Kinky Friedman, Texas songwriter, satirist and folk hero, dies at 79

On Jun 28, 2024

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Kinky Friedman, who became a Texas folk hero as a flamboyant singer-songwriter, satirist, raconteur and would-be politician, running for governor in 2006 while jokingly declaring that he was neither pro-life nor pro-choice, but instead “pro-football,” died June 26 at Echo Hill, his ranch outside Medina, Tex. He was 79.

The cause was Parkinson’s disease, said his sister, Marcie Friedman.

“The Kinkster,” as he sometimes called himself, brought an outlaw spirit and vaudeville showmanship to politics, books and music, pushing the bounds of good taste while chomping on a cigar and donning a black cowboy hat — an accessory that barely concealed the curly dark hair that inspired his nickname. “With a name like Kinky,” he once told a reporter, “you should be famous, or else it’s a social embarrassment.”

Beginning in the early 1970s, he performed with a satirical country band called Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, releasing songs such as “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to You.” He toured with Bob Dylan, played chess with Willie Nelson and palled around with presidents from both parties, befriending Bill Clinton as well as George W. Bush. When he visited the White House for a gala dinner in 1997, he brought a Cuban cigar as a gift.

“Mr. President,” he recalled telling Clinton, “don’t think of it as supporting their economy — think of it as burning their fields.”

When he tired of touring and performing, Mr. Friedman turned to writing. He had a long-running column in Texas Monthly and cast a fictional version of himself as the detective hero of novels including “Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola” (1993), “Armadillos and Old Lace” (1994) and “God Bless John Wayne” (1995). Like the real Mr. Friedman, the books’ protagonist lived in Greenwich Village for a time, moving back and forth between New York City and his family ranch in Texas.

The character is unsure what place to call home. Eventually, he hopes to “find the answer to the grand and troubling question that has haunted mankind through the ages: What is it that I really want out of life — horsemanure or pigeon [excrement]?”

In his own life, Mr. Friedman decided on the manure. Living off his ranch, he became a beloved figure for a certain brand of independent-minded Texan, with former governor Ann Richards, a Democrat, calling him “one of Texas’s great natural resources.”

Mr. Friedman was resolutely independent in his politics, resisting party labels even as he tended toward the libertarian side of the spectrum. He first ran for office in 1986, mounting a quixotic campaign for justice of the peace in Kerrville, near his ranch, and launched his long-shot bid for governor nearly three decades later, while calling for the legalization of gambling, marijuana and same-sex marriage. “I support gay marriage,” he explained, “because I believe they have right to be just as miserable as the rest of us.”

His candidacy was initially treated as a joke, in part because Mr. Friedman seemed to treat it that way himself. He campaigned on a series of one-liners: “How hard could it be?,”…