Mary Lou Sullivan

Mary Lou Sullivan is an award winning journalist, author, public relations professional and former radio show host. Her first authorized biography, Raisin' Cain - The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter (Backbeat Books, May 2010), earned popular and critical acclaim, as well as prestigious awards for the quality of her writing and her research.

The Blues Foundation in Memphis gave her the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive Award in Literature, and the Association of Recorded Sound Collections gave the book its 2011 Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.

When she was looking for a subject for her next biography, another Texas icon caught her eye. A larger than-life Renaissance man with intelligence and street smarts, Kinky Friedman is a musician/songwriter who named his band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, and put on a stage show that combined Hank Williams and Lenny Bruce, and earned him the admiration and friendship of Bob Dylan.

Sullivan enjoyed his wit, humor, and philosophical musings in his 19 detective novels, 11 non-fiction books, and countless articles in Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone, High Times, and the Daily Beast.

She was impressed with his family legacy of social consciousness that had him picketing segregated restaurants and joining the Peace Corps when he graduated from college. A rugged individualist with the courage to follow his dreams and live life on his own terms, Friedman was determined to make a difference.

He ran as an independent candidate in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial race, earning nearly 547,000 votes as in a red state race against incumbent Republican Rick Perry. Disgusted with the budget cuts to education, he ran for Texas Agriculture Commissioner in the 2014 Democratic primary with a platform focused on legalizing hemp and marijuana and funding education through taxation and regulation.

Sullivan enjoyed researching and interviewing Friedman and his friends, which include Willie Nelson, Don Imus, Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakum, Lyle Lovett, Billy Joe Shaver, Bill Clinton, and Ruth Buzzi.

Everything's Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman (Backbeat Books) will be released in November 2017.