Josh Alan Friedman

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Josh Alan Friedman is an American musician, writer, editor, and journalist who has worked in New York and Dallas. He performs as Josh Alan and is best known for Tales of Times Square (1986), a book about the early days of Times Square, and for comic collaborations with his brother, artist Drew Friedman. Their work includes Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental and Warts and All; the latter won a Harvey Award in 1991 and featured an introduction by Kurt Vonnegut.

Friedman comes from a creative family; his father is writer Bruce Jay Friedman and his brother is Drew Friedman. He began playing guitar at nine but lost the use of his right arm for two years after a pitching injury at fourteen. He studied with jazz guitarist Joe Monk and later played with the New York show band City Limits. He moved to Dallas in 1987, where he performed as a solo artist (often billed as Josh Alan), recorded with Sara Hickman, and helped produce Dallas’ KERA radio sessions. For about 30 years he toured Texas, won three Dallas Observer Music Awards for Best Acoustic Act, and became known for his use of acoustic feedback and surf-influenced instrumentals. His albums include Famous & Poor, The Worst!, Blacks ’n’ Jews, Josh Alan Band, Sixty, Goddammit, and Acoustic Instrumentals.

In publishing, Friedman started at Screw magazine, rising to Senior Editor by 1982, and he covered the Times Square beat. He also worked on the cable show Midnight Blue and wrote profiles for Soho News, including Doc Pomus, who mentored him in songwriting. With Drew, he created satirical comics about celebrities that appeared in High Times, National Lampoon, and RAW. The books Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental (1985) and Warts and All (1990) collected this work, with Warts and All winning a Harvey Award in 1991 and Vonnegut contributing the foreword.

Later projects include editing Now Dig This: The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern (2001), and books such as When Sex Was Dirty (2005) and I, Goldstein: My Screwed Life (2006). Tales of Times Square was reissued in 2007, and Tell the Truth Until They Bleed appeared in 2008. Black Cracker (2010) launched BlackCracker.fm in 2018, a site with podcasts and archival material. A novel, All Roads Lead to Great Neck, is planned for 2026.