MANSFIELD — American songwriter David Allan Coe visited the Ohio State Reformatory for the third time in his life Friday — this time he didn’t have a prison number.
“My first number was 60599 and my second number was 62424, that’s my prison numbers here at Mansfield,” the Akron-native said.
The “outlaw country” music singer served time in the 1960s, he said. In fact, many of the songs on Coe’s “Penitentiary Blues” album, released in February, 1970, were written while incarcerated at the historical reformatory, Coe said.
The musician has been in and out of prison since the tender age of nine, he said. Coming back, at age 77, was an odd experience.
Coe, along with his wife, joined Dusty (Tex) Dahlgren and Bret (Bird) Brooks of Moonshine Bandits in OSR’s chapel to record a music video for “Take This Job,” a song that will appear on the California-based band’s upcoming album, “Baptized in Bourbon.”
The song was originally named “Take This Job and Shove It” when it was written by Coe in 1977. It was made famous by Johnny Paycheck and inspired a movie in 1981.
Moonshine Bandits’ rendition is expected to release Jan. 1, 2017 and the music video will release sometime in February, said Coe’s business manager David Wade. The album will drop in March.
“For me, the song (“Take This Job and Shove It”) was one of the many songs that I can look now and say that it had a life of its own, just like one of your children,” Coe said Friday.
Dahlgren and Brooks were beside themselves with excitement to perform with the star at the reformatory.
“Last night we were just able to sit down with him (Coe) and drank whiskey and soaked it all in,” Dahlgren, Moonshine Bandits rapper, said. “He has some stories,” he added, laughing.
“And he’s such a good artist,” Brooks, Moonshine Bandits singer, said.
Moonshine Bandits was formed by the duo in 1999 in central California. The band’s genre fits into country rap and has released six albums since its founding.
OSR was used as backdrops for Hollywood films like “Shawshank Redemption” in 1994 and “Air Force One” in 1997.
In 2000, American rock band “Godsmack” used the prison as a backdrop for a music video they shot for “Awake.” American hip-hop artist Lil Wayne shot a music video for “Go D.J.” at OSR in 2004.
AP reported in 2004 during Lil Wayne’s visit that the reformatory needed $10 to $20 million to renovate the decaying building. OSR marketing director Dan Smith said Friday that much renovation has been done since then.
OSR, a nonprofit organization, charged Moonshine Bandits $500 for the music video shoot Friday, Smith said.
“But we don’t need to do that sort of thing that much anymore. We’ve done a lot of restoration,” he said.
In all, Moonshine Bandits and its film crew and Coe, spent nearly five hours at the prison. The artists are scheduled to perform at Dillinger’s Entertainment Center and Restaurant in Bucyrus Friday night at 8 p.m., where they will finish recording the music video.
