Kinky Friedman is an American original. The cigar-smoking, self-proclaimed “Jewish cowboy” has done it all – he’s toured with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue and been onstage at the Grand Ole Opry. He’s hobnobbed with John Belushi and Willie Nelson. Then, when his music career waned, he became a novelist, penning numerous mystery novels and non-fiction books.

He also ran for governor of Texas (garnering a whopping 1/2 million votes) and is an advocate for animal rights. Truthfully, there’s so many layers to the man who’s real first name is Richard. Author Mary Lou Sullivan tries to uncover things in Everything’s Bigger in Texas – the Life & Times of Kinky Friedman from Backbeat Books.

Sullivan talks about the similarities and differences between Friedman and her other biography subject, the late Johnny Winter. Plus, she reveals some of the obstacles she had to overcome to complete the book and get the real story of a man shrouded in myth.