Los Angeles Associated Press —
Kris Kristofferson, the Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rugged charisma who went on to become a country music superstar and Hollywood A-list actor, has died.
Kristofferson died Saturday at his home in Maui, Hawaii, family spokeswoman Ebby McFarland said in an email. He was 88 years old.
McFarland said Kristofferson passed away peacefully surrounded by his family. No cause was given. He was 88 years old.
The Brownsville, Texas, native has been playing classic standards since the late 1960s, including “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” “For the Good Times,” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Composed. Although Kristofferson himself was a singer, many of his songs are popular, such as Ray Price singing “For the Good Times” and Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.” Many are best known for having been performed by others.
He also starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and played Barbra Streisand in 1976’s A Star Is Born. In 1998, he co-starred with Wesley Snipes in the Marvel film Blade.
Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake, weaved intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair, bell-bottom slacks, and Bob Dylan-influenced counterculture songs, he represented a new breed of country songwriters, along with Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Tom T. Hall.
“There is no better songwriter than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson said at BMI’s Kristofferson awards ceremony in November 2009. “Everything he writes is a standard and we all have to live with it.”
As an actor, he starred opposite Barbara Streisand and Ellen Burstyn, but he also loved gunfight westerns and cowboy dramas.
He was a Golden Glove-winning boxer and football player in college, earned a master’s degree in English from Merton College, Oxford University, and attended the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York to pursue composition. I turned down plans to teach. In Nashville. Wanting to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966, when Dylan recorded songs for his seminal double album, Blonde on Blonde. Ta.
At times, Kristofferson’s legend was larger than reality. Cash liked to tell an almost exaggerated story about how Kristofferson, a former U.S. Army pilot, landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn and handed him a tape of “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down” with a beer in hand. Ta. In interviews over the years, Kristofferson has said that while he did indeed land a helicopter at Cash’s house as a tribute to Cash, the Man in Black wasn’t even home at the time, and no one actually cut the demo tape. He said that it was a song he had never done before. You certainly couldn’t fly a helicopter while holding a beer.
In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said he might not have had his career without Cash.
“When I was still in the Army, shaking his hand backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I decided to come back,” Kristofferson said. “It was electric. He protected me before he cut my song. He broke my first record, the record of the year. He put me on stage for the first time. He was the one who gave it to me.”
One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” was written on the recommendation of Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had in mind the title of the song, “Me and Bobby McKee,” after a female secretary in his building. In an interview with Performing Songwriter magazine, Kristofferson said that watching Frederico Fellini’s film La Strada inspired him to write lyrics about a man and a woman traveling together.
Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version days before she died of a drug overdose in 1970. This recording became a No. 1 hit after Joplin’s death.
Hit songs recorded by Kristofferson include “Why Me,” “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do),” “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” and “A Song I’ d Like to Sing.” and “Jesus was a Capricorn.”
In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge, and they had a successful duet career, winning two Grammy Awards. They divorced in 1980.
He retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional guest appearances on stage.