Kris Kristofferson’s songs have been covered by the greatest, and his film roles have earned him public recognition.
Kris Kristofferson, author of legendary compositions such as “ Help Me Make It Through the Night », « Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down » et « Me and Bobby McGee », died Saturday at the age of 88. Part romantic poet, part folk troubadour, and part country music storyteller, he transformed words into literature as few people had done before.
A spokesperson for Kristofferson, Ebie McFarland, confirmed the musician’s death, adding that ” artist, singer, songwriter, actor and activist […] passed away peacefully at his home in Maui, Hawaii […] surrounded by his family “. The cause of death has not been communicated.
Kris Kristofferson was a man of many talents. In addition to songwriting, he was also a Golden Globe-winning actor, boxer, author, U.S. Army veteran, and pilot. But it was his penetrating lyricism that caused a seismic shift in the perception of country music in the late sixties.
The eldest of three children, Kristoffer Kristofferson was born on June 22, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas. His father, the son of a Swedish army veteran, was a pilot and major general in the United States Air Force, before working for Pan American Airways. The family moved often, settling in San Mateo, California, when Kristofferson was in college. A model student, he went to study creative writing at Pomona College, where he won several awards. Graduating in 1958, he received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England.
He focused his studies on the poetry of William Blake and wrote and performed his first songs at this time. He recorded his first singles (credited as “Kris Carson”) for Top Rank Records, although they remained unreleased at the time. After earning a master’s degree in English literature at Oxford in 1960, he returned to California, married and had two children. Rather than return to Oxford, Kris Kristofferson joined the army. He served as a helicopter pilot and reached the rank of captain. During his three years in West Germany (with his wife and daughter), he started a band and learned the songs of Bob Dylan. During a leave in the spring of 1965, Kristofferson went to Nashville for the first time, a trip that disrupted his life plans: “ I came to Nashvillehe tells Rolling Stone in 2009. I had played in an army band, so people introduced me like I was somebody. Everyone still called me ‘Captain’. I wrote seven, maybe eleven songs in the first week. I told myself that if I didn’t succeed as a songwriter, I would at least have what it took to become the Great American Novelist. The people and places I saw were more exciting than anything I had ever seen. »
He and his family settled in Nashville, where he continued to write songs. He works maintaining the Columbia recording studios (“ Empty ashtrays and sweep floors he says), while also being a part-time helicopter pilot flying back and forth between offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Their marriage begins to crumble, and when their son develops health problems, the couple faces thousands of dollars in medical bills. His wife leaves with the children to live in California while he continues to make music.
In 1967, Kristofferson recorded his first single as a performer, ” Golden Idol ”, which is a flop. However, his work as a songwriter gained momentum and his songs found their way onto the charts thanks to artists like Roy Drusky (“ Jody and the Kid »), Billy Walker (« From the Bottle to the Bottom »), Ray Stevens (« Sunday Mornin“ Comin” Down »), Jerry Lee Lewis (« Once More With Feeling »), Faron Young (« Your Time’s Comin’ “), and Roger Miller (” Me and Bobby McGee », « Best of All Possible Worlds », « Darby’s Castle “). In the late sixties, as the folk scene was fading in New York, Kristofferson played at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, where celebrities like Bob Dylan saw him perform. Kristofferson is one of Nashville’s most in-demand songwriters, but he’s just getting started.
In 1969, Carl Perkins gave up a prime opening slot for Johnny Cash so Kristofferson could make his debut at the Newport Folk Festival. The Man in Black also let him go behind the scenes of his weekly ABC show. There, Kristofferson mingled with artists and sold his song demos. Signed by Fred Foster to Monument Records in 1970, Kristofferson released his self-titled album, which included new original compositions as well as some of his hits for other artists. His second album, The Silver Tongued Devil and I (1971), sold better, and the first album was reissued under the title Me & Bobby McGee, capitalizing on the success of the title song, a posthumous pop hit by Janis Joplin. Kristofferson and Joplin lived together for a time in Mill Valley, California, where jam sessions with other musicians, actors and others were commonplace. (He played at the Isle of Wight Festival in the summer of 1970, sharing the bill with Jimi Hendrix, who would die of an overdose a few weeks later).
