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WORK TITLE: Everything’s Bigger in Texas
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https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Lou-Sullivan/e/B003W3P0OI http://www.johnnywinterbook.com/home
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LC control no.: no2010104096
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2010104096
HEADING: Sullivan, Mary Lou
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670 __ |a Sullivan, Mary Lou. Raisin’ cain : |b t.p. (Mary Lou Sullivan) p. 4 of cover (Music journalist lives in Connecticut)
PERSONAL
Female.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and music journalist.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Music journalist Mary Lou Sullivan has made her reputation interviewing legends of modern music, including Michael Bolton, B.B. King, and Bruce Springsteen. However, she is perhaps best known as the author of the biographies Raisin’ Cain: The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter and Everything’s Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman.
Raisin' Cain
Raisin’ Cain is the story of bluesman Johnny Winter, who died of emphysema in Switzerland four years after Sullivan’s biography was released. Winter began his career in 1959, achieved success as a performer in the late 1960s and 1970s, and even found his niche as a producer when he helped revive classic bluesman “Muddy” Waters’ career and produced his three Grammy Award-winning recordings in the late 1970s. “I met Johnny in 1984,” Sullivan told Matt Marshall in American Blues Scene. “I did an initial interview for the Hartford Advocate over the phone, and was impressed by his honesty, affinity for storytelling, and great sense of humor. I enjoyed meeting him backstage at the subsequent concert and wanted to do another interview in person. I was also hosting and producing a talk show at WCCC, a rock radio station, so I was able to schedule and tape a second interview in his tour bus for my show. Johnny was charming, energetic, and funny…. I was fascinated … and knew right then I wanted to be his biographer.”
Sullivan was prevented from completing her interviews with Winter in part because of the actions of Winter’s former manager Theodore Slatus. Slater limited Sullivan’s access to Winter and kept her from completing the biography for years. Winter finaly dismissed Slatus in 2005, one year before Slatus died. “I did research on Johnny for a year before I started interviewing him and brought 400 plus questions (culled from research and interviews with his mother, brother, wife, players, etc.) to every one of our Saturday night interviews,” Sullivan told Marshall. “He was impressed with my research and loved hearing about people, events, and recordings he hadn’t thought about in years. We were both very nervous in the beginning. So I started hanging out to shoot the breeze after our interviews, and we developed a friendship. Once Johnny got to know and like me as a person, he trusted me and … opened up.”
Everything's Bigger in Texas
In Everything’s Bigger in Texas, Sullivan explores the career of another larger-than-life individual: rocker-turned-novelist-turned-politician Kinky Friedman. Like Winter, the subject of Sullivan’s previous biography, in the 1970s and ’80s Friedman became just as well known for his drug use as for his music. Later, he became a successful author of mysteries and in the first decade of the twenty-first century he launched a political bid to become governor of Texas. “A successful writer himself, Friedman acknowledges he needed a biographer. ‘The first half of my life I don’t remember.’ So he relied on Sullivan to do the homework,” explained Andrew Dansby in an interview with Friedman appearing in the Houston Chronicle. “She researched his childhood in Houston as a Jewish outcast in West University Place. His Peace Corps run in Borneo. A wild run as a misunderstood songwriter in the ’70s. Getting lost in a snowstorm of cocaine in the ’80s. A reinvention as novelist and humorist in the ’90s and a gubernatorial candidate in the 2000s.” “Friedman can tell these sorts of stories for hours. But Sullivan found a few cracks that let a different side of Richard Samet Friedman show,” wrote Dansby. Although Friedman projects a persona of a wild, raucous working-class cowboy figure, his actual background was quite different—he was raised in a stable, loving middle-class family. “Particularly with regard to his parents: Tom, an Air Force pilot who flew dozens of missions over Germany, who studied psychology upon his return from the war; and Minnie, who taught Shakespeare and loved the stage,” said the Houston Chronicle writer. “They’re almost like the Greek chorus of Sullivan’s book, appearing and reappearing with words of encouragement and advice. For all of Friedman’s bluster, when he talks about his parents – in the book or conversation – the quips cease.”
Critics—including Friedman himself–enjoyed Everything’s Bigger in Texas. “It would be ironic if this book turns out to be a real financial pleasure, which it looks like it’s going to for Mary Lou Sullivan,” Friedman said in an interview with Rachel Williams in the Dallas Observer. “I’ve written nearly forty books, and this one, the one I didn’t write, is the one that really hit…. I think it’s gonna do very, very well. I think she [Sullivan] did a really good job because you get a good taste of the music business, too, and of the road. And a lot of … what it’s like to be a band that’s barely getting by, just trying to make it.” “Mary Lou Sullivan has brought the legend of Kinky Friedman to life with this revealing look,” declared Philip Zozzaro in the Manhattan Book Review. It is, he stated, an “excellent biography of a fascinating individual.” “Friedman is a true renaissance man,” revealed a contributor to Readings. “He picketed segregated businesses in college and served in the Peace Corps in Borneo.” As a “raconteur par excellence,” declared Booklist reviewer Ben Segedin, “Friedman is a fine subject for author Sullivan, and her biography greatly benefits from lengthy interviews.” “Kinky fans will find plenty of good stories in Sullivan’s account,” said Glenn Dromgoole in the Abilene Reporter News, “but she also explores the serious side of his persona.” “Sullivan doesn’t shy away from controversy,” stated a Kirkus Reviews contributor. “Political correctness aside, Friedman’s heart seems to be in the right place, and his cigar-chomping bravado must be a comforting guise for some American men.” “The author’s greatest achievement,” asserted Doug Freeman in the Austin Chronicle, “remains peeling back the provocateur’s veneer.” Everything’s Bigger in Texas “tells a story packed with interviews and anecdotes,” concluded Jeff Fleischer in Foreword Reviews. “As his myriad careers demonstrate, Kinky Friedman is the sum of many unique and interesting parts, and Sullivan assembles them beautifully.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Abilene Reporter News, December 16, 2017, Glenn Dromgoole, “Texas Reads: New Biography Tells Kinky Friedman’s Story.”
Austin Chronicle, December 15, 2017, Doug Freeman, review of Everything’s Bigger in Texas: The Life & Times of Kinky Friedman.
Booklist, May 15, 2010, Mike Tribby, review of Raisin’ Cain: The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter, p. 15; October 15, 2017, Ben Segedin, review of Everything’s Bigger in Texas, p. 14.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2017, review of Everything’s Bigger in Texas.
Houston Chronicle, December 2, 2017, Andrew Dansby, “The Strange Life of Kinky Friedman.”
ONLINE
American Blues Scene, https://www.americanbluesscene.com/ (December 10, 2010), Matt Marshall, author interview.
