Coe's wife confirmed his death to Rolling Stone on Wednesday.
Whether he was labelled outlaw or underground, Coe was clearly an outsider in Nashville's music establishment, even throughout his successes as an in-demand songwriter and singer, eventually developing a core following around his raw, often obscene lyrics and a chequered and somewhat mysterious past.
His wife, Kimberly, posted on Facebook in 2021 that he had been hospitalised with COVID-19 and he made few appearances since then.
He did concert tours with Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Neil Young and others. He wrote Take This Job and Shove It, a hit by Johnny Paycheck in 1977, and Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone), a hit by Tanya Tucker in 1974.
He was also the first country singer to record Tennessee Whiskey, penned by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, that has since become a genre standard and hits for George Jones and Chris Stapleton.
His own country hit recordings included You Never Even Call Me by My Name, written by Steve Goodman and an uncredited John Prine; The Ride, and Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile.
Coe also appeared in a handful of movies, including Stagecoach and Take This Job and Shove It, which was named after his song.
Coe, born in Akron, Ohio, spent time in reformatories as a youngster, and served time in an Ohio prison from 1963 to 1967 for possession of burglary tools.
He also has said he spent time with the Outlaws motorcycle club, but some of the tales about his prison time and his personal life have been wildly exaggerated over the years.
"I'd have never made it through prison without my music," he told AP in 1983.
"No one could take it (music) away from me. They could put me in the hole with nothing to do but I could still make up a song in my head."
He recorded his first album, Penitentiary Blues, using songs that he wrote in prison.
Coe recorded next for Columbia Records and did the album The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, which became his nickname after performing in a rhinestone suit and wearing a mask.
During the heyday of the outlaw movement, Coe placed himself at the centre of the scene, with songs such as Longhaired Redneck, which featured lyrics about performing in dive bars, "Where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they'll get out of here alive."
He was featured in the acclaimed documentary about the outlaw country movement called Heartworn Highways, in which he performs a concert at a Tennessee prison.
His last record, released in 2006, was a collaboration with Dimebag Darrell and other former members of the heavy metal group Pantera.
