leaving behind a complicated legacy. Outlaw country legend David Allan Coe passed away yesterday afternoon at the age of 86, following years of health problems including a long battle with COVID back in 2021. Since his death, many have shared tributes to the “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” singer, but of course you can’t talk about David Allan Coe without talking about his controversial legacy either. I’m not going to get into it all here, but suffice it to say that Coe was always controversial and often had strained relationships even with his friends. His fellow outlaw country legend Waylon Jennings once spoke about their relationship after he accused Coe of “taking pot shots” at some of his fellow artists: “He wrote a song called “Waylon, Willie, and Me” at the same time he started taking pot shots at us in interviews, saying that Willie and Kris had sold out, that I was running around wearing white buck shoes, and none of us was really an Outlaw. He was the only Outlaw in Nashville. … I saw him in Fort Worth, and I put my finger right up to his chest. ‘You gotta knock that shit off’, I told him. ‘I ain’t never done anything to you.’ He protested, ‘They just set us up…you know I love you, Waylon.” … He could drive me crazy, but there was something about David that pulled at my heartstrings.” But there’s nobody who understood just how difficult he could be to love than Coe’s son, Tyler Mahan Coe. Tyler played in his father’s band when he was just a teenager, but became estranged from his dad later in life. Their relationship appeared to fall apart around 2013, two years after David Allan Coe was in a serious car accident. When he returned to the stage two years later, Coe announced to the audience that he had a brand new band because “everybody quit” him except for his wife. His son, whoever, deeply disputed his father’s characterization, revealing that their last communication was a text exchange from the younger Coe assuring his dad that he would help make sure he had a band when he was ready to get back on the road. And according to Tyler at the time, his father then stopped answering his calls altogether: “My feelings were deeply hurt when I learned that he was announcing onstage that his entire band had quit him and everyone had ‘abandoned’ him when this was not the case. It became clear that my attempts to contact him were being deliberately ignored and I have no idea why.” Tyler Mahan Coe would go on to build his own name in the country music world, launching the massively successful Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast on country music history (which is worth the listen, if you somehow haven’t already listened to it). But he remained estranged from his father after 2013, confirming back in 2021 during an interview with GQ that they hadn’t spoken since those text messages about getting a band back together. There’s no doubt that his father’s death stirs up a lot of emotions, many of which I’m sure are conflicting given their relationship. But after the news of his passing, Tyler took to his Patreon page to reflect on the complicated man – and father – that was David Allen Coe: “I had made a whole different regular post for this month that was ready to go, but then I was informed that my father has died and I’m certain the news will be public by the time this goes out. I feel like I should probably talk about that instead, even though I don’t think I really have a lot to say right now.” Tyler admits that even after they became estranged, he never stopped caring about his father: “David Allen Coe was always a difficult person to be close with, a difficult person to care about for several reasons. Nobody who ever knew him would disagree with that statement. But I did always care about him, even after it became clear that he and I were never going to speak to each other again. I never wanted anything bad to happen to him.” And he also reflected on the choices that he made in both his life and his career, and how that’s going to impact his legacy: “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.” Tyler says that his father felt “misunderstood” as an artist, something that always bothered him, but that he was also complex because he wanted to ensure that his music captured every part of himself: “Aside from him being an actually insane individual, one of the things that makes it so difficult is there’s not one album or even one period of his career you can hold up as an example of who he really was as an artist, because no one album or period of his career is the entire picture. In fact, this is a phrase he constantly used when describing his approach to making music. He was trying to use songs to paint a picture for the audience. And I think the schizophrenic nature of his discography is partly a product of him trying not to leave out any part of the picture he saw. Trying to paint the entire thing, even though the very nature of individual human existence meant he was the only one who could see it.” But he perfectly sums up his father and the unique – although at times controversial and clearly frustrating to those who knew him – individual that he was: “At a certain point, the only explanation you can offer is one I have given many, many times in my life. That’s just DAC.” What a perfect tribute to a complex, controversial, and often times misunderstood, individual like David Allan Coe.The post Tyler Mahan Coe, Estranged Son Of David Allan Coe, Reflects On His Father After His Death: “A Difficult Person To Be Close With” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

