Kinky hits BR with Southern Discomfort
The honorable Kinky Friedman — singer, songwriter, author, businessman, animal rescuer and former Texas gubernatorial candidate — begins his march across the South this week. Consequently, the Southern Discomfort Tour invades Baton Rouge next week for a show at the Red Dragon Listening Room.
The composer of such cult classics as “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Ballad of Charles Whitman” expects he’ll have an extra treat for concert attendees — free samples of his new product, Kinky Friedman’s Man In Black Tequila. He’s bringing CDs, books and his boldly flavored Kinky Friedman Cigars, too.
As for those who wish to buy Man In Black Tequila, Friedman anticipates it to be commercially available in Texas and Louisiana this month.
“It’s great Mexican mouthwash,” he said from his ranch in the heart of Texas.
Friedman named his tequila brand after three legendary men in black: Zoro, Paladin and Johnny Cash. Zoro and Paladin, of course, are fictional heroes of the old West who fought for justice. Cash sang about justice and championed the poor.
“Besides wearing black,” Friedman said, “those three all had a moral clarity, a spiritual integrity that’s absent in Hollywood and Washington, D.C., Nashville and our culture in general. If we had those three guys running our country, we’d be in great shape.”
But why start a tequila business?
“I’ve always said, ‘Find what you like and let it fill you,’ ” he explained. “I like tequila.”
Friedman’s other projects of late include his new book, Heroes of a Texas Childhood. The book contains biographical sketches of 23 Texans who truly are his heroes. The profiles include barrier-breaking African-American politician Barbara Jordan; actor-war hero Audie Murphy; newspaper columnist Molly Ivins, Texas governor Anne Richards; and frontiersman Davy Crockett.
Friedman laments that most modern college graduates have no idea who Jordan and Murphy, for example, are.
“That’s why, if I ever am elected governor of Texas, the book will be mandatory reading in the public schools,” he promised.
Friedman ran against the Lone Star state’s sitting governor, Rick Perry, in 2006. He got more than 12 percent of the vote. He sat out the 2010 gubernatorial race, choosing to endorse Woodrow the Rescue Dog over incumbent Perry and Democratic rival Bill White.
In light of Perry’s recent stab at being the 2012 Republic candidate for president, some would say Woodrow was an exceptionally insightful endorsement for Texas governor. Ironically, though, posters to that infallible source of factual information, the Internet, accused the Texas Jewish troubadour of endorsing Perry for president.
“I didn’t really endorse Perry,” he clarified. “Bobby Jindal did. But I did write a nice piece about Perry for The Daily Beast. I was trying to be Churchillian. Winston Churchill was magnanimous to his enemies.”
All of which brings to Friedman’s mind the words of Billy Bob Thornton: Once you’re accused of anything on the Internet, it’s over for you.
“You can’t set the record straight,” he said.
However fruitless their efforts may be, Friedman and Thornton have written a book together, The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts. The autobiographical volume will be available May 15.
“I just love this guy,” Friedman said of Thornton. “Here he is talking about himself in a book, and he can say anything he wants. So he says he’s unhappy, worried and alone.”
Working with Thornton, Friedman said, is like working with an aging screen goddess.
“He stays up 24 hours and day and eats no food. The problem, though, is whether or not the book’s editor appreciates the work. My definition of an editor is somebody who takes something great and makes it good.”