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by Mary Lou Sullivan (Author)
Kinky Friedman has always maintained his Kinkster persona and hidden Richard Friedman from the public eye. Using one-liners, humor, and occasional rudeness, he follows the advice of his friend Bob Dylan to keep an aura of mystery. Author Mary Lou Sullivan spent many contentious days and nights at Kinky's Texas Hill Country ranch before he trusted her enough to open up and speak candidly.
Best known as an irreverent cigar-chomping Jewish country-and-western singer, turned author, turned politician, Kinky has dined on monkey brains in the jungles of Borneo, supped with presidents, and vacationed with Bob Dylan in the tiny fishing village of Yelapa, Mexico. A satirist who loves pushing the envelope, he's been attacked onstage, received bomb threats, and put on the only show in Austin City Limits' history deemed too offensive to air. From the 1970s music scene in L.A. with Tom Waits and the Band, to political platforms advocating legalized marijuana, to friendships with John Belushi, Joseph Heller, Don Imus, Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, and Billy Bob Thornton, this is the candid account - based on dozens and years of interviews - of the larger-than-life Texan who is still writing books and songs, recording albums, and performing for enthusiastic audiences throughout the world.Author Biography
Mary Lou Sullivan is an award winning author and music journalist whose 30-plus year career began at a dinner with Bruce Springsteen. She has written for dozens of publications from Classic Rock to Blues Revue, the Hartford Advocate, Connecticut Magazine, and Blues Magazine. Her biography of Johnny Winter earned the prestigious Keeping the Blues Alive Award in Literature from The Blues Foundation in Memphis and the 2011 Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. A Connecticut Yankee who fell in love with Texas, she lives outside of Austin.
