Kinky Friedman, singer and satirist with ties to Nashville, dies at the age of 79
Kinky Friedman, a Texas-born outlaw and role model of the Nashville country music industry who was favored by Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, among others, has died.
Richard Samet “Kinky” Friedman – a satirist and singer-songwriter who often visited Nashville during his career and served as a provocateur for creatives around the world – died of Parkinson’s disease in his native Texas on Wednesday. He was 79 years old.
He led a wild life characterized by a life of extreme, extraordinary balance.
This balance is often best defined as the space between right and wrong defined by good and bad taste – this is up to each individual.
Friedman, whose death was made public by his relatives via social media, rose to fame as a cigar-smoking and free-thinking author, humorist, journalist and politician.
As a Democratic candidate for governor of Texas in 2006, he ran on a platform of legalizing marijuana and gambling and supporting same-sex marriage. He was also a part-time journalist for Texas Monthly and the author of nearly two dozen crime novels.
However, his career often intersected with the 900 block of 16th Avenue South in Nashville’s Music Row, where he gained much of his fame.
An influential outlaw country rocker
With the rise of country-inspired rock bands from Los Angeles and New York in the 1970s, such as Gram Parsons, The Band and The Eagles, Friedman’s proudly Jewish, Austin, Texas-born style of witty outlaw country and classic rock evolved into the band Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys.
Their early catalog included song titles such as “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to You,” “Western Union Wire,” “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed,” “Ride ‘Em Jewboy,” and “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore.”
Many found them offensive, but more and more people loved them.
In 1973, Friedman recorded the aforementioned songs at Tompall Glaser’s Glaser Sound Studio in Nashville, 916 19th Ave. South. Glaser was a Nebraska-born artist and producer whose roots in performing with artists such as Marty Robbins and his love of Western swing, rockabilly and zydeco records inspired him more than the Music City establishment, so Friedman’s caustic, irreverent humor was a good fit.
“Charlie was a really sizzling trigger puller and a huge crowd pleaser,” Friedman sings in “The Ballad Of Charles Whitman” (an ode to Charles Joseph Whitman, an American mass murderer and Marine veteran who became known as the “Texas Tower Sniper” after a 1966 incident).
One should not judge too quickly from these lines, but in typical Friedman tradition he softens the fear and shock with the following serious formulations:
“Some died, some wept, some learned, some slept, some screamed ‘Texas No. 1!’ Some ran, some fell, some screamed, some raged, some thought the revolution had begun.”
From 1976 onwards, artists such as Bob Dylan (with whom he toured smaller concert halls in less populated cities during his Rolling Thunder Revue), Willie Nelson (also from Austin) and the Nashville-based “Outlaws”, with whom Nelson recorded a platinum album in 1975 and which featured Glaser, Jessi Colter and Waylon Jennings, among others, were on his side.
His recognition grew to the point that his tour with Dylan in 1976 resulted in his album “Lasso From El Paso.”
T-Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones, Roger McGuinn, former Beatle Ringo Starr and members of The Band all contributed to the release.
A legacy marked by breathtaking honesty
In a 2015 interview for the website Music N Other Drugs, Friedman stated that the greatest success of his career came from “speaking his mind and challenging society’s sensibilities.”
“There are no more Nelson Mandelas, Jesus Christs or Gandhis,” he said. “Or even major cultural figures like Shel Silverstein, Gram Parsons or Iggy Pop.”
“Kinky is a naturally funny and brave, born entertainer,” said legendary Texas-born author Larry McMurtry in a 2018 feature.
During his lifetime, Friedman published about as many albums as novels.
A statement he made during a talk at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2018 sums up his view of the creative process.
“The further you get away from the subject of the song, the clearer the writing becomes,” he said. “If someone wants to be a songwriter here, the first thing you have to do is be unhappy. Happiness is the enemy. I fight it at every turn so I can be an artist.”
Israel attacks Hamas paragliding facility and advances further into Rafah
British Prime Minister: Ukraine can attack Russia with British Storm Shadow missiles
Biographer CHLOE GOVAN on the pop star’s “abiding” passion for the English countryside, which reminds her of her childhood and provides her with “respite” from the pressures of fame
About The Author
