Richard “Kinky” Friedman lived as if every room were a stage and every stranger a potential character in his next story. Born in Chicago but raised in Texas, he stitched together a life that made no sense on paper and perfect sense in person: fronting the satirical country band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, writing sharp-edged mystery novels, and running for Texas governor with a platform equal parts punchline and prophecy.

Behind the jokes and outrageous one-liners, there was a stubborn moral core: a hatred of hypocrisy, a love of misfits, and a fierce loyalty to animals and outsiders. At his Hill Country ranch, he rescued dogs; on the page and onstage, he rescued lost causes. Texas will replace his seat at the bar, fill his slots on the radio, elect new clowns and prophets. But that exact blend of wit, weariness, and wounded hope left with Kinky—and it isn’t coming back.