Dozens of artists as diverse as Jerry Lee Lewis, Joe Simon and Patti Page have gone on to cover his songs. Kristofferson was nominated for multiple Grammy Awards and won three trophies during his lifetime, including Best Country Song for ” Help Me Make It Through the Night » in 1971. A title from his second album, the nostalgic “ Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again) », climbed into the Top 5.
Alongside his commercial breakthrough in music, Kristofferson made his film debut in the film The Last Movie by Dennis Hopper in 1971. A commercial and critical disaster, this film was followed by a starring role in Cisco Pikewith Gene Hackman. In 1973, Kristofferson married his second wife, singer Rita Coolidge, and the couple had a daughter. His film work continued with an appearance in the Johnny Cash film, Gospel Road : A Story of Jesus. His role as Billy in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid by Sam Peckinpah, in which Bob Dylan also plays, earned him a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Actor. In 1974, he co-starred with Ellen Burstyn in the film Alice is no longer heredirected by Martin Scorsese and awarded an Oscar.
Her on-screen performances have sometimes been overshadowed by controversy: in 1976, the erotic drama The Sailor Rejected by the Sea is accompanied by a controversial publication in Playboy with Sarah Miles. The same year, he shared the screen with Barbra Streisand in the rock & roll reboot of A star is born. The third highest-grossing film of the year, it was nonetheless maligned by critics, and the tension between Streisand and Kristofferson on the set became the stuff of Hollywood legend.
In the late seventies, Kristofferson released nine solo albums, with varying results. He achieved his first and only country hit and his best pop single with “ Why Me ”, which spent 19 weeks on the pop chart.
Between duet albums with his wife Coolidge, in 1974 Kristofferson released the album Spooky Lady’s Sideshowmany of whose tracks describe the pitfalls of fame and addiction, reflecting his growing struggle with alcohol. He quit drinking after winning a Golden Globe for A star is born.
Kristofferson’s film career would continue over the next four decades. He will team up with his longtime friend Willie Nelson for the film Songwriter in 1984, but a much more successful venture would emerge the following year, when the two friends joined Cash and Waylon Jennings to record and tour as the Highwaymen. The supergroup records the song “ Highwayman » by Jimmy Webb, which became Kristofferson’s second and final country hit.
Kristofferson’s 1986 political album, Repossessed, his first solo project in five years, is marked by “ They Killed Him », a tribute to Gandhi, Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. that Dylan would later take up. Throughout his career, he defended political causes. In the 1980s, he visited Nicaragua and criticized U.S. interference. His activism in Central America inspired the concept album Third World Warrior (1990).
« Not everyone agrees with what I sayKristofferson explained to the magazine The Progressive in 1991. But my concerts are organized in such a way that, from start to finish, the feeling that emerges is a belief in the human spirit. I don’t think you can come and challenge the principles. »
Kris Kristofferson announced his retirement in January 2021.
In 1970, he purchased property in Hana, a remote town on the Hawaiian island of Maui. In addition to his three older children, Kris Kristofferson raised five children with his third wife, Lisa Meyers. When he began suffering from memory loss (ultimately attributed to Lyme disease), Lisa Meyers became indispensable. However, she refused to introduce herself as his manager: “ It is unmanageable. We can’t handle itshe told Rolling Stone. If someone tells him to have a good day, he’ll say, “Don’t tell me what to do.” » But this obstinacy allowed him to reach artistic heights. He was uncompromising in his compositions, in his acting and on stage.
« I really have no anxiety about controlling my own lifeexplained Kris Kristofferson to Rolling Stone in 2016. Somehow I slipped into this path and it worked. It doesn’t depend on me, nor on you. I feel very lucky that [la vie] lasted so long because I did so many things that could have gotten me out of it. But I always have the feeling that He knows what He is doing. »
Stephen L. Betts
Translated by the editorial staff
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