The Song Remains: Kris Kristofferson (1936 – 2024)

“Looking back, I’m surprised I had the nerve to do it, but I’m glad I did. Performing the songs and performing in film was just part of my personality, just like football and boxing at one point in my life. I was able to lose myself in both of them, and that was a real good feeling” (Kris Kristofferson)

If a film was to be made on the life and career of Kris Kristofferson it would undoubtedly need to take the shape of a miniseries, one with numerous instalments, such was his unique ability and talent to live so many lives within just one. For in truth the stories and achievements of this luminous figure, whose fame expanded way beyond that of just country music, and who has passed away at the age of 88, peacefully at his home in, are both unprecedented and most unlikely to ever be replicated.

Kristofferson was born on the 22nd June 1936 in Brownsville, Texas, just two miles from the Mexican border into a military family with his father Lars Henry Kristofferson at that time holding the rank of Officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps, (he would later rise to the position of U.S. Air Force Major General). His early years were typical of military life, regularly moving home before the family finally settled in San Mateo California, from where he would graduate from High School in 1954 and immediately enrol at Pomona College. It was here that he first experienced national exposure, firstly on the sports field where his prowess at both track and field as well as rugby union and American Football was recognised in the magazine ‘Sports Illustrated’ and secondly as an aspiring writer with two prize winning essays ‘The Rock’ and ‘Gone Are The Days’ being published in ‘The Atlantic Monthly’. In 1958 Kristofferson graduated from Pomona with a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature winning a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Merton College, Oxford, with the poet William Blake being a strong influence on the young aspiring writer. Whilst here he would partake in numerous activities including boxing for which he would be awarded a ‘Blue’, play rugby for his college and started writing songs. Whilst at Oxford Kristofferson befriended fellow Rhodes scholar, art critic and poet Michael Fried with whose help he gained his fist recording contract with Top Rank Records under the name Kris Carson and though nothing was to come of this first encounter with the music business the seed had been sown.

In 1960 Kristoferson graduated from Merton with B. Phil. degree in English literature and returned to the U.S. where he married his longtime girlfriend Francis Mavia Beer and under pressure from his family reluctantly agreed to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the U.S. Army. Commissioned as a second lieutenant Kristofferson’s philosophy of being the best at what ever he did quickly saw him rise through the ranks to captain, becoming a qualified helicopter pilot, a skill he would put to good use in later life. During this time he continued to write songs, Hank Williams was a favourite at the time though he was soon to fall under the sway of folk music’s newest star, a certain Bob Dylan, and even formed a band whilst stationed in West Germany. In 1965 the Army offered him a teaching position at West Point, but before he accepted this new role he took a two week vacation to Nashville where he met songwriter Marijohn Wilkin, writer of ‘Long Black Veil‘, and Cowboy Jack Clement, who would become a lifetime friend. At the end of the two weeks, which included a backstage pass to the Grand Ole Opry, getting up close and personal to the likes of Johnny Cash and Tom T Hall, Kristofferson decided to hand in his resignation to the U.S. Army to pursue a career as a songwriter much to the indignation of his family who disowned him claiming he had “dragged down the family name”, and saw it as “a rejection of everything they stood for”. His wife would divorce him a few years later.

Having turned his back on the prestigious role at West Point, Kristofferson would spend the next four years trying to finance his dream to become a successful songwriter by taking a varying array of jobs which included helicopter pilot, a position he would lose to a developing drinking problem that would stain his life for more than a decade, and janitor at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville. It was here that his perseverance would finally start to pay off as his songs began to gain chart success for such established artists as Roy Drusky, Ray Stevens, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roger Miller. Respected songwriter Bobby Braddock introduced Kristofferson to Fred Foster at Monument Records who was suitably impressed to sign him as a recording artist, something that Kristofferson had not envisaged as he always disliked his own singing voice saying “I sound like a frog”. Nonetheless the resulting eponymous album, (released in 1970 and reviewed as part of the Americana Classic Album series) would propel him into the spotlight, stuffed full of self-penned songs that would go on to become among the most covered in Nashville history. Songs like ‘Me And Bobby McGee’, ‘For The Good Times’, ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ and ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ the latter a hit for both Stevens and Johnny Cash who performed the song on his A.B.C. Television show, upsetting. the censors by refusing to change the line “wishing Lord I was stoned”. In October the song would be voted song of the year at the CMA Awards while Cash and Kristofferson would go on to be lifelong friends working regularly together. The album’s accolades would continue into the following year with Sammi Smith taking ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ to the top of the country charts and a few weeks later the posthumous release of Janis Joplin’s version of ‘Me & Bobby McGee’ would sit at No’ 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The strength of the debut album made it a tough act to follow but his next three albums ‘The Silver Tongued Devil And I’ (1971), ‘Border Lord’ (1972), and ‘Jesus Was A Capricorn’ (1972) all had their share of quality. Songs such as ‘Lovin’ Her was Easier’ and ‘Why Me Lord’ helped to secure Kristofferson’s position at the pinnacle of Nashville songwriters which was cemented later in 1971 when Smith’s version of ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ was voted Best Country Song at the Grammys . In fact none other than Dylan would say of Kristofferson “You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post Kris, because he changed everything”. In retrospect it could be said that Kristofferson was the first country music star to remove the silver spoon from his mouth and seek redemption through artistic distinction and by writing of socially progressive subject matters, constantly finding the personal within the political he changed it’s language forever. In later years he would return the compliment to Dylan by saying, “Having Dylan cover one of your songs is like being a playwright and having Shakespeare act in your play”.

