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Born in Chicago but deeply claimed by Texas, Friedman made the state his spiritual home and creative battlefield. He adopted Texas not as a backdrop, but as a living character in his work—flawed, proud, ridiculous, tender, and endlessly fascinating. Over time, he became inseparable from the idea of Texas itself, not the polished postcard version, but the rough, argumentative, deeply human one.
His rise to prominence came through music in the late 1960s and 1970s, when he fronted the band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. Their songs were not designed for easy radio play. They were blunt, satirical, often controversial, and unapologetically political. Friedman tackled subjects that polite society preferred to avoid, using humor as both shield and weapon. To some, he was outrageous. To others, he was brilliant. He didn’t care which label stuck, as long as people were paying attention.
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