The wild rumor circulating about this David Allan Coe show is that Johnny Cash will be making a cameo. The venue wouldn't confirm or deny it, but Cash and Coe would make a terrific double bill. After all, they're both old-school country icons who have surrounded themselves with outlaw mythologies. Coe even released an album three years ago titled
Johnny Cash Is a Friend of Mine, which featured his versions of Cash songs, and Cash covered Coe's "Would You Lie With Me (In a Field of Stone)" on last year's
American III: Solitary Man. Cash might walk the line, but the Akron-born Coe, who's done hard time and reportedly even killed a fellow inmate, has crossed it, becoming famous of late on Howard Stern, where his obscure songs, in which he freely uses the word "nigga," have found a new home. Granted, these songs were reportedly written for a motorcycle gang and not intended for popular consumption, but they point to the underlying hatred lurking beneath the exterior of his traditional country ballads. While Coe, a self-described "long-haired redneck" who recently did some dates with white-trash rapper Kid Rock, has tried to prove he's not prejudiced with "Song for the Year 2000," in which he asserts "it takes all kinds to make this world go round," we bet that, with a little prompting, you can get him to dip into the vitriolic side of his catalog -- that's assuming the Man in Black isn't keeping Coe in check.
