Kinky Friedman, creator, singer-songwriter and former Texas gubernatorial candidate, died Thursday after a years-long battle with Parkinson’s illness. Friedman was 79.
“He died peacefully,” shut good friend Kent Perkins, who knew Friedman for about 50 years, advised the Related Press in confirming the loss of life. He mentioned Friedman died at his household’s ranch close to San Antonio.
“He smoked a cigar, went to mattress and by no means awoke,” Perkins mentioned.
Perkins described Friedman because the “final free particular person on earth” and mentioned he had an “irreverence about him. He was a fearless author.”
Friedman — born Richard Samet Friedman in Chicago on Nov. 1, 1944 — stirred buzz along with his provocative and unapologetic nature, which turned extensively recognized when his band, Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, discovered success within the Nineteen Seventies.
The satirical nation band launched songs similar to “Drop Kick Me, Jesus, By means of the Aim Posts of Life,” “Get Your Biscuits within the Oven and Your Buns within the Mattress” and “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore.”
However the band’s brash nature was apparently not effectively acquired by some.
“In 1973, the Texas Jewboys acquired loss of life threats in Nacogdoches, bought bomb threats in New York, and required a police escort to flee radical feminists on the College of Buffalo,” the musician wrote in a private essay for the September 2001 situation of Texas Month-to-month.
Friedman — who was nicknamed Kinky, or the Kinkster, due to his curly hair — then traveled with Bob Dylan in 1976 as a part of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. By the Nineteen Eighties, after his band’s success had cooled, Friedman turned to a brand new enterprise: writing.
He penned a number of New York-based crime novels, together with “Greenwich Killing Time” and “Roadkill,” that featured himself as a detective. On the time of his loss of life, Friedman had written greater than 20 books.
Joking that he wanted “a job proper now,” Friedman elevated his profile when he challenged incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry within the 2006 Texas governor’s race, in line with the Houston Chronicle.
The race turned prickly. Friedman, certainly one of 5 candidates, was hit with allegations of racism over remarks he made in 1980. He denied the accusations, stating that his type of humor was meant to attract reactions.
Offending individuals “was the aim,” Friedman advised the Houston Chronicle in 2006. “That’s what I used to be doing. That’s referred to as social commentary, that’s referred to as satire.”
He ran on a marketing campaign that supported homosexual marriage (“I believe they’ve each proper to be as depressing as the remainder of us”) and prayer at school (“What’s flawed with a child believing in one thing?”) however finally completed in final place. Perry gained reelection.
Reflecting on the race 4 years later, Friedman advised The Instances that extra musicians ought to get into politics.
“If the musicians ran the nation, we wouldn’t get a hell of loads accomplished within the morning, however we’d work late and we’d be trustworthy,” he mentioned. “Once I’m in a roomful of musicians, these are respectable individuals, good individuals. You may’t say the identical about politicians.”
And he was nonetheless pleased with his gubernatorial marketing campaign.
“We gained that race, by the best way,” Friedman mentioned, “each place however Texas.”
