Two Years Ago Today, We Said Goodbye to the Country Singer, Songwriter and Satirist Who Ran for Governor of Texas

On this day (June 27) in 2024, the world bade farewell to one of its most uniquely irreverent and provocative voices. Kinky Friedman, 79, died at his home at Echo Hill Ranch in Medina, Texas, of Parkinson’s disease.

Meet Kinky Friedman

A novelist, humorist, singer-songwriter, and all-around agitator, Richard Samet “Kinky” Friedman was born in Chicago on November 1, 1944.

His family moved to the Texas Hill Country when he was young, where they founded the Echo Hill Ranch summer camp near Kerrville.

Friedman showed an early aptitude for chess, becoming one of 50 Houston-area players to challenge U.S. grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky at just seven years old.

After graduating from Austin High School in 1962, Friedman attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1966. Fellow comedy-music impresario Chinga Chavin nicknamed him “Kinky” during his undergraduate days because of his curly hair.

Also during his undergraduate days, Friedman formed his first band, King Arthur & the Carrots. In 1973, he founded another band, Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys.

His father, Tom Friedman, did not approve, calling the group’s name “a negative, hostile, peculiar thing.” (Responded Kinky: “That’s great. That’s what I wanted.”

After releasing his 1973 debut, Sold American, on Vanguard Records, Friedman toured with Bob Dylan. His music was a nervy blend of social commentary, maudlin ballads, and bawdy humor.

While gaining a cult following, Friedman also courted plenty of controversy with songs like “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore”.

“I got the joke, but I wouldn’t have wanted to stand too close to him at that time,” Mickey Raphael, Willie Nelson’s harmonica player and a friend and collaborator of Friedman’s, told Rolling Stone in 2018. “I still keep my distance. It was like, ‘That’s funny, but don’t say you know me.’”

A Later Return to Music

When his music career reached a standstill in the 1980s, Kinky Friedman pivoted to writing detective novels.

In 2001, he broadened his reach when he landed a columnist gig at Texas Monthly. Five years later, Friedman parlayed that popularity into a highly-publicized run for governor of Texas. Running as an independent, he placed fourth in a six-person race.

[RELATED: Kinky Friedman on the Wisdom He Gained After Learning Nelson Mandela Was a Fan of His Music]

A lifelong animal lover, Kinky Friedman founded Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch in the late 1990s.

Featured image by Paul Natkin/Getty Images

The post Two Years Ago Today, We Said Goodbye to the Country Singer, Songwriter and Satirist Who Ran for Governor of Texas appeared first on American Songwriter.