Home > Explore > Kinky Friedman

Kinky's Open Road

  • INTERVIEWED BY:

    Montreal Team

  • INTERVIEW LOCATION:

    Austin, TX

  • AIRED ON:

    Other: Montreal Team

KINKY FRIEDMAN

Singer/Songwriter/Author

“Hang on tight, spur hard, and let her buck. Then when the horse dies, get off. Get on to something else.”

INTERESTS:

Musicians Politics

THEMES DISCUSSED:

Character Failure Perseverance Self-Reflection Transitions Individualism

TAGS:

college, good shepherd for texas, learning, life, politics, singer, songwriter, telling the truth, texas, truth, wisdom

BIOGRAPHY:

A sixty-one-year-old "compassionate redneck" who loves Texas, Kinky sees himself as a truth teller who writes about our times from a unique perspective. Songs such as "They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore" and "I'm Proud to Be an Asshole from El Paso" suggest his approach. Willing to let the chips fall where they may, this "dreamer who never sleeps" identifies with people who, like him, feel a bit lost. "We don't know what we're going to do," he says. "It's just learning from life itself. That's the best classroom." Depressed by the whole music scene, he realized "it wasn't happening" for him, so he got into writing, and after that disappointed him, he tried politics. His goal, he claims, was to be a good shepherd for Texas, not a politician.