The satirical author, singer/songwriter, and would-be outsider politician, Kinky Friedman, passed away at his Texas ranch on Thursday at the age of 79, according to USA Today.

Known mostly for his habitual line-stepping and irreverent takes on country music plus his humorous crime novels and columns, of which former President Bill Clinton was said to be among his biggest fans, Friedman was also a devoted animal lover and philanthropist who made a few unsuccessful independent runs for political office in his home state, including the governorship.

Suffered from Parkinson's Disease

Friedman's death was announced Thursday morning in a post to his official X account that said, "Kinky Friedman stepped on a rainbow at his beloved Echo Hill surrounded by family & friends. Kinkster endured tremendous pain & unthinkable loss in recent years but he never lost his fighting spirit and quick wit. Kinky will live on as his books are read and his songs are sung."

The Texas Tribune reported that his passing was confirmed by friends Cleve Hattersley and Kent Perkins, with Hattersley revealing that Friedman had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease.

"He was a communicator. An unusual, but very pointed and poignant communicator. He could bring you to tears on stage. He could make you roll on the floor in laughter," Hattersley said. Perkins said of Friedman, "He has been described as a provocateur, and it’s not in a negative way. His objective was to provoke thought to make people think."

A career of entertaining through music and writing

Born to Jewish immigrants from Russia in Chicago, Illinois, in 1944, the Tribune reported, Friedman and his family soon moved to Texas and settled near Medina on land that became known as the Echo Hill Ranch.

After graduating with a psychology degree from the University of Texas in Austin in 1966, Friedman soon launched his career as an entertainer in the 1970s with his Jewish identity as a key factor, as evident in the name of his boundary-pushing country band, "Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys," which performed songs that offended many but also garnered plenty of laughs and a legion of fans.

He lived in New York City for a time in the '70s and '80s where he often performed locally while also writing humorous novels based on himself and other real characters, as well as a monthly column for a Texas newspaper.

A would-be outsider politician

Friedman also made a few forays into politics with an eclectic mix of conservative and liberal positions on various issues, according to the Tribune, and became friends with both former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who he famously ran against as an independent candidate who finished in fourth place in 2006.

"He was a Texas legend," Laura Stromberg Hoke, a 2006 campaign staffer, told Texas Public Radio of Friedman. "He was a little bit of everything. He was a musician, an author -- a pretty successful author. Bill Clinton always said Kinky was one of his favorite authors."

"He was an aspiring politician, but he certainly didn't want to be your run-of-the-mill politician," she added. "He was really trying to run against everything that Texas politics stood for. He was a poet at heart. He was an angry, frustrated, loving poet."

Hoke, who is herself Jewish and served as Friedman's press secretary, told the Tribune, "His Jewishness was central to his politics, his music, his books, his life," and added, "That was pretty cool for a lot of us younger folks."

A devoted lover of animals

In the late 1990s, per the Tribune, Friedman founded the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch which initially took in older dogs whose owners had died, though it eventually expanded to accept thousands of dogs and cats of all ages and circumstances, including those who'd been abused or were strays who needed refuge, according to USA Today.

His X account shared an epilogue from one of his books that recounted his sadness over the 1993 death of an old cat named Cuddles that poignantly concluded, "They say when you die and go to heaven all the dogs and cats you've ever had in your life come running to meet you. Until that day, rest in peace, Cuddles."