Kinky Friedman, singer, humorist who once ran for governor of Texas, has died at the age of 79 – WFTV

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. 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 and friends,” said a post on his official account on X. “Kinkster suffered tremendous pain and unimaginable loss over the past few 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,” released his album debut, “Sold American,” in 1973 and was a touring member of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review in 1976, Variety reported. Friedman also claimed he was the “first full-blooded Jew” to perform on the Grand Ole Opry.

However, others, including violinist Gene Lowinger, have already earned this title, the Times reported.

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

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Sold American” included the title song as well as “High on Jesus” and “The Ballad of Charles Whitman.”

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

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

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

His love of 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 crazy love child of Lenny Bruce and Bob Wills.”

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

Friedman’s platform included legalizing drugs, repealing the smoking ban and a campaign promise to lower the speed limit in Texas from 55 miles per hour to 54.95 miles per hour, the Times reported. In more serious tones, he called for higher salaries for teachers and stricter rules against illegal immigration.

After the Texas Jewboys split up in the 1980s, Friedman wrote crime novels, according to the newspaper. He expressed his irreverence in print with books such as “God Bless John Wayne” (1995) and “Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned,” the Times reported. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 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).

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

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