Kinky Friedman, singer, humorist who once ran for governor of Texas, dead at 79

Richard “Kinky” Friedman, a country singer-songwriter and humorist who once ran for governor of Texas, died Thursday. He was 79.

Friedman died at his ranch in Medina, Texas, Variety reported. His friend, writer Larry Sloman, told The New York Times that the cause of death was complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Friedman’s biting humor and cultural commentary with his band, the Texas Jewboys, earned him comparisons to Mark Twain and Will Rogers, according to the newspaper. One of his hits included “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore.”

“Kinky Friedman stepped on a rainbow at his beloved Echo Hill surrounded by family & friends,” read a post on his official account on X. “Kinkster endured tremendous pain & unthinkable loss in recent years but he never lost his fighting spirit and quick wit. Kinky will live on as his books are read and his songs are sung.”

Friedman, who once called himself the “governor of the heart of Texas,” made his album debut in 1973 with “Sold American” and was a touring member of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review during in 1976, Variety reported. Friedman also claimed he was the “first full-blooded Jew” to appear at the Grand Ole Opry.

However, others, including fiddler Gene Lowinger, had already earned that title, the Times reported.

Friedman performed on “Saturday Night Live” and recorded a set for “Austin City Limits,” that was reportedly so profane that it never aired on the television show, according to the newspaper.

“Sold American” featured the title track along with “High on Jesus” and “The Ballad of Charles Whitman,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“He was a communicator. An unusual, but very pointed and poignant communicator,” his friend, Cleve Hattersley, told The Texas Tribune. “He could bring you to tears on stage. He could make you roll on the floor in laughter.”

Friedman famously sprayed members of the NHL’s New York Rangers and their wives with beer while wearing a long jersey, cowboy boots and no pants, according to the website.

Born in Chicago on Nov. 1, 1944, Friedman grew up in the Texas Hill Country west of Austin, where his parents founded and ran Echo Hill Ranch, the Times reported. He attended the University of Texas to study psychology, according to Variety.

His love for music inspired him to form King Arthur & the Carrots and later, Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, the entertainment news website reported. Friedman called the Texas Jewboys a “country band with a social conscience, a demented love child of Lenny Bruce and Bob Wills.”

In 2006, Friedman waged a humorous campaign to run for governor of Texas against incumbent Rick Perry in 2006, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His slogan was “How hard can it be?” and despite his underdog status, Friedman still managed to pull in 13% of the vote and finished fourth.

Friedman’s platform included legalizing drugs, ending bans on smoking and a campaign promise to lower the speed limit in Texas from 55 mph to 54.95 mph, the Times reported. On a more serious note, he called for higher pay for teachers and more stringent rules against illegal immigration.

After the Texas Jewboys broke up in the 1980s, Friedman wrote detective novels, according to the newspaper. He brought his irreverence to the printed word with books like “God Bless John Wayne” in 1995 and “Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned,” the Times reported. He also wrote “Greenwich Killing Time” (1986), “A Case of Lone Star” (1987), “When the Cat’s Away” (1988) and “What Would Kinky Do? How to Unscrew a Screwed Up World” (2008), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Kinky Friedman was a larger-than-life Texas icon and will be remembered as one of the most interesting personalities in Texas politics,” Perry said in a statement to the Tribune on Thursday. “Kinky’s run for governor in 2006 made an otherwise grueling campaign cycle actually fun. May he rest easy after a life lived to the fullest.”

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