After the March 3 release of their new album, Baptized in Bourbon, the Moonshine Bandits—Big Tex and Bird—have released a new video for their song, “Take This Job,” a remake of Johnny Paycheck’s classic hit, “Take This Job and Shove It.”
“We would of never done the remake unless David Allan Coe was on the song with us and we had his blessing,” Big Tex tells Nash Country Daily. “Some people forget that David wrote the original, not [Johnny] Paycheck. So we definitely wanted David on this with us. We are very thankful.”
Made famous by Johnny Paycheck in 1977, “Take This Job and Shove It” was written by David Allan Coe and reworked by the California country rap duo to include on their latest project. Not only does David Allan Coe sing on the record with Big Tex and Bird, but he also stars in the duo’s new video.
“Working with David was incredible,” said Big Tex. “It definitely won’t be the last time you’ll see us collaborate on something. He’s very creative. He’s lived the songs he’s wrote so his stories on the road are priceless. We were very thankful to have him and his wife’s blessing when we worked on the song remake. It’s not too often you can get a text from a legend like Coe, that says, ‘Man, this video is badass.’”
Directed by the duo’s manager, Ken Madson, the video was shot at the Ohio Reformatory—a.k.a. “Shawshank” Prison featured in the movie The Shawshank Redemption—where David Allan Coe was once incarcerated for car theft. The veteran singer even filmed some of the video inside the same cell he once resided.
“Our manager, Ken Madson, brought us the idea of taking David back to the Ohio State Reformatory,” Tex recalled. “David was incarcerated there for years of his life, but now David is returning to the prison to film the video as a free man.This song is about feeling liberated and empowered to do whatever you want. It’s about letting your boss know that if he doesn’t appreciate your hard work, then you aren’t going to stick around.”
The video shows scenes of the Moonshine Bandits and David Allan performing in the prison, interspersed with scenes of the male lead getting fed up with his boss and walking off the job. Warning: The middle finger makes an appearance a time or two (or six).
Check out the Moonshine Bandits featuring David Allan Coe in “Take This Job.”
