Kris Kristofferson, the prolific and pioneering musician whose talents took him from Nashville to Hollywood and back again, has died. He was 88.
Kristofferson died on Saturday at his home in Maui, Hawaii, his family said.
“We’re all so blessed for our time with him,” a statement read. “Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.”
No cause of death was immediately shared.
A bearded, soulful crooner with a laidback sensuality that made him irresistible to audiences, Kristofferson lived half a dozen other lives before becoming the songwriting force behind country-pop hits like ‘Me and Bobby McGee,’ ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,’ and ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night.’
“I imagined myself into a pretty full life,” he quipped to NPR’s Fresh Air in 1999.
He was a military brat, born in Brownsville, Texas in 1936 to a family headed by a father who finished his career as a U.S. Air Force major general. Growing up, the young Kristofferson fell in love with Hank Williams’ voice as it floated out of the radio and, inspired, wrote his first song at age 11, a Williams-esque tune called ‘I Hate Your Ugly Face.’
He was a promising athlete, playing rugby and varsity football at Pomona College in California and becoming a Golden Gloves boxer. Sports Illustrated took notice and, in 1954, made him one of their ‘Faces in the Crowd.’
He was a Rhodes Scholar, moving from majoring in creative writing at Pomona—where he handily made Phi Beta Kappa and served as an ROTC cadet—to a master’s degree in English at Oxford University.
He was a helicopter pilot, an Army Airborne Ranger who seemed destined for a promising military career, rising through the ranks to become a captain. In 1965, though, as his unit deployed to Vietnam and he weighed an appointment to teach literature at the United States Military Academy, Kristofferson made a sharp left turn and instead headed south to Nashville, Tennessee.
He was a janitor, among other odd jobs, sweeping the floors at Columbia Studios while scribbling songs on the side, hoping to make it big as a musician.
He made his own luck, hijacking an oil rig chopper and flying it to Johnny Cash’s home, where he landed on the legend’s lawn and pressed a tape of ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down’ into his hand—at least, according to the version of the story Cash told.
“The truth is I almost landed on the roof of his house… and he wasn’t even there,” Kristofferson the Tampa Bay Times in 2013. “His groundskeeper came out and got the tape. But John liked the story enough that he made up that I got out of the helicopter with a beer in one hand and a tape in the other.”
On screen, he was best known to audiences for his turns in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, A Star Is Bornand the Blade franchise.
Kristofferson is survived by his wife, Lisa; his eight children, Tracy, Kris Jr., Casey, Jesse, Jody, John, Kelly and Blake; and his seven grandchildren.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