By the early seventies, Kristofferson was big box office with the offer of film roles coming thick and fast. Starting with ‘The Last Movie’ (1971,) alongside Dennis Hopper, he would then go on to star in three Sam Peckinpah films, ‘Pat Garrett and Billy Kid’ (1973), alongside Dylan, ‘Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia’ (1974), and ‘Convoy’ (1978). In 1976 he would win a Golden Globe Award for his role in ‘A Star Is Born’ alongside Barbara Streisand. In all Kristofferson would star in no less than twelve films during this decade, whilst still releasing nine studio albums plus another three with his then wife Rita Coolidge, who he had married in 1973. Even by the standards of the seventies, this was a colossal workload and unsurprisingly something had to give and the quality of his songwriting certainly suffered with the general feeling being that Kristofferson now saw himself more as a movie star than as a recording artist. However even the film career was not without critical condemnation with the Michael Cimino directed ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (1980), that became the most scandalous studio bankrupting and industry-changing failure in moviemaking history, resulting in Kristofferson losing his Hollywood A-list status. Ironically decades later the film would become revered, considered a lost classic unjustly criticised at the time. Unfortunately the fallout of the film coincided with the break up of his marriage to Coolidge while his problematic drinking had reached a crescendo. A decade of manic activity under the glare of the spotlight had brought him many things but it would seem happiness was not one of them as he fought with the demons of depression.

It would take two significant changes to turn his life around. First of all and probably most importantly he met Lisa Meyers of whom he would eventually marry in 1983, bringing him the stability his life craved for. The film roles would continue, another nine throughout the decade, and one in particular ‘Songwriter’ (1984) that would see him cast alongside Willie Nelson in a satirical comedy-drama. Not only was Kristofferson nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song score but the soundtrack album featuring duets by Kristofferson and Nelson became a massive country success. The two had worked together previously on the album ‘The Winning Hand’ along with Dolly Parton and Brenda Lee that went on to inspire a television special hosted by Cash, and from here the seeds for the supergroup ‘The Highwaymen’ were born, with Cash and Waylon Jennings helping to complete the quartet. Together they  would deliver their critically acclaimed debut album released in 1985, reaching No’ 1 on the country charts and receive the Record of the Year Award at the ACMs.  This success returned Kristofferson’s voice to the radio and ultimately a return to the larger audience he had been use to over a decade earlier, but though he would continue to release solo albums the pace would abate delivering just two throughout the eighties and during the remainder of his recording career would only record the same amount of albums as he did during the first ten.

The nineties would see Kristofferson join forces with acclaimed record producer Don Was under whose guidance he would deliver some of his best work since the halcyon days of the early seventies with albums such as ‘The Austin Sessions’ (1999) where, with a stellar support cast that included Steve Earle, Jackson Browne, Alison Krauss and Mark Knopfler, he revisited some of his most famous material and ‘Closer To The Bone’ (2009) his first album of new material in almost fifteen years. Throughout this time he continued with the film medium most notably starring as Abraham Whistler in the ‘Blade‘ (1998) trilogy alongside Wesley Snipes whilst he also voiced the character Chief Hanlon of the NCR Rangers in the hit video game ‘Fallout: New Vegas’ (2010). His final album release would be ‘The Cedar Creek Sessions’ (2016), a mix of old and new songs that went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album.

Back in 1999 Kristofferson had undergone surgery for a heart bypass and then in 2013 was incorrectly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s until doctors later concluded that his memory loss and other symptoms were due to Lyme disease, a tick born illness that can sometimes mimic many of the symptoms of dementia. Thankfully the correct diagnosis and subsequent treatment saw a marked improvement in his health and he returned to performing before playing his last show on 5th February 2020 at the Sunrise Theatre in Fort Pierce, Florida, just before the outbreak of Covid, officially announcing his retirement the following year. In recent years he had spent most of the time living with his wife and family, they have five children, on the Hawaiian Island of Maui, which was thankfully not directly affected by the devastating wildfires that recently destroyed so many properties and sadly claimed so many lives.

During the last twenty years Kristofferson’s achievements have been recognised by the music industry many times over, including, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Songwriters Hall of Fame (1985), inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (2004),  the Johnny Mercer Award (2006), and the C.M.T. Johnny Cash Visionary Award (2007). As well as his five children with Meyers he also had three children from his previous marriages as well as one child from his time in Germany. His last appearance on stage was earlier this year at the Hollywood Bowl to celebrate Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday where he was joined on stage by Roseanne Cash for an emotional rendition of ‘Loving Her Was Easier’.

It has been said that Kristofferson wanted the first three line of Leonard Cohen’s song ‘Bird On The Wire’ to appear on his tombstone, “Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free”, and though in many ways the words from one of his finest contemporaries might at first seem fitting one can’t help but feel that something more suitable could be found from his own cannon of work. One things that is indisputable is Kristofferson position as an icon of his generation throughout a lifetime of achievements across so many disciplines the like of which we are unlikely to see again. In a world where most of us are lucky just to see the crescent he appeared to effortlessly see the whole of the moon.

“Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to loose
And nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free”