Dallas Observer Online, http://www.dallasobserver.com/ (December 4, 2017), Rachel Williams, “Kinky Friedman Talks New Biography and the Recipe for a Long Life.”
Foreword Reviews, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (October 27, 2017), Jeff Fleischer, review of Everything’s Bigger in Texas.
Manhattan Book Review, https://manhattanbookreview.com/ (June 14, 2018), Philip Zozzaro, review of Everything’s Bigger in Texas.
Raisin’ Cain, http://www.johnnywinterbook.com/ (June 14, 2018), author profile.
Readings, https://www.readings.com.au/ (June 14, 2018), review of Everything’s Bigger in Texas.
Mary Lou Sullivan is a music journalist whose 30-year career began at a dinner with Bruce Springsteen. She has interviewed B.B. King, Michael Bolton, Joan Rivers, Bruce Springsteen, McCoy Tyner, Albert Collins, Kenny Garrett, Rick Derringer, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Rory Block, Ellen McIlwaine, James Montgomery, Charles Calmese, Duke Robillard, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, and Al Anderson.
She met and interviewed Johnny Winter in 1984, a meeting that led to a close rapport that has deepened through the years..Fascinated by all the twists and turns in his illustrious career, his openness and honesty, she was determined to write Johnny's biography.
Although his (then) manager Teddy Slatus turned her down several times, she never abandoned her quest. When Johnny was ready to tell his story, she was the only one he trusted to write his authorized biography.
Mary Lou spent more than a year of Saturday nights interviewing Johnny in his home, followed up by hours of phone and backstage conversations. She also attended the rehearsal and studio sessions for his "I'm A Bluesman" CD.
Interview with author of the Johnny Winter Biography Mary Lou Sullivan
ByMatt Marshall -December 10, 201001167
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Raisin Cain - the wild and raucous story of Johnny WinterMary Lou Sullivan is the author that recently released Johnny Winter’s long-time-coming biography Raisin’ Cain – The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter. Johnny Winter is hard-driving Texas bluesman that built a name in rock with hits like “Rock n’ Roll Hoockie Koo” while never straying too far from the blues. He’s well known in the blues community for his vocal love and ambassadorship of blues music to the rock world, and for helping to give Muddy Waters a second burst of exposure and aided in cementing the iconic blues hero into his rightful place in history. Mary Lou is an accomplished author and a long time friend of Johnny’s. When Johnny was ready to tell his story, he called her.
We sat down with Mary Lou to get a little more insight on her book, her long, hard journey writing it, and Johnny’s wild & crazy rock star life.
Mary Lou, tell me a little about Raisin’ Cain – The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter. Is it a biography or autobiography?
It was originally going to be an “as told to” autobiography, but when I started interviewing Johnny in January 2003, it was obvious his lifestyle had affected his memory. He had no recollection of certain events and periods in his life, so it made more sense to write it as an authorized biography. That entailed countless hours of research, as well as interviews with the key players in his life—family, friends, musicians, managers, producers, engineers, and record company executives. That made the process longer and more labor intensive for me, but I believe the result was well worth the time and effort.
You’ve been writing for quite some time now! I understand you’ve spent a lot of time interviewing the greats in the blues and rock scenes. Can you tell us a little about the folks you’ve interviewed?
My first music story was about a dinner I had with Bruce Springsteen during The River tour in 1980. My cousin worked for his sound company, and my aunt invited the entire band over for a 6-course Italian meal. I hid my notebook in the bathroom, and chatted with Bruce, who graciously posed for photos “for the family album.” He later gave me permission to run my article and the photos in the Hartford Advocate. My next interview was the Ramones. I wore spandex to get a backstage pass and enjoyed talking to Johnny Ramone, who was extremely intelligent and articulate, and Joey Ramone, who (according to Johnny) told me stories that just weren’t true.
I did several phone interviews with B.B. King, who invited me to join him at his table at a nightclub after a show. I interviewed Albert Collins over the phone, and met him at a party in S.I. R. in New York after his American Guitar Heroes show at Carnegie Hall with Roy Buchanan and Lonnie Mack. I did a back stage interview with Michael Bolton when he was opening for Bob Seger, and interviewed Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown many times. One of my favorite interviews was with Levon Helm when he was performing with The Band.
I understand that you were the person he wanted on this when he was ready to tell his story, and that it took a long time for him to be ready. Can you tell me a little about how you two got teamed up for this?
I met Johnny in 1984. I did an initial interview for the Hartford Advocate over the phone, and was impressed by his honesty, affinity for storytelling, and great sense of humor. I enjoyed meeting him backstage at the subsequent concert, and wanted to do another interview in person. I was also hosting and producing a talk show at WCCC, a rock radio station, so I was able to schedule and tape a second interview in his tour bus for my show.
Johnny was charming, energetic, and funny when we chatted in his tour bus. He screamed into a pillow to show me how he practiced his “rock ‘n’ roll” yell as a teenager, and pulled out a small suede drawstring bag to show me the slide he had made from a piece of pipe from a plumbing store in Colorado. I was fascinated by him and his amazing life story, and knew right then I wanted to be his biographer. I approached his manager Teddy Slatus about writing Johnny’s biography in 1985, and several times throughout the years. But it wasn’t until I approached Slatus almost two decades later that he finally agreed to the project.
I had interviewed Johnny for another paper in September 2001 and stopped by Slatus’s house for a photograph. Slatus remembered me and said he was impressed with the way Johnny opened up to me. We entered into a handshake agreement to make me Johnny’s biographer (actually he kissed my hand) the day before 9/11. But Slatus gave me the runaround for 15 months before making it official. When he finally did, he said he had talked to other writers but chose me because “You have heart and you really care about Johnny.”
What made the connection with Johnny so strong that he had you eventually record his story?
Johnny is a really honest person, and so am I, and he picked up on that early in our relationship. I did research on Johnny for a year before I started interviewing him, and brought 400 plus questions (culled from research and interviews with his mother, brother, wife, players, etc.) to every one of our Saturday night interviews. He was impressed with my research and loved hearing about people, events, and recordings he hadn’t thought about in years. We were both very nervous in the beginning. So I started hanging out to shoot the breeze after our interviews, and we developed a friendship. Once Johnny got to know and like me as a person, he trusted me and really opened up. He knew the book was a labor of love—that I wanted it to be his legacy, to give him the respect he deserves, and allow him to take his rightful place in music history.
Did you have any challenges when working on Raisin’ Cain?
