Kinky Friedman
American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician, and columnist (1944–2024)
Richard Samet "Kinky" Friedman (November 1, 1944 – June 27, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician, and columnist for Texas Monthly, who styled himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain.
Friedman was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election. Receiving 12.6% of the vote, Friedman placed fourth in the six-person race.
Biography
Richard Samet Friedman was born in Chicago on November 1, 1944, to Jewish parents, Dr. S. Thomas Friedman and his wife Minnie (Samet) Friedman. Both of his parents were the children of Russian Jewish immigrants. When Friedman was young, his family moved to the Texas Hill Country where they opened a summer camp called Echo Hill Ranch.
Friedman had an early interest in both pop music and chess, and was chosen at age seven as one of 50 local players to challenge U.S. grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky to simultaneous games in Houston. Reshevsky won all 50 games, but Friedman was, by far, the youngest competitor.
Friedman graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas, in 1962.
The public source identifies “Kinky Friedman” as american singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician, and columnist (1944–2024). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kinky, Friedman and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1281738. VIAF identifies the subject as 68959626. The Library of Congress control number is n85346365. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 2024, 2006 and 1962.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kinky Friedman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.