Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a more raw, introspective style. During the 1970s, he also embarked on a successful career as a Hollywood actor.
Kristofferson moved around frequently as a youth because of his father's military service, and the family settled in San Mateo, California.[4] After graduating from San Mateo High School in 1954, he enrolled at Pomona College, hoping to become a writer. His early writing included prize-winning essays: "The Rock" and "Gone Are the Days" were published in The Atlantic Monthly. These stories touch on the roots of Kristofferson's passions and concerns. "The Rock" is about a geographical feature resembling the form of a woman, while the latter was about a racial incident.[5]
At the age of 17, Kristofferson took a summer job with a dredging contractor on Wake Island in the western Pacific Ocean. He called it "the hardest job I ever had".[6]
Pomona College
Kristofferson attended Pomona College and experienced his first national exposure in 1958, appearing in the March 31 issue of Sports Illustrated for his achievements in collegiate rugby union, American football, and track and field.[7] He and his classmates revived the Claremont Colleges Rugby Club in 1958, and it remains a Southern California rugby institution. Kristofferson graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in literature. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa his junior year. In a 2004 interview with Pomona College Magazine, Kristofferson mentioned philosophy professor Frederick Sontag as an important influence in his life.[8]
In 1973, Kristofferson received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Pomona College during Alumni Weekend, accompanied by fellow performers Johnny Cash and Rita Coolidge. His award was presented to him by his aforementioned mentor, Professor Sontag.[9]
University of Oxford
In 1958, Kristofferson was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford,[10] studying at Merton College.[11] While at Oxford, he was awarded a Blue for boxing,[11] played rugby for his college, and began writing songs. At Oxford, he became acquainted with fellow Rhodes scholar, art critic, and poet Michael Fried. With the help of his manager, Larry Parnes, Kristofferson recorded for Top Rank Records under the name Kris Carson. Parnes was working to sell Kristofferson as "a Yank at Oxford" to the British public; Kristofferson was willing to accept that promotional approach if it helped his singing career, which he hoped would enable him to progress toward his goal of becoming a novelist.[12]
This early phase of his music career was unsuccessful.[13] In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a B.Phil. in English literature.[11][14][15] In 1961, he married his longtime girlfriend, Frances "Fran" Mavia Beer.[11]
Military service
Kristofferson, under pressure from his family, joined the U.S. Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, attaining the rank of captain. He became a helicopter pilot after receiving flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. He also completed Ranger School.[16] During the early 1960s, he was stationed in West Germany as a member of the 8th Infantry Division.[17] During this time, he resumed his music career and formed a band. In 1965, after his tour in West Germany ended, Kristofferson was given an assignment to teach English literature at West Point.[18] Instead, he decided to leave the Army and pursue songwriting. His family disowned him because of his career decision; sources are unclear on whether they reconciled.[19][20][21] They saw it as a rejection of everything they stood for, although Kristofferson says he is proud of his time in the military and received the Veteran of the Year Award at the 2003 American Veterans Awards ceremony.[22][23]
Career
After leaving the army in 1965, Kristofferson moved to Nashville. Struggling for success in music, he worked at odd jobs in the meantime while burdened with medical expenses resulting from his son's defective esophagus. He and his wife divorced in 1968.[24]
Kristofferson got a job sweeping floors at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville. He met June Carter there and asked her to give Johnny Cash a tape of his. She did, but Cash put it on a large pile with others. He also worked as a commercial helicopter pilot for south Louisiana firm Petroleum Helicopters International (PHI), based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Kristofferson recalled of his days as a pilot, "That was about the last three years before I started performing, before people started cutting my songs. I would work a week down here [in south Louisiana] for PHI, sitting on an oil platform and flying helicopters. Then I'd go back to Nashville at the end of the week and spend a week up there trying to pitch the songs, then come back down and write songs for another week. I can remember "Help Me Make It Through the Night" I wrote sitting on top of an oil platform. I wrote "Bobby McGee" down here, and a lot of them [in south Louisiana]."[25]
Weeks after giving Carter his tapes, Kristofferson landed a helicopter in Cash's front yard, gaining his full attention.[26] A story about Kristofferson having a beer in one hand and some songs in the other upon arrival was reputed, but was later refuted, with Kristofferson saying, "It was still kind of an invasion of privacy that I wouldn't recommend. To be honest, I don't think he was there. John had a pretty creative memory."[27] Upon hearing "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", however, Cash decided to record it, and in 1970 Kristofferson won Song of the Year for the song at the Country Music Association Awards.[28]
In 1966, Dave Dudley released a successful Kristofferson single, "Viet Nam Blues." In 1967, Kristofferson signed to Epic Records and released a single, "Golden Idol/Killing Time," but the song was not successful. Within the next few years, more Kristofferson originals hit the charts, performed by Roy Drusky ("Jody and the Kid"); Billy Walker & the Tennessee Walkers ("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", and "Darby's Castle"). He was successful as a performer following Johnny Cash's introduction of him at the Newport Folk Festival.[29]
