Songwriting Legend Kris Kristofferson Dead at 88
TasteOfCountry.com
By: Sterling Whitaker
Contributing Authors: Billy Dukes
Legendary songwriter Kris Kristofferson has died. The singer, songwriter, actor and country and rock influencer was surrounded by family when he passed on Saturday (Sept. 28) at age 88.
No cause of death was given, but family expressed gratitude for their time with him and for his many fans.
“Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all,” a statement reads.
Though he wanted to pursue writing and music, Kristofferson’s family pressured him to join the military, which he did after college, rising to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army and becoming a Ranger. While stationed in West Germany in the early 1960s, Kristofferson formed a band and resumed his interest in music, and when he was offered a position teaching English Literature at West Point, he decided instead to leave the Army and move to Nashville to pursue songwriting full-time — a move that caused his family to disown him. They never reconciled.
Kristofferson worked odd jobs in Nashville, including a gig as a janitor at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, where he met June Carter and gave her a tape to give to Johnny Cash. Weeks later, in a move that would become a Nashville legend, Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to get his attention, though contrary to popular myth, he later said Cash was not home at the time. The bold move did get his attention, and Cash cut one of the songs from the tape, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” which became a huge hit and won Kristofferson a CMA Award.
His songs now in demand, Kristofferson earned a slew of cuts as a songwriter over the next few years, including classic hits like Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Once More With Feeling,” Faron Young’s “Your Time’s Comin’,” “For the Good Times” by Ray Price, Waylon Jennings’ “The Taker” and Sami Smith’s rendition of “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” “For the Good Times” won the 1970 ACM Award for Song of the Year, while “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” took the same title at that year’s CMAs.
Kristofferson launched a solo career in the wake of that attention, releasing his self-titled debut album in 1970. It was initially unsuccessful, but became a success when it was re-issued under the title Me & Bobby McGhee the following year, after Janis Joplin scored a posthumous hit with that song. His second album, The Silver Tongued Devil and I, was a success, yielding the hit “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again), and while his third, Border Lord, was a commercial disappointment, Kristofferson’s fourth album, 1972’s Jesus Was a Capricorn, scored a success with “Why Me,” which went on to become one of his best-known songs.
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