Helpful having Kinky Friedman so heavily interviewed for Mary Lou Sullivan’s delightful and diligent biography? The iconoclastic songwriter, satirist, politico, and most of all, Texan, provides memorable quips throughout, but leaves the filling in of his 73 years to Sullivan. The author meets the challenge impressively, detailing the arc from Friedman’s Sixties activism in Austin to his gubernatorial run in 2006. Sullivan chronicles the branding of the Kinkster with vivid detail, while giving his music the serious consideration it deserves. The author’s greatest achievement remains peeling back the provocateur’s veneer and revealing the exceptionally smart, intimately caring, and deeply committed man behind the often outrageous performer without sparing critique.

Everything’s Bigger in Texas: The Life & Times of Kinky Friedman

by Mary Lou Sullivan
Backbeat Books, 344 pp., $29.99

This article appears in December 15 • 2017.

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Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.