Was he crucified? Was he done in by the lawman?

Are you satisfied that he'll never ride again?

Some people say he got away; they say he never died at all.

If that story's true, does it bother you, my friend?

Kristofferson, "Living Legend" (1978).

 

I am compelled to share the sadness – and, at same time celebratory freedom – at hearing of the passing of Kris Kristofferson, who died Saturday, September 28 at his home in Hana on Maui. 

 

Kristofferson seemed to be exceptional at everything he tried: writing, football, rugby, boxing, piloting, songwriting, performing, acting. He could have done anything. His vision for his life was to make it through song and acting and he did so, placing himself in a lineage that goes back to A.P. Carter and arcs to Johnny Cash, through Kristofferson to John Prine, and from there to Iris DeMent and beyond. He has said that his life was a figment of his own imagination. The self-awareness to know that and the courage to dream big are gifts that we can all receive through his music. 

 

This is Kristofferson from the liner notes he penned for Prine's debut album (1971):

 

Then he started singing, and by the end of the first line we knew we were hearing something else. It must’ve been like stumbling onto Dylan when he first busted onto the Village scene (in fact Al Aronowitz said the same thing a few weeks later after hearing John do a guest set at the Bitter End). One of those rare, great times when it all seems worth it, like when the Vision would rise upon Blake’s "weary eyes, Even in this Dungeon, & this Iron Mill."

 

I produce a radio show on Bob Dylan and his fellow travelers, so often my entry point to other singers and songwriters is through Dylan and their connections with him. Obviously, Kristofferson was an important fellow traveler. It was Kristofferson who had the starring role as Billy the Kid in Dylan's first major Hollywood film. Further, Dylan chummed around with Kristofferson during the filming in Durango and his first attempt at recording the soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid occurred down in Mexico City with Kristofferson's band. 

 

Kristofferson was the emcee for the October 16, 1992 Madison Square Garden concert, Columbia Records Celebrates the Music of Bob Dylan. Todd Haynes employed Kristofferson as his narrator for I'm Not There (2007). Dylan recorded "They Killed Him," then a recent Kristofferson composition, for 1986's Knocked Out Loaded. He also performed "Help Me Make It Through the Night" during his infamous four-hour concert/band rehearsal of January 12, 1990 at Toad's Place in New Haven, Connecticut. 

 

Just as Phil Ochs reached for and inhabited the tenor and songwriting of the first few years of Dylan's career, and as Lou Reed did so for Dylan's polka dot amphetamine period of 1965 and 1966, and as Greg Brown would later do for the first few years of Dylan's return as romantic poet of the dispossessed (Planet Waves, Blood on the Tracks, and Desire), Kristofferson reached for and inhabited the imaginative terrain wherein Dylan lived from 1967 to 1973: singing and writing songs of love and of antiheroes riding the range and living on the road, dabbling in film and with strings and steel guitar, all the while projecting an insouciance that is as attractive as it was destiny-making. When one's ambition is fulfilled by the gifts of the present, one isn't going to scale the charts forever. But man did he look and sound good while it lasted.

 

It was with sadness that I reported in the "20 Pounds of Headlines" news segment from the January of 2021 episode of Hard Rain & Slow Trains: Bob Dylan & Fellow Travelers ("The Rough and Rowdy Crew"): 

 

He started out emptying ash trays as a janitor while Dylan was recording Blonde on Blonde at Columbia Music Row Studios in Nashville in the winter of 1966 and he went on to write “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again),” and, of course, “Why Me.” He recorded 24 studio albums, which includes collaborations with ex-wife Rita Colidge, Barbara Streisand, Dolly Parton, Brenda Lee, and Willie Nelson. And he recorded 3 albums with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson as The Highwaymen. And now, he has retired. Kris Kristofferson announced his retirement through his management company yesterday. His son, John, will be managing his business affairs going forward. About fifteen years ago he was incorrectly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease; he continued to perform through that, releasing his final studio album, two-disc The Cedar Creek Sessions, in 2016. He starred as Billy the Kid in the 1973 film Pat Garret & Billy the Kid for which Dylan recorded the soundtrack. He is 84 years old.

 

He made it to 88 before riding away from us. Although, perhaps, he lingers a little. His voice is like an old friend, so I hope that he can receive the tributes from the many lives he affected. I hope that you can listen to some of his music in the coming weeks as a way of refamiliarizing yourself with such an old friend.


I am presently penning a reflection on growing up in the wake of Vietnam, when the entire American adult world was influenced by a war of which my pediatric consciousness was unaware. It was a bit like diving in shark-infested waters and enjoying how undisturbed a reef's vegetation is by other animals...yet, all the while not hearing imploring screams from the beach to evacuate.


During the time of Vietnam's peak, Kristofferson – an army captain and helicopter pilot who knew the price and fog of war – chose Nashville, romance, and love. His choices were as influenced by the tumult around him as any of us are.


But his led to the softening of millions of hearts and a taming influence during a time of unrest and upheaval. His great role was in A Star is Born, but his lasting influence, on this day when news of his passing arrives, prods us to consider the influence we carry forward once a star has died: "Some people say he got away; they say he never died at all / If that story's true, does it bother you, my friend?"