Kris Kristofferson, singer-songwriter and actor, dies at 88
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Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style
and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and
A-list Hollywood actor, has died.
Kristofferson died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, surrounded by
family on Saturday, a spokesperson said in an statement. He
was 88.
Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas, native
wrote such classics standards as "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down"
and "Help Me Make it Through the Night." Kristofferson was a
singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as
performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning "For the Good
Times" or Janis Joplin belting out "Me and Bobby McGee."
He also starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin
Scorsese's 1974 film "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,"
starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 "A Star Is Born,"
and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel's "Blade" in 1998.
Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove
intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance
into popular country music. With his long hair, bell-bottomed
slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he
represented a new breed of country songwriters, along with such
peers as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.
"Kris brought it kind of from the dark ages up to the
present-day time, made it acceptable and brought great lyrics -
I mean, the best possible lyrics," Nelson told "60 Minutes" in
a 1999 segment about Kristofferson. "Simple but profound."
He was a Golden Gloves boxer and football player in college,
received a master's degree in English from Merton College at
the University of Oxford in England, and turned down an
appointment to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,
New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break
into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia
Records' Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks
for the seminal "Blonde on Blonde" double album.
At times, the legend of Kristofferson was larger than real life.
Johnny Cash liked to tell a mostly exaggerated story of how
Kristofferson, a former U.S. Army pilot, landed a helicopter on
Cash's lawn to give him a tape of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down"
with a beer in one hand. Over the years in interviews,
Kristofferson said that, with all respect to Cash, while he did
land a helicopter at Cash's house, the Man in Black wasn't even
home at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one ever
actually cut and he certainly couldn't fly a helicopter holding
a beer.
In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said he might
not have had a career without Cash.
"Shaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the
Grand Ole Opry was the moment I'd decided I'd come back,"
Kristofferson said. "It was electric. He kind of took me under
his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record
that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first
time."
One of his most recorded songs, "Me and Bobby McGee," was
written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder
Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in his head called "Me and
Bobby McKee," named after a female secretary in his building.
Kristofferson said in an interview in the magazine, "Performing
Songwriter," that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a
man and woman on the road together after watching the Frederico
Fellini film "La Strada."
Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson,
changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version
just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The
recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.
Hits that Kristofferson recorded include "Why Me," "Loving Her
Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do)," "Watch Closely Now,"
"Desperados Waiting for a Train," "A Song I'd Like to Sing" and
"Jesus Was a Capricorn."
In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and together
they had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy
awards. They divorced in 1980.
He retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only
occasional guest appearances on stage.
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R.I.P. Kris Kristofferson (singer and actor)