After I had interviewed Johnny for a year of Saturday nights, Slatus called in his attorney, stopped the project, and forbid Johnny and his wife Susan from having any further contact with me. Slatus had planned to limit my access to Johnny, but was in rehab for alcohol-related problems for most of the year. With him out the picture, I dealt with Johnny directly and he invited me over almost every week. When Slatus finally got out, he was threatened by my close friendship with Johnny and frantic about what he may have told me.
I was devastated that I couldn’t see Johnny anymore because we had gotten very close. It was a tough time for me, and I went back to writing my novel for several months. But then I realized I already had Johnny’s story on tape. If I didn’t let him tell it, someone else would. And that would most likely be a collection of self-serving accounts by peripheral players, with background from old magazine articles that may or may not have been accurate. As Johnny always said, “Who knows better than I do? I’m the only one that knows what really happened.”
That’s when I decided that Johnny’s story was too important to stop without a fight. So I embarked on six more years of interviews with dozens of people to fill in the blanks and make it a definitive biography.
Another big challenge was cutting 15,000 words from the final manuscript to comply with the publishers guidelines. That was really tough.
How long did it take to write?
About 7 years, not counting a year of research before my interviews with Johnny.
Did you discover any interesting revelations about Johnny when working on Raisin’ Cain?
Johnny is a gentleman – he stood up the first time I walked into his house. I thought he came from a poor background, but he’s from an upper middle class family with a maternal grandfather and great-grandfather who were both lawyers. But what surprised and impressed me the most was his undying belief, even as a child, that he would be a successful musician.
Now Johnny was the collaborative effort behind one of Muddy Water’s most acclaimed albums Hard Again. He produced and played with Muddy and I believe the album really gave Muddy a second burst of popularity. I know you cover this extensively in your book, but can you tell us a little about Johnny’s collaboration with Muddy?
Johnny loved Muddy and was thrilled to play on and produce Muddy’s four Blue Sky albums. He didn’t like the way Muddy had been treated by Chess Records, especially in his later albums, and was determined to recreate Muddy’s early sound. He chose Dan Hartman’s Schoolhouse Studio in Westport, CT, a one room schoolhouse built in 1760, for the sessions. Johnny used close miking for the instruments, but also set two microphones near the ceiling, which created a room echo and captured the raw sounds of Muddy’s 1950s recordings. Johnny was amazed how quickly Muddy worked in the studio, and learned a lot from him.
You can check out an excerpt from the chapter about Johnny’s collaboration with Muddy at: http://www.thebluesmobile.com/upload/media/johnny205216.pdf
Johnny has a reputation in the blues community of being this true link between blues and rock, and sincerely preaching the blues to all who would listen. Can you tell us a little about the bluesmen that Johnny collaborated with and supported?
Johnny revived Muddy’s career when three of the four Muddy Waters Blue Sky Records won Grammys. Johnny’s passion for Muddy brought his music to an entirely new audience and cemented his legacy. Johnny also produced and played on “Whoopin”” with harp player Sonny Terry. “Whoopin” was Terry’s only recording with electric guitar, and brought Terry’s music to a difference audience than his work with Brownie McGhee. Johnny has also been very supportive of Clarence Garlow, a Creole guitar player that befriended him in Beaumont. Johnny considers Garlow an early mentor and provided a photo of the two of them for the book.
Of course, Johnny also gained a reputation some time ago for being pretty wild. Hittin’ The Note (music magazine) says “There’s enough sex, drugs and tales of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle here to make most editions of VH1’s ‘Behind the Music’ seem like a visit to Sunday school”!! Were there any crazy stories in your book about Johnny?
There are a lot of crazy stories in Raisin’ Cain. Johnny making women get his name tattooed on their groin or derriere, and then dumping them for being weak. Playing on a revolving stage tripping on LSD with Led Zeppelin as their opening act. The multiple women who knew they were one of many but went along with the arrangement. Getting caught with a joint while in rehab for heroin addiction, and getting strapped into bed for a month. Salvador Dali wanting Johnny to perform with a microphone up his butt. And that’s just off the top of my head.
This book has been getting popular! I’ve heard you on House of Blues, you’re winning a “Keeping the Blues Alive” award in Literature from the Blues Foundation this year, Blues Revue Magazine did a piece on you, and that’s just what I’ve seen around. Where can we find you in the press?
I’ve been really blessed in terms of publicity. In addition to the two House of Blues Radio Hour shows with Elwood Blues, I did an interview with Bill Wax on B.B. King’s Bluesville on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. I’ve had press in the UK’s Classic Rock (an article and a review) and Record Collector, France’s Soul Bag, Germany’s Good Times, as well as Blues Revue, Vintage Guitar, GuitarEdge, Guitar & Bass, Guitar World, Big City Rhythm & Blues, Booklist, Connecticut Magazine, Hartford Magazine, About.com Blues, Blueswax, LiveBluesWorld.com, Popmatters.com, Hartford Advocate, Austin Music Source, and the Port Arthur News (Texas), to name a few. You can find links and/or excerpts on my website www.JohnnyWinterBook.com.
I’ve found stories about Raisin’ Cain on websites in Sweden, France, Indonesia, Hungary, Russia, Brazil, and Japan, and have had six orders from Australia for signed books.
Raisin’ Cain has amazing photos, including Johnny jamming with Jimi Hendrix, Johnny with Janis Joplin, and Johnny with Jimi’s engineer Eddie Kramer. Was it difficult finding those photos?
The book has three photo inserts with 47 photos, which my editor says is unheard of in the publishing industry. People were extremely generous in providing photos, especially Johnny and his wife Susan. It took me several years to find the name of the photographer who took the shot of Johnny with Jimi. I knew who took the Johnny and Janis photos, but was unable to reach him by email for three or four years. I finally connected the old fashioned way–by writing him a letter. Apparently he gets so many unsolicited emails, he deletes them all. The photo of Johnny with Eddie Kramer was a serendipitous find – I discovered it when Uncle John Turner’s widow Morgan was showing me his old scrapbooks.
Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Mary Lou! Where can people pick up a copy of your book?
It’s available on my website, www.JohnnyWinterBook.com (I’m happy to sign copies), at Borders, Barnes and Noble, and (hip) independent bookstores, as well as Amazon.com.
Print Marked Items
Sullivan, Mary Lou: EVERYTHING'S
BIGGER IN TEXAS
Kirkus Reviews.
