Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing model and tough charisma who grew to become a rustic music celebrity and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.
Kristofferson died at his dwelling on Maui, Hawaii on Saturday, household spokeswoman Ebie McFarland stated in an electronic mail. He was 88.
McFarland stated Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his household. No trigger was given. He was 88.
Starting within the late Sixties, the Brownsville, Texas native wrote such classics requirements as “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” “For the Good Times” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson was a singer himself, however a lot of his songs have been greatest referred to as carried out by others, whether or not Ray Price crooning “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”
He additionally starred reverse Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese’s 1974 movie “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” starred reverse Barbra Streisand within the 1976 “A Star Is Born,” and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s “Blade” in 1998.
Kristofferson, who might recite William Blake from reminiscence, wove intricate folks music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into standard nation music. With his lengthy hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a brand new breed of nation songwriters together with such friends as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.
“There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson stated throughout a November 2009 award ceremony for Kristofferson held by BMI. “Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”
He was a Golden Gloves boxer and soccer participant in faculty, acquired a grasp’s diploma in English from Merton College on the University of Oxford in England and turned down an appointment to show on the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to interrupt into the business, he labored as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal “Blonde on Blonde” double album.
At occasions, the legend of Kristofferson was bigger than actual life. Johnny Cash preferred to inform a principally exaggerated story of how Kristofferson, a former U.S. Army pilot, landed a helicopter on Cash’s garden to present him a tape of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” with a beer in a single hand. Over the years in interviews, Kristofferson stated with all respect to Cash, whereas he did land a helicopter at Cash’s home, the Man in Black wasn’t even dwelling on the time, the demo tape was a track that nobody ever really lower and he actually couldn’t fly a helicopter holding a beer.
In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he stated he won’t have had a profession with out Cash.
“Shaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I’d decided I’d come back,” Kristofferson stated. “It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first time.”
One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” was written primarily based on a advice from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a track title in his head referred to as “Me and Bobby McKee,” named after a feminine secretary in his constructing. Kristofferson stated in an interview within the journal, “Performing Songwriter,” that he was impressed to jot down the lyrics a couple of man and girl on the street collectively after watching the Frederico Fellini movie, “La Strada.”
Joplin, who had an in depth relationship with Kristofferson, modified the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a person and lower her model simply days earlier than she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording grew to become a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.
Hits that Kristofferson recorded embody “Why Me,” “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do),” “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “A Song I’d Like to Sing” and “Jesus Was a Capricorn.”
In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and collectively they’d a profitable duet profession that earned them two Grammy awards. They divorced in 1980.
He retired from performing and recording in 2021, making solely occasional visitor appearances on stage.
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