While best known as a singer, songwriter, and humorist, Kinky Friedman – born Richard Samet Friedman in Chicago, Illinois on November 1, 1944 – was truly a renaissance man. While he remained a cult figure throughout his career, he was also a poet, novelist, columnist, and politician. He became interested in music when he was a child, but he was also interested in chess and at the age of seven, he was the youngest of 50 players to play in a challenge with US grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky. He attended the University of Texas (located in Austin), where he majored in psychology. While in college, he formed his first band – King Arthur & The Carrots – and earned the nickname Kinky because of his curly hair. His next band, the satirical country rock band Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys, helped to gain him notoriety and a devoted audience when they began playing live in 1973. Kinky Friedman released his debut album, Sold American, in 1973 but didn’t come to prominence until 1974’s self-titled release. A critical success, he continued to release albums that established him as an intelligent and witty troubadour including Lasso from El Paso (1976), Under the Double Ego (1983), Old Testaments and New Revelations (1992), and From One Good American to Another (1995). When his musical career slowed down in the 1980s, he turned to writing and penned several detective novels while also contributing a column in Texas Monthly for several years. Kinky Friedman ran for Governor of Texas in 2006, but only earned 12.6% of the votes. He continued to keep himself involved in politics, nearly running for Governor of Texas again in 2009. Kinky Friedman returned to music with albums such as The Loneliest Man I Ever Met (2015), Resurrection (2016), and Circus of Life (2018). Kinky Friedman died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on June 27, 2024, at the age of 79.
