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Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an
influential American country music songwriter, singer and actor. He is best known
for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me
Make It Through the Night". Kristofferson is the sole writer of most of his songs,
but he has collaborated with various other figures of the Nashville scene such as
Shel Silverstein and Fred Foster.
 Early
life
Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas. Like most military brats he moved
around much as a youth; he finally settled down in San Mateo, California, where he
graduated from San Mateo High School. Kristofferson's father was an Air Force
general who pushed his son toward a military career. Kristofferson got his first
dose of fame when he appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces In The Crowd" for his
achievements in rugby, football, and track and field. An aspiring writer,
Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University (Merton College,
Oxford) after previously attending Pomona College. While in England, Kristofferson
began writing songs and working with his manager Larry Parnes; he recorded for Top
Rank Records under the name Kris Carson, but was unsuccessful.
As an undergraduate, Kristofferson was a member of the Kappa Delta Fraternity.
In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a master's degree in English literature and
married an old girlfriend, Fran Beer. His studies of literature are reflected in
his song, "The Best of All Possible Worlds"; the French writer Voltaire satirized
similar ideas of philosophical optimism in his short novel Candide.
Kristofferson ultimately joined the U.S. Army and achieved the rank of captain. He
became a helicopter pilot after receiving flight training at Fort Rucker in
southeastern Alabama. Later, during the early 1960s, he was stationed in West
Germany and returned to music and formed a band. In 1965, he resigned his
commission to pursue songwriting. He had just been assigned to become an English
Literature professor at West Point. Kristofferson sent some of his compositions to
a friend's relative, Marijohn Wilkin, a successful Nashville, Tennessee,
songwriter.
His daughter briefly attended Hyndland Secondary School in Glasgow, UK.
Music
career
Kristofferson moved to Nashville after resigning his commission in 1965, intent on
becoming a professional songwriter. He worked a variety of odd jobs while
struggling to make it in the music business, burdened with expensive medical bills
as a result of his son's defective esophagus. He and his wife soon divorced.
He got a job sweeping floors at Columbia Studios in Nashville. There he met Johnny
Cash, who initially took some of his songs but ignored them. During Kristofferson's
time working as a janitor for Columbia, Bob Dylan was recording his landmark 1966
album Blonde on Blonde at the studio. Though Kristofferson was able to watch some
of the sessions, he never got to meet Dylan because he was afraid that he would be
fired for approaching him.
He was also working as a commercial helicopter pilot at the time for a south
Louisiana firm called 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 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 1966, Dave Dudley released a successful Kristofferson single, "Viet Nam Blues".
The following year, 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", "Darby's Castle"). He also gained some
success as a performer himself, due to Johnny Cash's introduction of Kristofferson
at the Newport Folk Festival. He got Cash's attention when he landed his helicopter
in Cash's yard and gave him some tapes.
Kristofferson signed to Monument Records as a recording artist. The label was run
by Fred Foster, also manager of Combine Music, Kristofferson's songwriting label.
His debut album for Monument in 1970 was Kristofferson, which included a few new
songs as well as many of his previous hits. Sales were poor, although this debut
album would become a success the following year when it was re-released under the
title Me & Bobby McGee. Kristofferson's compositions were still in high demand.
Ray Price ("For the Good Times"), Waylon Jennings ("The Taker"), Bobby Bare ("Come
Sundown"), Johnny Cash ("Sunday Morning Coming Down") and Sammi Smith ("Help Me
Make It Through the Night") all recorded successful versions of his songs in the
early 1970s. "For the Good Times" (Ray Price) won 'Song of the Year" in 1970 from
the Academy of Country Music, while "Sunday Morning Coming Down" (Johnny Cash) won
the same award from the Academy's rival, the Country Music Association in the same
year. This is the only time an individual has won the same award from these two
organizations in the same year for different songs.
In 1971, Janis Joplin, who dated Kris until her death, had a #1 hit with "Me and
Bobby McGee" from her posthumous Pearl. She performed the definitive version of the
song as it ranked high on Rolling Stones 500 greatest songs list and stayed on the
number one spot on the charts for weeks. More hits followed from others: Ray Price
("I Won't Mention It Again", "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").
Kristofferson released his second album, The Silver Tongued Devil and I in 1971;
the album was a success and established Kristofferson's career as a recording
artist in his own right. Not long after, Kristofferson made his acting debut in The
Last Movie (directed by Dennis Hopper) and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival.
In 1972, 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 Grammies that
year with numerous songs nominated and several winning song of the year.
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.
Film
career
For the next few years, Kristofferson focused on acting. He appeared in Blume in
Love (directed by Paul Mazursky) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (directed by Sam
Peckinpah) and also married Rita Coolidge in 1973. With his new wife, Kristofferson
released an album called Full Moon, another success buoyed by numerous hit singles
and Grammy nominations. However, his fifth album, Spooky Lady's Sideshow was a
commercial failure, setting the trend for most of the rest of his career. Artists
like Ronnie Milsap and Johnny Duncan continued to record Kristofferson's material
with much success, but his amazing yet none-the-less rough voice and anti-pop sound
kept his own audience to a minimum. He continued acting, in Bring Me the Head of
Alfredo Garcia, Convoy, (another Sam Peckinpah film which was released in 1978),
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Vigilante Force, a film based on the Yukio Mishima
novel The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, and A Star Is Born (with Barbra
Streisand). In spite of his success with Streisand, Kristofferson's career was
heading downward with the non-charting ninth album, Shake Hands with the Devil. His
next film, Freedom Road, did not earn a theatrical release in the U.S. He and Rita
Coolidge then divorced in 1980. Meanwhile, more artists were taking his songs to
the top of the charts, including Willie Nelson, whose Willie Nelson Sings Kris
Kristofferson LP was a smash success. Kristofferson's next film was Heaven's Gate,
a phenomenal industry changing failure in which he turned in a nuanced
performance.
Later
career
In 1982, Kristofferson participated (with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Brenda
Lee) on The Winning Hand, a country success that failed to break into mainstream
audiences. He then married again, to Lisa Meyers, and concentrated on films for a
time, appearing in The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck, Flashpoint and Songwriter. The
latter also starred Willie Nelson. Kristofferson was nominated for an Academy Award
for Best Original Song Score. Music from Songwriter (an album of duets between
Nelson and Kristofferson) was a massive country success.
Nelson and Kristofferson continued their partnership, and added Waylon Jennings and
Johnny Cash to form the supergroup The Highwaymen. Their first album, Highwayman
was a huge success, and the supergroup continued working together for a time. 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 Mohandas Gandhi. Kristofferson also appeared in Amerika at
about the same time; the mini-series was controversial, hypothesizing life under
Communist domination.
In spite of the success of Highwayman 2 in 1990, Kristofferson's solo recording
career slipped significantly in the early 1990s, though he continued to record
successfully with the Highwaymen. Lone Star (1996 film) reinvigorated
Kristofferson's acting career, and he soon appeared in Blade, Blade II, Blade:
Trinity, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Fire Down Below, Tim Burton's remake of
Planet of the Apes, "Chelsea Walls" Payback, The Jacket and Fast Food Nation.
Kristofferson was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977. 1999 saw the release of The Austin
Sessions. An album on which Kristofferson reworked some of his favorite songs with
the help of befriended artists such as Mark Knopfler, Steve Earle and Jackson
Browne. In 2003 Broken Freedom Song was released, a live album recorded in San
Francisco.
In 2004 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. 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."
In July 2007, Kristofferson was featured on CMT's "Studio 330 Sessions" where he
played many of his hits.
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Kris
Kirstefferson - Manifestor - Biography