In 1971, Janis Joplin, who had dated Kristofferson, had a number one hit with "Me and Bobby McGee" from her posthumous album Pearl. It stayed on the number-one spot on the charts for weeks. More hits followed from others: Ray Price ("I'd Rather Be Sorry"); Joe Simon ("Help Me Make It Through the Night"); Bobby Bare ("Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends"); O. C. Smith ("Help Me Make It Through the Night"); Jerry Lee Lewis ("Me and Bobby McGee"); Patti Page ("I'd Rather Be Sorry"); and Peggy Little ("I've Got to Have You"). Country music performer Kenny Rogers recorded some of Kristofferson's songs, including a version of "Me and Bobby McGee" in 1969 with the First Edition for the Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town album.[citation needed]
Kristofferson released his second album—The Silver Tongued Devil and I—in 1971. It included "Lovin' Her Was Easier (than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)". This success established Kristofferson's career as a recording artist. Soon after, Kristofferson made his acting debut in The Last Movie (directed by Dennis Hopper), and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. A portion of his Isle of Wight performance is featured on the three disc compilation, The First Great Rock Festivals of the Seventies. In 1971, he acted in Cisco Pike, and released his third album, Border Lord. The album was all-new material and sales were sluggish. He also swept the Grammy Awards that year with numerous songs nominated, winning country song of the year for "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Kristofferson's 1972 fourth album, Jesus Was a Capricorn, initially had slow sales, but the third single, "Why Me", was a success and significantly increased album sales. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA on November 8, 1973.[30]
In the course of his singing success during the early 1970s, Kristofferson met singer Rita Coolidge. They married in 1973 and released an album titled Full Moon, another success buoyed by numerous hit singles and Grammy nominations. His fifth album, Spooky Lady's Sideshow, released in 1974, was a commercial failure, setting the trend for most of the rest of his musical career. Artists such as Ronnie Milsap and Johnny Duncan continued to record Kristofferson's material with success, but his distinctively rough voice and anti-pop sound kept his own audience to a minimum. Meanwhile, more artists took his songs to the top of the charts, including Willie Nelson, whose 1979 LP release of (Willie Nelson) Sings Kristofferson reached number five on the U.S. Country Music chart and certified Platinum in the U.S.[citation needed]
In 1982, Kristofferson joined Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Brenda Lee on The Winning Hand, a double album consisting of remastered and updated performances of recordings the four artists had made for the Monument label during the mid-1960s; the album reached the top ten on the U.S. country album charts. He married again, to Lisa Meyers, and concentrated on films for a time, appearing in the 1984 releases The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck, Flashpoint, and Songwriter. Nelson and Kristofferson both appeared in Songwriter, and Kristofferson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. The album Music from Songwriter, featuring Nelson-Kristofferson duets, was a country success.[citation needed]
Nelson and Kristofferson continued their partnership, and added Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash to form the supergroupthe Highwaymen. Their first album, Highwayman, was a success, and the supergroup continued working together for a time. The single from the album, also entitled "Highwayman", written by Jimmy Webb (and originally recorded by him in 1977), was awarded the ACM's single of the year in 1985.[33] In 1985, Kristofferson starred in Trouble in Mind and released Repossessed, a politically aware album that was a country success, particularly "They Killed Him" (also performed by Bob Dylan), a tribute to his heroes, including Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus, and Mahatma Gandhi.[34] Kristofferson also appeared in Amerika at about the same time, a miniseries that attempted to depict life in America under Soviet control.[35]
In 2003, Broken Freedom Song was released, a live album recorded in San Francisco. That year, he received the "Spirit of Americana" free speech award from the Americana Music Association.[37] In 2004, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. On October 21, 2005, the movie Dreamer was released, in which Kristofferson played the role of "Pop", a retired thoroughbred horse trainer. The movie was inspired by the true story of the mare Mariah's Storm which won the Turfway Breeders Cup Classic. In 2006, he received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and released his first album full of new material in 11 years; This Old Road. On April 21, 2007, Kristofferson won CMT's Johnny Cash Visionary Award. Rosanne Cash, Cash's daughter, presented the honor during the April 16 awards show in Nashville. Previous recipients include Cash, Hank Williams Jr., Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, and the Dixie Chicks. "John was my hero before he was my friend, and anything with his name on it is really an honor in my eyes," Kristofferson said during a phone interview. "I was thinking back to when I first met him, and if I ever thought that I'd be getting an award with his name on it, it would have carried me through a lot of hard times."[38]
In July 2007, Kristofferson was featured on CMT's Studio 330 Sessions where he played many of his hits.[citation needed]
On June 13, 2008, Kristofferson performed an acoustic in-the-round set with Patty Griffin and Randy Owen (Alabama) for a special taping of a PBS songwriters series aired in December. Each performer played five songs. Kristofferson's set included "The Best of All Possible Worlds", "Darby's Castle", "Casey's Last Ride", "Me and Bobby McGee", and "Here Comes that Rainbow Again". Taping was done in Nashville.[citation needed]
