Kris Kristofferson has died. The country legend was 88 years old

Kris Kristofferson died on the Hawaiian island of Maui, surrounded by his family. A prominent personality of American country music, a singer, lyricist, but also an actor, was eighty-eight years old. He passed away naturally and peacefully on Saturday, September 28, 2024. Born June 22, 1936 in Brownsville, Texas, the family moved frequently due to his father’s career in the military. His father wanted him to follow in his footsteps, but Kris wanted to become a writer and actively pursued this goal. Already at the age of seventeen, he published two prize-winning essays, and later successfully studied literature at Pomona College. Thanks to a scholarship, he also spent some time in Great Britain in Oxford, his first musical attempts also fall into this period, admittedly somewhat unsuccessful. He spent his service in the army as a helicopter pilot, later he was supposed to become a literature teacher at the military academy at West Point, but he refused this position and set out on the path of a song writer. In Nashville, he scraped by as best he could, working as a cleaner at the Columbia studios, among other things. There he met June Carter Cash, wife of country star Johnny Cash, in the hallway and convinced her to give him a tape of his songs. In vain then. A famous story goes that a few weeks later, Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cash’s property to get his attention. Eventually, Cashe acquired the song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, recorded it, and Kristofferson won Songwriter of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards in 1970. Kristofferson’s pursuit of his own music career continued, but by then his compositions were having more success performed by other artists, including Jerry Lee Lewis or Roger Miller, the song “Me and Bobby McGee” performed by Janis Joplin became a hit. Musical success came only after Johnny Cash introduced it at the Newport Festival. He made his solo debut with the record “Kristofferson” (again) in 1970. He released his last album “The Cedar Creek Sessions” in 2018. He was also a member of the country supergroup Highwaymen (along with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennigs and Johnny Cash), together they released two very successful plates. Kristofferson was also unmissable as an actor. He starred in three Sam Peckinpah films – “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid” (1973), “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” (1974) and “Convoy” (1978) -, he appeared in Martin Scorsese’s film “Alice Already Here he doesn’t live”, he couldn’t be overlooked even in the comic trilogy “Blade” (1998, 2002, 2004). He performed concerts until 2021, when he announced that he was retiring. He was married three times during his life and became the father of eight children. According to the musician’s wishes, the first three verses of the song “Bird On The Wire” by Leonard Cohen should appear on his tombstone.“;$(this).parent().parent().html(tmpo);return false;”>