(Sept. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Sullivan, Mary Lou EVERYTHING'S BIGGER IN TEXAS Backbeat Books/Hal Leonard (Adult
Nonfiction) $29.99 11, 14 ISBN: 978-1-4950-5896-7
The life of the one-and-only Kinky Friedman (b. 1944).In this amiable biography, journalist Sullivan
(Raisin' Cain: The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter, 2010) follows the life and career of this
larger-than-life figure. Best known to audiences either as a singer/songwriter or an offbeat mystery novelist,
Friedman has been stirring the pot for more than 50 years, counting among his friends such legends as Bob
Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. The author dutifully recounts the legend of the "Kinkster" but
rarely manages to pierce the veil of the carefully constructed persona that the Chicago-born original "Texas
Jewboy" has created. The book follows the phases of Friedman's life in chronological order, passing quickly
over his Texas childhood to discover the songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, circa 1970, trying to sell songs
to Waylon Jennings. Unlike compatriots Dylan, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and even KISS members Paul Stanley
and Gene Simmons, Friedman was unapologetically Jewish. "He wears his Jewishness like a backstage
pass," said a friend. According to his brother, Friedman was able to "blend Lenny Bruce with the Flying
Burrito Brothers and Hank Williams" and created a brand that set him apart from the Nashville scene.
Sullivan doesn't shy away from controversy--Friedman's satire "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus
Anymore" offended a wide swath of Americans, and the anti-feminist "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and
Your Buns into Bed" does not age well--but she does gloss over her subject's hardcore drug habit. Political
correctness aside, Friedman's heart seems to be in the right place, and his cigar-chomping bravado must be a
comforting guise for some American men. As his singing career cooled, we find him becoming a popular
mystery novelist. "Kinky's legacy is the ability to inspire," writes the author, "to make people laugh, to make
them think, to skewer sacred cows and hypocrisy, to continue to move forward, and to be his own man." A
solid if conventional biography that doesn't go deep enough into the man behind the brand.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Sullivan, Mary Lou: EVERYTHING'S BIGGER IN TEXAS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2017. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504217642/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=001723ab. Accessed 20 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A504217642
Everything's Bigger in Texas: The Life &
Times of Kinky Friedman
Ben Segedin
Booklist.
114.4 (Oct. 15, 2017): p14.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Everything's Bigger in Texas: The Life & Times of Kinky Friedman. By Mary Lou Sullivan. Nov.
2017.344p. Backbeat, $29.99 (9781495058967). 782.421642092.
Before he was a regular columnist for Texas Monthly, before he ran for governor of Texas ("Why the hell
not?"); and before he was the author of 18 mysteries featuring himself as a crime solver, Friedman was the
leader of Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, famous for such satirical songs as "They Ain't Makin'
Jews like Jesus Anymore." A raconteur par excellence, Friedman is a fine subject for author Sullivan, and
her biography greatly benefits from lengthy interviews with Friedman, his friends, and bandmates. Friedman
contributes the foreword, but he claims not to have read the book (although he says he's heard good things
about it). Sullivan covers Friedman's time in Borneo with the Peace Corps, his appearance at the Grand Ole
Opry, his 10-year residency at the Lone Star Cafe in New York, where he found himself in the company of
celebrities and an endless supply of cocaine. He returned to Texas, quit drugs, and began writing a novel a
year, winning high-profile fans like Bill Clinton. Folksy in the vein of Mark Twain and Will Rogers,
Friedman is strongly opinionated, eminently quotable, often immature, sometimes culturally insensitive, but
always interesting.--Ben Segedin
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Segedin, Ben. "Everything's Bigger in Texas: The Life & Times of Kinky Friedman." Booklist, 15 Oct.
2017, p. 14. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512776063/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1d623aff. Accessed 20 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512776063
Raisin' Cain: The Wild and Raucous
Story of Johnny Winter
Mike Tribby
Booklist.
106.18 (May 15, 2010): p15.
COPYRIGHT 2010 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Raisin' Cain: The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter.
By Mary Lou Sullivan.
May 2010. 366p. illus. Backbeat, $24.99 (9780879309732). 787.87166092.
Sullivan gives Johnny Winter, the Texas blues guitar link between Lightmin' Hopkins and Stevie Ray
Vaughan, an ebullient biography, tracing his passage from blues purist to rock star and back. Hailed early for
his fast and tasty guitar, Winter moved into the 1960s hard-rock mainstream by teaming with the remnants
of the McCoys (remember "Hang on Sloopy"?) and recording a live "Johnny B. Goode" that rivals Peter
Tosh's reggae take as a great recasting of the Chuck Berry classic. After years of nearly Keith Richards-level
drug-laced touring success, Winter returned to his blues roots in several acclaimed albums and engineered
Muddy Waters' mid-'70s resurgence by producing and playing on several of the seminal Chicago bluesman's
later albums. Sullivan may go over the top in enthusiasm, but many of the tidbits she relays, such as the
story of Winter, Muddy, and James Cotton jockeying for position on the Mike Douglas show, not to mention
the skinny on the semi-forgotten Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin and Big Walter Horton, compensate
pricelessly. What more could blues fans ask?--Mike Tribby
YA/S: The inside story of one of the original guitar heroes. MT.
Tribby, Mike
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Tribby, Mike. "Raisin' Cain: The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter." Booklist, 15 May 2010, p. 15.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A227651580/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ce3975ff. Accessed 20 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A227651580
EVERYTHING'S BIGGER IN TEXAS
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF KINKY FRIEDMAN
Mary Lou Sullivan
Backbeat Books (Nov 14, 2017)
Hardcover $29.99 (304pp)
978-1-4950-5896-7
Kinky Friedman is something of a Texas legend. The satirist has, at various times, made his name as a singer-songwriter, a mystery author, an essayist, a columnist, an animal-rescue crusader, and a political candidate. Mary Lou Sullivan’s biography of the Kinkster, Everything’s Bigger in Texas, thoroughly captures the Jewish cowboy’s many careers and tells a story packed with interviews and anecdotes.
Friedman is a master raconteur, always ready with a funny quip, and Sullivan’s book reflects that. But she also gets him to open up to a surprising degree, making this his definitive biography. The story covers Friedman’s early years at the camp his parents ran in Texas, working for the Peace Corps in Borneo during monsoon season, taking part in civil rights protests, and attending the University of Texas during the sniper attack by Charles Whitman (which inspired one of his most well known songs). Along with Friedman’s own recollections, Sullivan includes those of his friends, family, and bandmates, really fleshing out these memories.
Of course, the more well known adventures of Friedman’s life also make for fascinating reading: his early tours with his band the Texas Jewboys packed into an old Cadillac, becoming the first Jew to play the Grand Ole Opry, joining Bob Dylan as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue, and partying with John Belushi and appearing on Saturday Night Live. His late-career runs for political office are covered well, including the unique challenges of running as an independent and Friedman’s frustration with opponents’ below-the-belt tactics. The book doesn’t shy away from the darker times either, whether they be an era of heavy cocaine use that cost Friedman several close friends, or the career struggles of music-industry executives who did not get Friedman’s humor.
