A Look Back At Kinky Friedman’s Life & Career (R.I.P.) — “Paltrocast” Exclusive

As said by Rolling Stone in 2018 about Kinky Friedman: “At 73, the Texas oddball has landed on a newfound sincerity. Friedman has arrived at a more empathic narrative voice, spinning old yarns in new ways.”

However, the acclaimed musical career of Kinky Friedman — who NPR called “the most outrageous Jewish cowboy in Texas” back in 2015 — goes back to the early 1970s. He scored a hit with “Sold American,” the title track from 1973 album, and would go on to tour with with Bob Dylan in 1976. Friedman would reportedly become the first full-blooded Jew to take the stage at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry and have his songs covered by the likes of Dwight Yoakam, Tom Waits, Kelly Willis, Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson.

Friedman had also found success as an author; he wrote his first detective novel in the 1980s. He would also become a columnist for the Texas Monthly. Friedman’s infamy would also lead him the down the road of several political elections, notably receiving 12.6% of the votes within the 2006 gubernatorial election in Texas. Any way you slice it, Kinky Friedman is worth celebrating as a music fan, as a free-thinker and as a Jewish-American.