Country star and humorist Kinky Friedman dies at 79
June 27 (UPI) -- Texas musician, writer and aspiring politician Richard "Kinky" Friedman died this week. He was 79.
Friedman's death was announced in a post on his official X account.
"Kinky Friedman stepped on a rainbow at his beloved Echo Hill surrounded by family and friends," the post read. "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 in Chicago to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, Friedman started his first band at the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated in 1966 with a degree in psychology.
His music career gained more traction in 1973 when his band began recording as Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys.
Friedman was known as a provocative musician who had a talent for weaving emotionally complex stories in three-minute songs with joking titles. His song "Ride 'Em Jewboy," for example, tells a gripping story of the Holocaust.
Friedman broke away from music in the '80's and published several detective novels featuring a fictionalized sleuth of the same name in over-the-top scenarios.
Much like his songs, Friedman's novels featured provocative titles to draw readers' attentions, such as "Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola" and "The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover."
Friedman stumbled into politics in 1986 with a failed bid for justice of the peace in Kerrville. He set his sights higher in 2006 when he ran as an independent candidate for Texas governor against Rick Perry.
Despite ending fourth in that race, his colorful campaign racked up more than 500,000 votes, partly through campaign slogans such as, "How Hard Could It Be?"
Friedman eventually went back to music and in 2015 released "The Loneliest Man I Ever Met," featuring covers of songs by musicians such as Willie Nelson, Tom Waits and Warren Zevon.
Three years later, he released "Circus of Life," his first set of original songs in over 40 years, followed by "Resurrection."
Friedman spent much of his free time at the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch in Medina, a no-kill animal shelter he co-founded in 1998 on his family's 300-plus acre ranch.
A lover of animals, especially dogs, Friedman wrote "A Dog in the Sky" for his beloved poodle Mr. P.
"We had the same hair," he said in an interview in 2019. "He was a great companion."
