The actor, songwriter and country giant was lauded by Bob Dylan, had his material covered by Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin, and joined a supergroup with some of country music's biggest names
(Image credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)
Actor and songwriter Kris Kristofferson has passed away at the age of 88.
The news was confirmed in a statement issued by Kristofferson’s family, who said the country music great passed away peacefully in his home in Hawaii surrounded by his loved ones.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 28 at home,” the family wrote.
“We’re all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.”
Born in Brownsville, Texas, on June 22, 1936, Kristofferson would eventually find his way to country music and silver screen stardom following an academic upbringing that saw him study literature at Pomona before attending the prestigious University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.
While in the UK, Kristofferson experienced an early fling with the grassroots rock ‘n’ roll scene there, performing unreleased music under the name ‘Kris Carson’. After graduating in 1960, a spell as a helicopter pilot in the US army, which did nothing to diminish his musical sensibilities, followed.
In the army, he’d write songs inspired by the likes of Hank William and Bob Dylan. An offer to teach English at West Point came, but the aspiring artist turned it down in favor of becoming a “Nashville songwriting bum”.
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Kris Kristofferson & Johnny Cash - Sunday morning coming down (1978 Johnny Cash Christmas Show) - YouTube
After relocating to the country music capital of the world in ’65, Kristofferson worked as a janitor and held down other odd jobs as he tried to get a faltering solo career off the ground. After persevering with his passions in Nashville for more than four years, Kristofferson soon found his big break – not, as legend has it, until after he’d flown a National Guard helicopter to Johnny Cash’s house to drop off some tapes of his music.
Big-name artists soon began covering Kristofferson’s material. Cash and Ray Stevens both recorded Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, which gave its composer his first award: the Songwriter of the Year at the 1970 CMAs.
The floodgates opened, and soon Kristofferson had everyone from Waylon Jennings and Gladys Knight performing his material. Janis Joplin also recorded Me and Bobby McGee – a cut from Kristofferson’s second album – which became her signature track.
Simultaneously, Kristofferson’s solo career finally found its footing, with the arrival of his self-titled debut in 1970 and 1971’s The Silver Tongued Devil and I.
Kristofferson’s style was credited with having a transformative effect on the Nashville scene and country music as a whole. As Bob Dylan himself once put it, “You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything.”
A leading light in the ‘outlaw country’ sound of the 1970s, Kristofferson adopted a harder-edged style that eschewed the contemporary commercialism of Nashville – a sound that would reach its fore in 1985, when Kristofferson formed The Highwaymen with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash.
Music was just part of Kristofferson’s talents, though. By ’72, a hugely successful acting career was in full swing, with the songwriter starring in features directed by Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpah and others.
He won a Golden Globe for his performance in A Star is Born – for which he shared the screen with Barbra Streisand – and starred in Semi-Tough, Songwriter, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Blade.
Over the course of his career, Kristofferson released 18 studio albums, and until the pandemic continued to tour incessantly with his Gibson acoustic guitar.
“When I got started, I was one of the people hoping to bring respect to country music,” Kristofferson once reflected. “Some of the songs I had that got to be hits did that. I imagine that’s why somebody might vote me into a Hall of Fame. I know it’s not because of my golden throat.”
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