As his myriad careers demonstrate, Kinky Friedman is the sum of many unique and interesting parts, and Sullivan assembles them beautifully.
Reviewed by Jeff Fleischer
November/December 2017
Everything's Bigger in Texas: The Life & Times of Kinky Friedman
by Mary Lou Sullivan
Reviewed by Doug Freeman, Fri., Dec. 15, 2017
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
Kinky Friedman is a larger-than-life character, even for Texas. The entertaining jack of all trades was born Richard Friedman in Chicago 1944. His father, Tom, served in World War II as a pilot; his mother, Minnie, was in the theatre and eventually became a speech therapist. They moved to Houston, where Kinky emerged a chess prodigy. His family opened up a ranch for children, where Kinky indulged his love for the cowboy life. Kinky would develop an affinity for the underdog and civil rights, shared with his father. Kinky would delve into his creative side as a student at the University of Texas. A post-college sojourn in the Peace Corps further diversified his feelings for other cultures. Kinky returned to Texas and formed his first band, The Texas Jewboys. Success would not be instantaneous, but his hard work would propel him into the country music stratosphere. A cocaine addiction would nearly derail his life, but friends and family kept him on the straight and narrow. He would become a successful author, and he would challenge the establishment in multiple elections.
Mary Lou Sullivan has brought the legend of Kinky Friedman to life with this revealing look. A story of a man of distinction and character, the story is relayed by the subject along with family and friends. An excellent biography of a fascinating individual.
Reviewed By: Philip Zozzaro
Author
Mary Lou Sullivan
Star Count
5/5
Format
Hard
Page Count
344 pages
Publisher
Backbeat Books
Publish Date
2017-Oct-01
ISBN
9781495058967
The strange life of Kinky Friedman
Texas musician, writer's life includes talismans, advice from Willie and lots of drugs
By Andrew Dansby
December 2, 2017 Updated: December 3, 2017 5:01pm
Photo: Brian Kanof
Image 1 of 8
Musician, writer, humorist and occasional candidate for public office Kinky FriedmanMusician, writer, humorist and occasional candidate for public office Kinky Friedman
Kinky Friedman exits a silver tour bus with a changeable letter placard on the front that reads "SHOW TIME." Dressed in black on a sunny afternoon, he walks into the dimly lit McGonigel's Mucky Duck and greets its owners. Midconversation, he stuffs an unlit half cigar into his craw and holds up a metallic semicircle hanging from his turquoise necklace.
"I ran into an Indian at a Willie Nelson show in Helotes," he says. "Do you know what he told me this means? I've been wearing this 20 years. Do you know what he said it means?"
His audience awaits, the corners of their mouths twitching for the inevitable punch line.
" 'Available Indian woman,' that's what it means. 'Available Indian woman.' "
From 2014: Kinky Friedman on music, politics and birdseed
With Friedman, it's showtime most of the time. On this occasion, he's in town with Mary Lou Sullivan, his biographer, who attempted to condense his strange life into 300 pages. Hers was an unenviable task.
"A lot of people try to be themselves," Friedman says. "That's the hardest thing to be."
So he's been many selves, which Sullivan documented in the book, such as the garrulous raconteur who asks outright, "What all do you want to know?" A pause. "Can I smoke this mother (expletive) in here? I guess I could just do it and plead ignorance."
Sullivan's book, which was released last month, is called "Everything's Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman."
"I Guess I Could Just Do It and Plead Ignorance" also would have worked as a title.
The allure of failure
A successful writer himself, Friedman acknowledges he needed a biographer. "The first half of my life I don't remember."
More Information
'Everything's Bigger in Texas:
The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman'
by Mary Lou Sullivan
Backbeat Books
$29.99, 344 pages
So he relied on Sullivan to do the homework. She researched his childhood in Houston as a Jewish outcast in West University Place. His Peace Corps run in Borneo. A wild run as a misunderstood songwriter in the '70s. Getting lost in a snowstorm of cocaine in the '80s. A reinvention as novelist and humorist in the '90s and a gubernatorial candidate in the 2000s.
Friedman is 73, so technically his John Belushi story falls in the second half of his life. Friedman was living in a New York hotel in the early '80s, and Belushi visited him there. When Friedman went to the bathroom, his friend threw himself to the floor and surrounded himself with Quaaludes and all manner of other pharmaceuticals.
"It was a joke," Friedman says. "He was being funny. But it wasn't too many weeks after that when he went for good. And I wonder what I'd have done if I'd been there. I like to think I'd have known to dial 911 to get him out. But you don't really know who's a hero until the ship really starts sinking. You don't know who's going to get people out and who's going to be in the life boat until the (expletive) goes down."
That uncertainty was part of the draw for Sullivan. She points out that "when things get serious, he makes a joke. So my job was to get beyond the jokes, and that took a while."
What she came away with is an interesting story about the perception of success and failure.
Throughout our conversation, Friedman repeats his favorite phrase these days: "It's not the pot of gold, it's the rainbow."
"There are a lot of people more successful," he says. "It'd be a pretty boring book if it was just people saying, 'What a wonderful man.' But I feel like it's been an interesting journey. And here I am today."
He holds up the necklace again.
"Available Indian woman."
Rainbow connections
Both in the book and conversation, Friedman rarely lets his guard down. Most of the time when he speaks of others, they sound like characters in a movie. His "shrink" is Willie Nelson. Bob Dylan shows up time and again, sometimes as a circus ringleader, as on his chaotic Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, and other times as an elusive fringe character drifting in and out of parties.
Everybody has a role.
Friedman talks about all sorts of odd witnessed events, like the time he was in a room with guitarists Michael Bloomfield and Eric Clapton. Bloomfield was haranguing Clapton to admit Bloomfield was the better guitarist. Clapton, according to Friedman, admitted as much. He tells another great story about taking musician and actor Van Dyke Parks to meet Merle Haggard.
"Van Dyke was worried he'd get lynched because, well, he's a sort of Noel Coward type," Friedman says. "So he asked everybody, 'How long have you known Merle?' And every one of them would answer, 'Ever since.' 'Ever since,' 'Ever since,' 'Ever since.' So he asked me, 'What does that mean, ever since?' I told him, 'Ever since prison, stupid!' Stupid is one thing Van Dyke is not. But ever since prison. Band, crew, management. Everybody Merle worked with was loyal to him, and that's because they all met in the same place. Willie's the same way. I've crossed the Canadian border with Willie, and half his guys had to get off the bus because they're felons. It's a loyalty thing."
Friedman can tell these sorts of stories for hours. But Sullivan found a few cracks that let a different side of Richard Samet Friedman show. Particularly with regard to his parents: Tom, an Air Force pilot who flew dozens of missions over Germany, who studied psychology upon his return from the war; and Minnie, who taught Shakespeare and loved the stage.
