On June 26 at his home at Echo Hill Ranch, Medina, Bandera County, Texas, Country music star and satirist Kinky Friedman passed away at the age of 79.
After enduring “tremendous pain” from complications of Parkinson’s disease, a statement on the Chicago native’s social media pages read: “Kinky Friedman stepped on a rainbow at his beloved Echo Hill surrounded by family and friends. Kinkster endured tremendous pain and 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.”
Born Richard Samet Friedman, yet affectionately known as Kinkster and Kinky, the legendary talent was best known for satirizing politics with his 1973-formed band King Friedman and The Texas Jewboys. Unafraid to address some taboo topics of the time and ruffle feathers; even causing fights to break out at their concerts, Friedman also toured with his good friend, Bob Dylan between 1975 and 1976.
In 1983, Kinky stepped away from the music business to become a novelist and a humorist, a politician, and satirical columnist for Texas Monthly.
Good friends with former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Kinkster also wrote a piece about his visits to the White House in a November 2001 column for the publication, ‘Hail to the Kinkster’. And inspired by Sherlock Holmes, the writer scripted many-a-detective novels based on a character called Kinky Friedman.
The musician and writer tired his hand at acting with cameos in 1978 comedy ‘Loose Shoes’ and the 1986 horror classic ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2’, in which he played Sports Anchorman.
Friedman returned to music in 2018 with his final full length ‘Circus Of Life’ and, partial to smoking cigars, he even had his own line, Kinky Friedman Cigars.
His close friend, author Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman, took to X with “I lost my best friend and the world lost a giant today. Kinky Friedman was the sweetest, most generous, and compassionate person I’d ever met. May his memory be a blessing.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Stephen C. Webster