Joe Bonsall, Courtesy photo

This from Jeremy Westby, 2911 Media.

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. – Joseph S. Bonsall (76) of Hendersonville, TN, passed on to Glory on July 9, 2024, from complications of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. He leaves behind his precious wife Mary Ann, daughters Jennifer and Sabrina, granddaughter Breanne, grandson Luke, two great grandsons, Chance and Grey, and a sister, Nancy. He is preceded in death by his parents, Joseph S. Bonsall Sr. and Lillie Bonsall.

As a 50-year member of the American music group The Oak Ridge Boys, Joe was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and inducted into the Philadelphia Music Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and the prestigious Country Music Hall of Fame.

Joe was also the author of 11 books including his latest, a memoir titled I See Myself, which releases in November. Joe loved to sing. He loved to read. He loved to write. He loved to play banjo. He loved working on the farm. And he loved the Philadelphia Phillies. But Jesus and his family always came first—and we will see him again on the Promised Day.

At Joe’s request, there will be no funeral. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The ALS Association or to the Vanderbilt Medical Center ALS and Neuroscience Research Center.

The family is requesting privacy.

NOTE: The Mayo Clinic and other Websites note that  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, aka ALS, is a progressive nervous system disease more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

NOTE:  Members of the Oak Ridge Boys and others in the national music community have made the

Photo by Mary Jane Farmer
The Oak Ridge Boys, Joe Bonsall on the left, also (l-r) Duane Allen, William Lee Golden, Richard Sterban

following comments about losing one of their own.

Just a word here from me, Mary Jane, on Kinky Friedman… Here it mentions his bid for Justice of the Peace. That was in the early 1980s and Kinky lived just outside Kerrville, Texas. Once, while he was being interviewed by a TV crew in front of the Kerrville Post Office, I stepped out of the post office and stood on the top of the steps to hear the interview. Even knowing I was in view of the TV cameras, I didn’t care. I just wanted to hear him talk. OK, all said and done, cameras down, and Kinky strolling away, I stepped down and walked to my car. There, I saw that my jeans’ zipper was and had been completely open through it all. That would have been good fodder for Kinky’s brand of humor. I could tell lots more Kinky Friedman stories, but won’t.. just that his music and humor were magic to me and countless others.

There is so much more about Kinky on Wikipedia. Click here

From Jenni Finley Promotions w/ courtesy photo

Kinky Friedman, the singular songwriter, sharp satirist, prolific novelist, gubernatorial candidate, and cigar-chewing dog rescuer, has died. He was seventy-nine. “Kinky has left the building,” longtime friend Cleve Hattersley posted on social media. “We knew it was imminent when we stopped at the ranch to play for him ten days ago. We could see he was miserable, but we could also see the guy we’ve known as a best pal for half a century was still there appreciating our schtick and shedding a tear over our rendition of his song ‘Marilyn and Joe.’”

“Adios, Kinky Friedman,” Texas-based author Joe Nick Patoski posted. “You lit up the world while managing to drop insults and make us laugh.”

Friedman’s humor was notorious. “(Being) funny will always cost you,” he said in a characteristically animated interview for the book The Messenger: The Songwriting Legacy of Ray Wylie Hubbard (TAMU Press, 2016). “As Billy Joe Shaver would say, Ray Wylie Hubbard and I are both serious souls who nobody takes seriously. (Expletive) ’em and feed ’em Froot Loops. There are some who do take us seriously, but they’re probably living at the Shalom Retirement Village right now or the Bandera Home for the Bewildered. Are you getting all this? It’s pure genius. What I’m saying is incredible. I didn’t realize I was this spiritual.”

The singer-songwriter and author released a dozen and a half albums over the past fifty years – from his debut Sold American (1973) and the provocatively titled They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore (2005) through The Loneliest Man I Ever Met (2015) and a forthcoming collection (2024) – and wrote more than two dozen books from his early mysteries Greenwich Killing Time (1986) and A Case of Lone Star (1987) through his last non-fiction books You Can Lead a Politician to Water, But You Can’t Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics (2007) and What Would Kinky Do? How to Unscrew a Screwed Up World (2008).

Several artists saluted Friedman on the tribute album Pearls in the Snow: The Songs of Kinky Friedman twenty-five years ago including Tom Waits (“Highway Cafe”), Willie Nelson (“Ride ’Em Jewboy”), Guy Clark (“Wild Man from Borneo,” also covered by James McMurtry), Lyle Lovett (“Sold American”), Dwight Yoakam (“Rapid City, South Dakota”), Delbert McClinton (“Autograph”), Marty Stuart (“Lady Yesterday”) and Tompall Glaser (“Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed”).

Friedman, a former candidate for governor of Texas and justice of the peace in Kerrville, Texas, mapped out his wishes for the afterlife in an interview with the Toronto Star: “I got my last will and testament worked,” he said. “When I die I’m going to be cremated and the ashes are to be thrown in (former Texas governor) Rick Perry’s hair.” The longtime animal lover shared a more heartfelt wish in the epilogue to his book Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola (1993) about his cat Cuddles being put down: “Dogs have a depth of loyalty that we seem unworthy of, but the love of a cat is a blessing, a privilege in this world. 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.”

“Kinky always obliged me by playing the South by Southwest parties Conqueroo co-sponsored: Guitartown/Conqueroo and Rebels & Renegades with Jenni Finlay Promotions,” Friedman’s former publicist Cary Baker said. “God broke the mold once he made Kinky: singer, songwriter, author, ill-fated politician, dog rescuer, underprivileged children’s camp sponsor, craft vodka magnate, homo erectus, Chicagoan, Philadelphian, Texas Jewboy…Kinky wore many hats and lived on his own terms every step of the way.”