They're almost like the Greek chorus of Sullivan's book, appearing and reappearing with words of encouragement and advice. For all of Friedman's bluster, when he talks about his parents - in the book or conversation - the quips cease.
"I guess if your father runs off when you're 2 like Obama's did, you build a myth about him," he says. "But my parents were my two best friends. If you grow up like that, it really devastates you when you lose them. They were my heroes."
Then, finally, an oft-repeated quip.
"I always say a happy childhood is the worst possible preparation for life."
The implication of the last statement is that Friedman is a failure whose recognition will likely come after he's gone, though he's been successful enough to fund habits ranging from cocaine to cigars to gambling.
By some measures, the failure argument could be made: Friedman's albums were misunderstood in their day and didn't really sell, even though they impressed some formidable songwriters. The cover of Sullivan's book bears a quote from Dylan: "I don't understand music. I understand Lightnin' Hopkins. I understand Leadbelly, John Lee Hooker, Woody Guthrie, Kinky Friedman."
Despite the high praise, Friedman stepped away from writing songs and reinvented himself as an author in the '90s. His mystery novels found an audience, but he never achieved the success of a Carl Hiassen; Friedman's former editor attributes it to laziness in the book. And Friedman's runs for public office never resulted in holding public office.
"My shrink told me if you fail at something long enough, you become a legend," he says. "That's one way of doing it. Politics, I think I can safely say I failed. That's really how I see myself commercially, professionally. But I think I'm in good company. John Lennon, Winston Churchill: They didn't feel like life's winners. But it really is about the rainbow. That's the key. There was a guy who was the Justin Bieber of the art world in Van Gogh's day. We don't know his name today, but he sold a lot of his (expletive) art, and Van Gogh didn't. So I'll take a little success late in life."
He holds out both arms in a Nixonian peace-sign salute.
"One of life's winners!"
And then he tugs again on the necklace. "Available Indian woman."
One of life's winners
"Dylan told me a long time ago that the timing of this (expletive) is everything," Friedman says. "Had he come along two or three years earlier, he'd have done nothing. He'd have been a joke. Another four or five years later, same thing. He told me I got to the scene too late, after college and the Peace Corps. That the timing was off."
It's hardly my place to question Bob Dylan, but what if Friedman's timing had been different? Without the Peace Corps, there's no "Wild Man From Borneo." Like Randy Newman's, some of Friedman's songs were a little too well written to be understood in their day, but would five years in either direction have helped? Or would they have been just as confounding?
But those songs - some of them more than 40 years old - kept circulating on tribute albums and among fans who get the fact that "Ride 'Em Jewboy" isn't a crude play on cowboy lingo but rather a tribute to Holocaust victims.
"There's a real depth to some of those songs," Lyle Lovett says. " 'Sold American' is just as relevant today as it was then. It may be even more meaningful. Kinky is so wonderfully clever. And even though he has this larger-than-life persona, he's perceptive and sensitive and thoughtful."
Those qualities aren't really well stocked in country music these days.
"It's just background music for a frat party now," Friedman says. "But that's perfect for our culture, which listens to about 20 seconds of a song."
Sullivan adds, "If he'd had a big hit in Nashville, he'd just be another guy the town forgot. Another old singer you never hear about. What I love is no matter what happens, he's always onto the next thing. He doesn't win an election, he gets up the next day and starts a novel. Some people sit around and whine. Not Kinky."
Friedman holds his arms out again with the peace signs: "One of life's winners!
"I've said it many times, but the crowd always picks Barabbas."
He finds his victories where he can. Sometimes that's in Germany. He brings up a book called "The Crazy Never Die." The subtitle is "Amerikanische Rebellen in des populären kultur," so Klaus Bittermann's book focuses on outsiders such as Hunter S. Thompson, Shel Silverstein, Abbie Hoffman, Tom Waits, Robert Mitchum and Friedman.
"These German kids, they can't go to ancestry.com," he says. "They know what they're going to find: Their grandfather killed all these gypsy kids in a ditch one day. So they're drawn, instead, to these weird troublemakers. They think they're the ones who made America great, not Blake Shelton."
A conversation with Nelson about "Matlock" nudged Friedman to start writing songs again. Friedman has an album, "Spitfire," due next year, his first set of original new songs in over 40 years. He has another mystery novel done. And he co-wrote a book about Dylan with Dylan's childhood friend Louie Kemp that will be published next year. He's hardly sitting idle at his ranch near Kerrville.
"This is a story about a guy who's been miserable for 72 years, and now things are starting to look up," he says. "It really is the rainbow. I had an old friend who died. And he told me he was a lucky man because he loved so many people in his life. That's the situation I'm in. I have loved many people in my life, and I still do. Sometimes it's not reciprocal. And most of them are dead. Most of the people I've loved are dead. Because all the very sweet men are bugled to Jesus. It's the real (expletive) like that guy in Zimbabwe, Mugabe, they don't die, man. Actuarial tables will show you that dictators outlive heroes.
"But here I am. One of life's winners!
"Available Indian woman."
Andrew Dansby
Entertainment Writer, Houston Chronicle
Texas Reads: New biography tells Kinky Friedman’s story
Glenn Dromgoole, Special to the Reporter-News Published 5:00 p.m. CT Dec. 16, 2017 | Updated 8:29 p.m. CT Dec. 16, 2017
Mary Lou Sullivan tells the story of one of Texas’s most colorful characters in “Everything’s Bigger in Texas: The Life & Times of Kinky Friedman” (Backbeat Books, $29.99 hardcover).
Kinky wrote the foreword to his own biography. Of course he did.
“I’ll be honest with you,” he begins the foreword, “I haven’t read this book.” But he adds, “I hear great things about it.”
Probably by now he has actually read it. Certainly, he spent many hours being interviewed by author Sullivan, who also spoke with dozens of his friends, family and musical colleagues in putting together her 300-page narrative.
“A true Renaissance man,” she writes, “Kinky is a man of many talents. He’s been a chess prodigy, camp counselor, swimming instructor, civil rights activist, Peace Corps volunteer, musician, songwriter, entertainer, satirist, and author of thirty books and countless articles. He’s been a columnist, politician, entrepreneur, and animal activist who cofounded a no-kill animal shelter in Texas.”
Kinky fans will find plenty of good stories in Sullivan’s account, but she also explores the serious side of his persona.
“Kinky’s legacy,” Sullivan concludes, “is the ability to inspire, to make people laugh, to make them think, to skewer sacred cows and hypocrisy, to continue to move forward, and to be his own man.”
