I mean, what an entrance… Tanya Tucker has been in the music industry since the very young age of just 13 years old when she scored her first major hit “Delta Dawn,” in 1972. She was just 15-years-old when she recorded “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)” as a duet with the late David Allan Coe in 1973. Of course, the outlaw legend passed away back on April 29, 2026 at the age of 86 in an intensive care unit following years of health battles. He 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 – eventually getting discovered while living in a hearse outside of the Ryman Auditorium. Many fans know about the struggles in his personal life, and how he was estranged from his adult children as well. For the entirety of his career, he was certainly known as quite the unapologetic outlaw, a larger than life character in every way. So you can imagine what it was like for Tanya Tucker to meet him for the first time when she was only a freshman in high school. Famed country music producer, and legend in his own right, Billy Sherrill, introduced Tucker to Coe very early in her career, During an appearance on the Drifting Cowboy podcast, Tucker recalled Coe walking in with “Two or three wives,” who were dressed very “scantily,” as she put it, and Coe himself had a “fox head hanging down” over his leather attire. Of course, especially being a teenager at the time (Coe was around 34), she was quite stunned: “Billy goes, there’s a guy that’s gonna come in and sing a song. So he comes in, and I’m an animal lover, you know, he had a fox head hanging down, in leather. And I think he had like two or three wives with him or something, and they were all dressed scantily. And then they waltz in and they sit down in front of me, and I’m over here going, oh my God what the heck. He just had his guitar, and he just started, ‘Would you lay with me?’ You know how he would sing. When he got done with the song, Billy said, ‘Well, thank you, David. Appreciate it.’ And they filed out of there.” While they were in the studio, someone stole Coe’s brand new Cadillac, which is another crazy part of the story, and when Sherill asked what she thought when they left, Tucker didn’t even know what to say. I guess Sherill took that as a sign to do it, and Tucker says she couldn’t believe they cut it simply because of “the visual” and obviously how young she was to be singing about that kind of subject matter with an artist much older than her who was an adult while she was a minor, though Tucker noted he was a “big old teddy bear” with her and treated her well: “Well, David had just got a brand new Cadillac, he just bought that day. Because Francis Preston gave him some money, he asked for $20  and he gave him  $2o,ooo. And he went and bought that Cadillac, parked it out front of CBS, and someone stole it while he was in there pitching me the song. So when they left, Billy looks at me and says, ‘What do you think about that, kid?’ And I said, I couldn’t get it out, and he said, ‘Oh perfect, we’re gonna cut it.’ And I went, ‘What?’ I would never have thought we could cut that song. Just because I couldn’t get past the visual. You know, he didn’t mince words, and it might not be something you mother should hear. He was a big old teddy bear with me.” “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)” was released in December of 1973 as the first single and title track from Tucker’s album Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone). It became a hit, topping the U.S. country chart on March 30th, 1974, marking Tucker’s third number-one song on the chart. It also became a minor crossover hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #46. there. It’s something that would never, ever happen today, but man, what a story about how these two met… check it out: @dillon.weldon Tanya Tucker recalls meeting David Allan Coe and their friendship. #tanyatucker #davidallancoe #wouldyoulaywithme #outlaw #countrymusic ♬ Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone) – Tanya Tucker Here’s the full performance they did for Nashville Now the year the song was released: The post Tanya Tucker Recalls David Allan Coe Walking In With “Two Or Three Wives” The First Time She Met Him To Hear “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.