“If it sounds country, that’s what it is. It’s a country song.” Truer words than Kris Kristofferson’s introduction to his recording of “Me and Bobby McGee” may never have been spoken.
But to truly SOUND country, a song must take full advantage of the songwriter’s experiences. After all experiences are what country music is all about.
Kristofferson, who died Sept. 28, 2024, at age 88, had as many experiences as anyone in the business.
Kris Kristofferson’s resume is impressive — and not just for his musical experience.
In addition to numerous accomplishments in music and show business, Kristofferson could boast of being the following:
- An English major with award-winning essays;
- A college athlete;
- A Rhodes Scholar;
- An attendee of Oxford University;
- A U.S. Army Ranger, captain, and helicopter pilot; and
- A part-time dredger.
Even with all that, when he got out of the Army and looked toward a career as a songwriter, the best job he could find was sweeping floors in a Nashville studio. He made ends meet by flying helicopters off oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico while trying to get some of his songs into the hands of a performing star.
His early efforts at songwriting were memorable, but none met with commercial success.
Artists like Billy Walker, Faron Young and Roger Miller all recorded songs penned by Kristofferson. But even Miller, who recorded “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” didn’t exactly have a hit with the song. Fortunately, a few years later, Kristofferson hooked Johnny Cash up the same song. Cash’s first performance of “Sunday Morning” on live television became a legendary moment in country music history.
Ironically, perhaps Kris Kristofferson’s most popular and most-often-covered song, “Me and Bobby McGee,” became a mega-hit … but Janis Joplin, the rocker who brought it to No. 1 status, was far from a country musician.
Others had great success with the song as well, including Roger Miller, Jerry Lee Lewis, Kenny Rogers, and even the Statler Brothers.
Moreover, the song officially marked Kristofferson’s acceptance as a songwriter, and more of his music began to be recorded by country’s biggest stars.
Stepping behind the microphone himself, Kristofferson also gained success as a performer with the hit song “The Silver-Tongued Devil and I” and “Loving Her was Easier than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again.”
In 1971, he had an impressive showing at the Grammy Awards as many of his songs took home top honors while others were nominated in various categories. Hits like “Help Me Make it through the Night” and “For the Good Times” followed. Again, both songs were covered by numerous artists, reaching hit status for several of them.
By the mid ’70s, as if being a Grammy award-winning songwriter wasn’t enough of a feather in the Kristofferson’s hat, he began to make inroads in Hollywood.
In the coming years, he starred in numerous movies alongside the likes of Gene Hackman and Burt Reynolds. Perhaps his most notable role was opposite Barbara Streisand in “A Star Is Born.”
In 1978, Kristofferson starred in “Convoy,” a film-based take on C.W. McCall’s hit song of a few years earlier. He played the lead role in the movie — Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwold. While the film was not as successful as “White Line Fever” or “Smokey and the Bandit,” two other trucking-based movies of the day, it did pull in $45 million at the box office.
Kristofferson’s acting career didn’t slow down in the ’80s, and he starred in several more films alongside co-stars like Steven Segal, Johnny Cash and Jane Fonda.
While it seemed Kristofferson succeeded in every form of entertainment at which he tried his hand, perhaps his most notable accomplishment came in 1985 when he teamed up with his long-time friends and mentors Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash to form the country group The Highwaymen.
The four superstars won song of the year with “Highwayman,” and they recorded several others over the ensuing years. But it was the live performances that brought the group some of its greatest fame. Arguably, never in the history of country music had a more star-studded lineup of musicians been on stage at the same time than in a performance of “The Highwaymen.”
Kristofferson, Nelson, Jennings and Cash made three-hour performances out of singing their own songs and each other’s. Many of those, including “Help Me Make it through the Night,” “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Luckenbach, Texas,” and “There Ain’t No Good in an Evil Hearted Woman” were megahits long before the foursome teamed up.
As the ’90s passed, Kristofferson’s commercial success slowly began to wane.
He remained popular on-stage as one of The Highwaymen, but his songwriting slowed. He continued to take on acting parts but none of the films met with much success.
But while he may have lost a step as an entertainer, it was time for Kristofferson to reap the rewards of a career well-spent. Already inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, he received his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004. He followed this with other awards, including the Johnny Cash Visionary Award, the Johnny Mercer Award and even more Grammy nominations.
He continued to produce music throughout the period, and although it met with critical success, it did not perform well commercially. Finally, in January 2021, Kristofferson announced his retirement.
Long after Kristofferson’s death, his legacy will live on. His achievements before he ever even became involved in entertainment are legendary — and those beginning in the late ’60s, when he first entered the music business, are stellar.
There has never been an entertainer like Kris Kristofferson, and country music will be hard-pressed to ever find another of his caliber.
But don’t worry, music fans: Rest assured that artists will be covering Kristofferson’s music for decades to come … and no doubt, some of those old songs will reach the top of the charts once again.
Until next time, keep that Country Gold playing on the satellite radio. The greats are dying off too fast to forget them.
Photo courtesy of Kris Kristofferson’s official Facebook page
Since retiring from a career as an outdoor recreation professional from the State of Arkansas, Kris Rutherford has worked as a freelance writer and, with his wife, owns and publishes a small Northeast Texas newspaper, The Roxton Progress. Kris has worked as a ghostwriter and editor and has authored seven books of his own. He became interested in the trucking industry as a child in the 1970s when his family traveled the interstates twice a year between their home in Maine and their native Texas. He has been a classic country music enthusiast since the age of nine when he developed a special interest in trucking songs.