Glenn Dromgoole writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
Format
Hardback
Publisher
Hal Leonard Corporation
Country
United States
Published
6 December 2017
Pages
304
ISBN
9781495058967
Everything’s Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman
Mary Lou Sullivan
Kinky Friedman is a true renaissance man. He picketed segregated businesses in college and served in the Peace Corps in Borneo. A singer/songwriter/satirist who called his country band the Texas Jewboys, he was the first full-blooded Jew to play the Grand Ole Opry, and put on the only show in Austin City Limits history deemed too offensive to air. He performed with Bob Dylan, traveled with Led Zeppelin on its private plane, and partied with John Belushi, Robin Williams, Don Imus, Lowell George, Levon Helm, Iggy Pop, Mike Bloomfield, and Dennis Hopper. When his cocaine habit almost killed him, he returned to Texas and wrote 30 books, including 18 detective novels, as well as memoirs with Willie Nelson and Billy Bob Thornton. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush invited him to the White House. Former Texas governor Ann Richards served on his advisory board when he cofounded Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, and Dwight Yoakam headlined a fund raiser. More than 547,000 Texans voted for him when he ran for governor in 2006. Friends Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffet, and Lyle Lovett helped with fund raisers. Currently in his 70s, the Kinkster continues to write songs, record CDs, and perform for enthusiastic fans throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.
$47.99
Kinky Friedman Talks New Biography and the Recipe for a Long Life: 'Be More of an Asshole'
Rachel Williams | December 4, 2017 | 4:00am
First, he was a child prodigy who talked at 7 months. Later, he did enough cocaine to kill a baby rhinoceros. In a new authorized biography titled Everything’s Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman, author Mary Lou Sullivan digs into the Texas Jewboy. And it turns out he’s a delicate onion.
"I'm a different person every time I answer questions, no matter what they are. Sometimes I’m a psychopathic liar," Friedman begins.
What about today?
Today, I feel pretty mellow. This has really been a strange experience having a biography written on you, you know? You see these differing opinions and all that.
Did the author have to pull your teeth to get you onboard?
No, I agreed to do it, but I didn't quite realize how ... not that it was intense, but you want to be very honest with stuff, I think. At the same time, you don't want to get too personal, you know? I didn't know a lot of that stuff until I read the book.
There were surprises when you read it?
Yeah, I didn't know my brother felt that way. Or how Ratso [Larry Sloman] or Dylan [Ferrerro, Texas Jewboys’ road manager] felt. They carried the narrative well, those guys.
There's the Justin Biebers and Barry Manilows and people that'll make more money than God. Then there are careers that really are interesting in that they seem very quixotic. Mine was like that. Maybe I thought I had a chance of really being a mainstream success. When you look at it, that's pretty ridiculous. It's a long shot.
In the book, you come across as much more complicated than your public persona would have people believe, like a yarn ball of contradictions.
I got the sense ... look, you never know. I could be doing a biography of you, and you wouldn't know if I was at a typewriter typing, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," a thousand times like Jack Nicholson.
Or if I was writing something great about you or something ridiculous, or something that says that everybody loves Rachel or everyone hates her. That makes a bad biography. We all know the story.
"The guy's a big success and everybody says great things about him." This is not one of those. I thought this was pretty accurate. It would be ironic if this book turns out to be a real financial pleasure, which it looks like it's going to for Mary Lou Sullivan. I've written nearly 40 books, and this one, the one I didn't write, is the one that really hit. [Laughs.] I think it's gonna do very, very well.
I think she [Sullivan] did a really good job because you get a good taste of the music business, too, and of the road. And a lot of the celebrity shit — what it's like to be a band that’s barely getting by, just trying to make it. Then there’s the drugs and all that shit.
Had you ever spoken about that period of your life before? I mean on the record and with such candor?
You know, maybe not. It wasn't that I was particularly hiding it or anything like that. But I’d say it was most of the ’80s for sure. You're not gonna turn down Levon Helm or Eric Clapton or somebody like that saying, "Here, have a line here, Kinky." At least I wasn't going to. I stopped about 1985 or ’86.
But I really was a death magnet for a while. People that were closest to me all seemed to be very vulnerable people who died young and broke: John Lee Hooker, Woody Guthrie. I haven't known any real assholes that died young, you know, of a drug overdose. All the bad guys, like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, live to be 93 or older.
That’s why I advise people to be a little more of an asshole if they can. Because it does seem to give you more longevity. On the other hand, as Bill Cosby's life will attest, longevity has ruined as many men as it’s made. If Bill Cosby had died 10 years ago, he'd be a national hero. Now he's just another predator.
Speaking of predators, what do you think about all these perverts?
Well, the interview Matt Lauer did with Bill O'Reilly is fun to watch. Did you see that? It's amazing. Now, look, does Matt Lauer realize that he is exactly like Bill O'Reilly and he just got Bill O'Reilly on the spot so he can do that? Or does he not think he's like Bill O'Reilly?
If you have your own TV show and you've got a limo and all that, there's plenty of women around, so why are they picking only the ones on their staff? The ones that are trying to make it in television or the movies or whatever, the ones that they think they can control? It’s all about power and control for those guys.
I find it enjoyable because most of these guys are stuffed shirts. We don't need to pick on him especially, but six months ago, we were toying with doing a TV show, and the people that were putting it all together said, "It’ll be like Charlie Rose. He owns his own shows; he does this and that. He's really the gold standard."
Tell me about this TV show.
It’s a talk show. We may still do it. All I know is that I would be the most self-absorbed interviewer in the world, so maybe that would be something different. I might be humorous. A lot of the people that I would like to bring on it would be very diverting and insightful.
"You see, these guys I know never did this power-tripping stuff." – Kinky Friedman
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Like who?
People like Willie and Billy Bob Thornton and Dwight Yoakam, so people could see another side of them.
But you see, these guys I know never did this power-tripping stuff. My friend Don Imus was on the radio forever. He never did any of this shit. He said he fired people and hired people, but never did he use his power over them or threaten their careers.
You must have named your new record Spitfire after your favorite feral cat.
Yeah. It will be out in a few months. These are the 12 new songs I wrote when Willie advised me to turn off Matlock on TV. He said, "Turn off Matlock, start writing." That was at about 3 o'clock in the morning, and in a very short period of time I had written these songs. When you hear them, you'll wonder, as I do, wherever the hell they were all this time.
Because you're 73 and they're just now coming out?
I cannot believe I'm 73. It's unbelievable.
Well, congratulations.
I don't act like it, you know? I’m very immature. I think immaturity has saved me.
If you hadn’t become a writer/singer-songwriter/animal rescuer/general disrupter, what do you think you would have done with your life?