Kristofferson released a new album of original songs titled Closer to the Bone on September 28, 2009. It is produced by Don Was on the New West Records label. Prior to the release, Kristofferson remarked: "I like the intimacy of the new album. It has a general mood of reflecting on where we all are at this time of life."[39]
On November 10, 2009, Kristofferson was honored as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI Country Awards. Throughout his career, Kristofferson's songwriting garnered 48 BMI Country and Pop Awards.[40] He later remarked, "The great thing about being a songwriter is you can hear your baby interpreted by so many people that have creative talents vocally that I don't have."[41] Kristofferson had always denied having a good voice, and had said that as he had aged, any quality it once had was beginning to decay.[42]
On May 11, 2010, Light in the Attic Records released demos that were recorded during Kristofferson's janitorial stint at Columbia. Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos was the first time these recordings were released and included material that would later be featured on other Kristofferson recordings and on the recordings of other prominent artists, such as the original recording of "Me and Bobby McGee".[citation needed]
On June 4, 2011, Kristofferson performed a solo acoustic show at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, showcasing both some of his original hits made famous by other artists, and newer songs.[citation needed]
In early 2013, Kristofferson released a new album of original songs called Feeling Mortal.[44] A live album titled An Evening With Kris Kristofferson was released in September 2014.[45]
Kristofferson voiced the character Chief Hanlon of the NCR Rangers in the hit 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas.[46]
In an interview for Las Vegas magazine Q&A by Matt Kelemen on October 23, 2015, he revealed that a new album, The Cedar Creek Sessions, recorded in Austin, would include some old and some new songs.[47] In December 2016, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album.[48]
Kristofferson performed, with assistance from Carlile, the Joni Mitchell composition "A Case of You", from the 1971 Mitchell album Blue, on November 7, 2018, at the Both Sides Now – Joni 75 A Birthday Celebration to celebrate the 75th birthday of Mitchell.[50]
In June 2019, Kristofferson was announced as being one of the supporting artists for a Barbra Streisand "exclusive European concert" on July 7 in London's Hyde Park as part of the Barclay's Summertime Concert series.[51]
Kristofferson's debut LP included a pro-Vietnam war song, but he said that he later became an opponent of the war after speaking with returning soldiers who had seen combat. Speaking about a soldier who had told him that he had witnessed other soldiers throwing people out of helicopters during interrogation, Kristofferson said, "The notion that you could make a young person do something so inhumane to another soldier—or even worse, a civilian—convinced me that we were in the wrong." Kristofferson called himself a "dove with claws" and remained proud of his military service in spite of his anti-imperialist views.
In a 1991 interview on New Zealand TV, he condemned media support for the Gulf War, saying "The lapdog media cranks out propaganda that would make a Nazi blush."[55] Kristofferson was a supporter of the United Farm Workers and appeared at several rallies and benefits for them, campaigning with Cesar Chavez for the passage of Proposition 14. He continued to play at benefits for the UFW through the 2010s. In 1987, he played at a benefit concert for Leonard Peltier with Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson and Joni Mitchell. In 1995, he dedicated a song to Mumia Abu-Jamal at a concert in Philadelphia, and was booed by the crowd.[56]
He performed in benefit concerts for Palestinian children, and said that he "found a considerable lack of work as a result." At a Bob Dylan anniversary concert shortly after Sinead O'Connor's protest on Saturday Night Live, he showed solidarity with her when she was booed by the crowd.[57]
Personal life
In 1961, Kristofferson married his longtime girlfriend Frances "Fran" Mavia Beer, but they divorced in 1969.[11][58][59] Kristofferson briefly dated Janis Joplin before her death in October 1970.[58] His second marriage was to singer Rita Coolidge in 1973, ending in divorce in 1980.[4][58] Kristofferson married Lisa Meyers in 1983.[58]
Kristofferson and Meyers owned a home in Las Flores Canyon in Malibu, California,[36] and maintained a residence in Hana, Hawaii, on the island of Maui.[58] Kristofferson had eight children from his three marriages: two from his first marriage, one from his second marriage, and five from his marriage to his third wife.[60]
^"Death claims famed pilot". The Times. San Mateo, California. January 4, 1971. p. 3. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved May 26, 2020. Henry C. Kristofferson, 65, famed pilot and former division manager for Pan American World Airways when he was a resident of San Mateo, died... two sons, Kraig and Kris, who has recently won fame as a folk music and country-western singer.
^"Kristoffer Kristofferson". Sports Illustrated. (A Pat on the Back). March 31, 1958. p. 80. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
^"Acts of Will". Pomona College Magazine (Winter 2004). Archived from the original on September 7, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
^"1973". Pomona College Timeline. November 7, 2014. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
^Cohen, Leonard, Greatest hits, Sony Music Entertainment Inc, CD booklet, p. 4, OCLC863239766, archived from the original on October 1, 2024, retrieved February 12, 2023
^"Kris Kristofferson". GRAMMY.com. November 19, 2019. Archived from the original on September 30, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
Further reading
Bernhardt, Jack. (1998). "Kris Kristofferson". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 286–287.