The Double Down 2026 Tour will include baseball and football stadiums nationwide. Continue reading…

Sturgill Simpson has had it up to here (I’m holding my hand up way above my head) with those who don’t understand the Johnny Blue Skies career shift. The country star is now two albums into his “JBS Era,” if you want to call it that. Yet still, not everyone is on board with referring to the artist formerly known as Sturgill Simpson as the Dread Pirate Johnny Blue Skies. Heck, even I’ll go back and forth with what I call him. And speaking of… Johnny Blue Skies is still riding high off the release of Mutiny After Midnight back in March. His second album underneath the new JBS moniker was a funky, disco country record, and it was originally only available via physical media (vinyl, CDs, cassettes). It’s since become available digitally – if you still use iTunes – but it’s still absent from any streaming sites. Though you’d think that would have affected the album’s performance, it hasn’t. Johnny Blue Skies shared that the unique rollout of his latest album led to the biggest “first week” of any project of his career. Which is wild, because it really just came through an organic, grass roots movement. No interviews. No performances. Nothing extra… just a whole lot of memes posted through social media. There’s no doubt that was an intentional move. Especially when you hear what he had to say last year at one his concerts at Red Rocks. It seems like he’s out to stick it to the promoters and prove them wrong with every musical step that he takes now. While he was at the iconic venue last year, he went on a rant about how all of the higher ups think fans aren’t smart enough to put two and two together to realize that Sturgill Simpson is Johnny Blue Skies: “All the promoters think you are too stupid to figure out that he’s me. They won’t let me take Sturgill off the g**damn billing and I’m getting really tired of it. We sold a bunch of t-shirts last year, none of them had my name on it. Sold out a g**damn tour, that didn’t have my name on it either. What’s so hard to figure out? This is the path forward.” View this post on Instagram The later part of the video – where Sturgill Johnny Blue Skies teases a new album – is obviously a little dated at this point (that album is already out, and has been for a month). However, that initial quote from JBS apparently slipped past the masses when it was proclaimed during last year’s tour. And it’s really interesting to revisit that now, especially with how the rollout of Mutiny After Midnight went. It all makes sense now, doesn’t it? And just in case you are still behind on why Simpson shifted to Johnny Blue Skies, Sturgill always promised that he would release only five albums, and he reaffirmed that promise with the release of #5, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita. But he did not say that he wouldn’t continue making music under a new name. Lo and behold, Johnny Blue Skies. After unveiling his new identity, Simpson sat down with GQ and first revealed the shallow reason he went with Johnny Blue Skies: “When I was about 21 years old, there used to be this bar in Lexington, Kentucky with this bartender named Dave who was like Silent Bob and Charles Bukowski, literally in the long trench coat, and he could do way more Zippo tricks than anybody should know. When I started performing and getting my confidence at open mics and stuff, he’d come to this other bar and see me because it was his night off. And he started every time I’d walk into his bar, he’d say, ‘Johnny Blue Skies.’ So I just started using it.” It’s a shallow yet profound answer to the question. However, the reason why he went all in on Johnny Blue Skies is the deeper – and my preferred – story. Simpson elaborated that as his celebrity grew more and more over the years, he associated with the name Sturgill less and less: “I’d be at an airport or a restaurant, and I’d hear somebody say my name and I’d turn around and realize I had no idea who the person is. All of a sudden, I’d hear that name, and it was like it didn’t belong to me. It was just a commodity or a brand. Sturgill served his purpose, but he’s dead, he’s gone, and I’m definitely not that guy anymore. That’s why I put that skeleton face on that (reissued) cover of Metamodern. I just can’t even relate.” Though that explanation explains the “how” of Johnny Blue Skies, it still doesn’t pull back the curtain on the “who”. Simpson made sure to address that in the interview as well, and said that Johnny Blue Skies is (or complexly) whoever you wish him or imagine him to be: “He’s anybody you want him to be, man. He’s a mythological hero, come to usher us into this new era of love and light.” And if you were to watch the music video for Johnny Blue Skies’ song “Situation,” you’d know that Johnny Blue Skies is HIM. The post “What’s So Hard To Figure Out?”: Sturgill Simpson Has Long Been Fed Up With Promoters Not Accepting That He’s Johnny Blue Skies Now first appeared on Whiskey Riff.