Well, I think we're all drawn to occupations we're hideously ill suited for. I would've been a good teacher, I think. Or maybe a shrink — that would've been fun. But I'm telling you, these original songs, they've been percolating for decades. They are not satirical or funny. I think it's the best stuff I've done. Did you see the review that professor wrote for the show at McCabe's Guitar Shop, the night after Poor David’s when I went to Los Angeles?
No, but I guess you liked it?
Yeah, the Ph.D. gave a review that was rather amazing. Anyway, those are reviews. Reviews are one thing. If you want to die in obscurity in the gutter somewhere, then read your reviews.
But you don’t have a computer. How did you read it?
It was shown to me by a friend. I don't know, being 73 and playing, I guess it's a good thing. It's something to do.
Have you had stalkers?
Walkers?
Stalkers.
What?
A stalker.
Oh, a stalker. Yes. A couple of times. It's very, very tedious. I can't imagine how bad it is for Bob Dylan and those guys, Jesus Christ. Actually, it's not that bad for me. I mean, I like to meet people and talk to them. I'm a social butterfly, so I usually wind up meeting most of the audience at my shows. Even the stalkers have pity in their eyes while they’re looking at me.
Oh, come on. How are your animals?
They're doing pretty well. We're going to be closing our doors [on Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch] in mid-December because we're all getting older, including the animals. We're taking them down to Austin Pets Alive, which is a great outfit that sees that everybody gets a happy home.
Will you stay in Me-die-na?
You mean Me-dee-na?
Yes.
I don't know. I’ve been giving serious thought to getting the hell out of here. I've spent a lot of time here at the ranch, both alone and with people. I don't know, whatever. I think I want to go somewhere else for a while. I just lost one of my dogs. He was a poodle, a small, white poodle who really stole my heart. I'd never had a poodle before, a dog that sits right next to you when you're sitting in a chair, you know?
His name was Mr. P. He came to me from a guy who was dying, who had to check into M.D. Anderson. He said if he lived, he would come back for Mr. P, and if he didn't, I’d take care of him.
Mr. P bit me twice the first day, bit the shit out of me. Then he warmed up, and he and I became very, very close. He was very protective of me. Anyway, I think he ran off to die. I think that's what happened. We have not been able to find him.
You can hear the coyotes at night and wild pigs and stuff. It's been two weeks now. It hit me so fucking hard. More so than when I lost my parents. I’ve lost a lot of people that I’ve loved. And I've loved many people in my life; that's why I think I'm a lucky man. Mr. P is certainly at the top of the list.
courtesy Kinky Friedman
I’m really sorry. What about your dog Sophie?
Sophie's great. Sophie, she's my rock. She's blind and deaf. She runs this house like you wouldn't believe. She goes outside; we go for little walks and stuff. There's two others, Winston Randolph Spencer Churchill Friedman, who's a middle-aged beagle, and Luigi, the youngest. He had the misfortune of being a fucking pedigreed dog. Now he's happy and doing well.
There’s an entire chapter in the book about your 1975 Austin City Limits performance that’s never been aired on account of being too offensive. You’re the only such case, as far as I can tell.
At the time, it seemed like a real career breaker, you know? They told me just do what I normally do and they'll edit it. Instead, they went to the media with it and said, "This is the first show we've ever had to cancel because it's so offensive." [Friedman performed with the Texas Jewboys at ACL wearing a Native American headdress. Folk singer Buffy St. Marie ran up from the audience, screaming, took it off Friedman’s head, and disappeared with it.] I saw the damn thing a couple of years ago. It was on sale at the Austin airport. I bought a copy. It is tame by today's standards. I mean, really tame.
So I don't know why they did that. I don't know why I did what I did, either. I guess I got into music to express myself and to convey the truth as I saw it in music.
Bob Dylan himself told me that he picked up a guitar to get laid, which makes sense. The guy who sits down to write the great American novel never does that. I'm telling you, if a guy ever says, "I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna paint my masterpiece," he never will. It's always done by a guy who wants to get laid or somebody like Van Gogh, who was just trying to pay his rent. He didn't think he would ever be rich. There were Justin Biebers who really were successful in Van Gogh's day. But we don't even know their names. We can’t even Google them.
How did you first hook up with Bob Dylan in the the early '70s?
I went out to Roger McGuinn's house one night in L.A. It was very mysterious because we had to go to the end of the Santa Monica Pier; then this baby blue Cadillac convertible would pick us up and take us to this designation. This was me and Dylan Ferrero. Kris [Kristofferson] was there. And Bob was singing “Ride 'Em Jewboy” in the kitchen. He was drunk. We had a little conversation with him and hung out with these guys for a while.
Then we spent time together in Yelapa, the island off Mazatlan in Mexico. That was in '76 with Dennis Hopper and Bob and me. Spent a couple of weeks out there.
Is Willie still your shrink?
Yeah. He's a pretty damn good shrink. Recently, he told me his goal in life is to get to the next big town without slashing his wrists. Then he said, “Never give them everything you've got.” That's good advice to somebody who's performing music, you know? You've seen these guys … Leonard Cohen did it. He played for four and a half hours. Gave them everything he had. You shouldn't do that.
Do you get tired, after all these years, of answering the same interview questions? Do you just ever want to say …
Piss off, mate? No, not really. I rather enjoy it. Some writers I talk to are very interesting people. I find you insufferably dull, but no. You just have to watch it when you get real exhausted so you're not telling the same anecdote twice in one interview. That’s a sign that you're running too much on pure adrenaline.
[The topic migrates back to Matt Lauer.]
It's exciting. I like it. It's an ongoing story. And Garrison Keillor. He's always been a stuffed shirt, you know? But Lauer's interview with Bill O'Reilly was just terrific. Can you imagine that?
I mean the fact that he said, "Those five women that came forward to complain about you, can you imagine the courage that took with you, the biggest guy ... ." He was talking about himself, Lauer was!
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I just think it's amazing. I think a guy that can look at you like that, I mean … Lauer must be like a sociopath. Or a guy who sees how other people laugh, so then he laughs that way.
How in the hell can he be grilling Bill O'Reilly about that when he knows damn well he was doing precisely the same thing?
What are you listening to these days?
I'm listening to the final rough mix of Spitfire, making sure I like it. I think most of the songs were percolating through my life for years, but if you heard them you wouldn't know that I had written them.
As Billy Joe Shaver says, "I'm cursed to be born a serious soul nobody takes seriously." That may be changing.
Rachel Williams grew up on the mean streets of Coppell. After studying journalism at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, she lived in Chicago and San Diego before returning to Dallas in 2015. She is the recipient of several accolades, backhanded compliments and parking tickets.
Contact: Rachel Williams