Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson
"Kristofferson" redirects here. For the album, see Kristofferson (album). For the Tim McGraw song, see Kristofferson (song). For other uses, see Christoffersen.
Kris Kristofferson

Kristofferson at the 2006 South by Southwest Festival
Background information
Birth name Kristoffer Kristofferson
Born June 22, 1936 (1936-06-22) (age 75)
Origin Brownsville, Texas, U.S.
Genres Country, folk, rock, outlaw country
Occupations Singer-songwriter, actor
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica
Years active 1966–present
Labels Monument, Mercury, Warner Bros., New West
Associated acts The Highwaymen
Website kriskristofferson.com

Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "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.[citation needed]

Contents

Early life

Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to parents Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a U.S. Army Air Corps (later U.S. Air Force) Major General.[1] Kristofferson's paternal grandfather was also an officer (in the Swedish Army). When Kristofferson was a child, his father pushed him toward a military career.[2] Like most "military brats", Kristofferson moved around frequently as a youth, finally settling down in San Mateo, California, where he graduated from San Mateo High School. An aspiring writer, Kristofferson enrolled in Pomona College in 1954. He experienced his first dose of fame when he appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for his achievements in collegiate rugby union, football, and track and field. He and fellow classmates revived the Claremont Colleges Rugby Club in 1958, which has remained a Southern California rugby dynasty. Kristofferson became a member of Kappa Delta at Pomona College, graduating in 1958 with a BA, summa cum laude in Literature. In a 2004 interview with Pomona College Magazine Kristofferson mentioned philosophy professor Frederick Sontag as an important influence in his life.[3]

Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where his college was Merton. While at Oxford he was awarded his blue for boxing and began writing songs. With the help of his manager, Larry Parnes, he recorded for Top Rank Records under the name Kris Carson. Parnes was working to sell Kris as "a Yank at Oxford" to the British public; Kristofferson was willing to accept that promotional approach if it helped his singing career, which he hoped would enable him to progress towards his goal of becoming a novelist.[4] This early phase of his music career was unsuccessful.[5]

In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a BPhil in English literature and married an old girlfriend, Fran Beer. Kristofferson, under pressure from his family, ultimately joined the U.S. Army and achieved the rank of Captain. He became a helicopter pilot after receiving flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. He also completed Ranger School. During the early 1960s, he was stationed in West Germany as a member of the 8th Infantry Division.[6] It was during this time that he resumed his music career and formed a band. In 1965, when his tour of duty ended, Kristofferson was offered a position as a professor of English Literature at West Point.[7] Instead, he decided to leave the Army and pursue songwriting. His family disowned him due to this decision and they never reconciled with him. They saw it as a rejection of everything they stood for while Kristofferson has stated that he was greatly influenced by the poet William Blake while at Oxford, who had proclaimed that if one has a God-given creative talent then one should use it, or else reap sorrow and despair. Kristofferson sent some of his compositions to a friend's relative, Marijohn Wilkin, a successful Nashville, Tennessee songwriter but when he arrived in the town to see Sam Phillips of Sun Records his shoes were, according to Philips 'falling off his feet.'

Career

Music

After being honorably discharged from the Army in 1965, Kristofferson moved to Nashville. He worked at a variety of odd jobs while struggling for success in music, burdened with medical expenses resulting from 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 accepted some of Kristofferson's songs but chose not to use them. During Kristofferson's janitorial stint for Columbia, Bob Dylan recorded his landmark 1966 album Blonde on Blonde at the studio. Though he had the opportunity to watch some of Dylan's recording sessions, Kristofferson never met Dylan out of fear that he would be fired for approaching him.

He also worked as a commercial helicopter pilot at that 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 [in south Louisiana] 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 south Louisiana]."[8]

In 1966, Dave Dudley released a successful Kristofferson single, "Viet Nam Blues". In 1967, 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 achieved some success as a performer himself, following Johnny Cash's introduction of Kristofferson at the Newport Folk Festival. Kristofferson had previously grabbed Cash's attention when he landed his helicopter in Cash's yard without prior arrangement and gave him some tapes.[9]

Kristofferson signed to Monument Records as a recording artist. In addition to running that label, Fred Foster also served as 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 received the same award from these two organizations in the same year for different songs.

Kristofferson with Rita Coolidge at Willie Nelson's July 4 Picnic 1972.

In 1971, Janis Joplin, who dated Kristofferson for some time until her death, had a number 1 hit with "Me and Bobby McGee" from her posthumous Pearl. When released, it stayed on the number one spot on the charts for weeks. More hits followed from others: Ray Price ("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. Soon after, Kristofferson made his acting debut in The Last Movie (directed by Dennis Hopper) and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. In 1971, 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 Grammy Awards that year with numerous songs nominated, winning country song of the year for "Help Me Make It Through the Night". 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

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). He continued acting, in Sam Peckinpah's 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), for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (and which he noted had been an experience "worse than boot camp") and Flashpoint in 1984 (directed by William Tannen). At the peak of his box-office power, Kristofferson turned down both William Friedkin's Sorcerer (1977), the romantic war film Hanover Street and the first Rambo-installment, First Blood.[10] In spite of his success with Streisand, Kristofferson's solo musical career headed downward with his non-charting ninth album, Shake Hands with the Devil. His next film Freedom Road did not earn a theatrical release in the U.S. Kristofferson's next film was Heaven's Gate, a phenomenal industry-changing failure. In 1986, he starred in The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James with Johnny Cash. In 1989, he was the male lead in the film Millennium with Cheryl Ladd. He earned a supporting role in John Sayles' Lone Star, a film nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay. In 1998, he took a role in the film Blade, playing alongside Wesley Snipes as Blade's mentor Abraham Whistler. He returned to the character in Blade II in 2002 and again in Blade: Trinity in 2004. In 1999, he co-starred with Mel Gibson in Payback. He has also played the title character "Yohan" as an old man in the Norwegian film Yohan-the Children Wanderer.

Mid-career

Also during this time, Kristofferson met singer Rita Coolidge. They married in 1973 and released an album titled Full Moon, another success buoyed by numerous hit singles and Grammy nominations. However, his fifth album, Spooky Lady's Sideshow, released in 1974, was a commercial failure, setting the trend for most of the rest of his career. Artists such as Ronnie Milsap and Johnny Duncan continued to record Kristofferson's material with much success, but his distinctively rough voice and anti-pop sound kept his own audience to a minimum. Meanwhile, more artists took his songs to the top of the charts, including Willie Nelson, whose 1979 LP release of Willie Nelson Sings Kris Kristofferson proved to be a smash success.

In 1979, Kris Kristofferson travelled to Havana, Cuba, to participate in the historic Havana Jam festival that took place between March 2–4, alongside Rita Coolidge, Stephen Stills, the CBS Jazz All-Stars, the Trio of Doom, Fania All-Stars, Billy Swan, Bonnie Bramlett, Mike Finnegan, Weather Report, and Billy Joel, plus an array of Cuban artists such as Irakere, Pacho Alonso, Tata Güines and Orquesta Aragón. His performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos's documentary Havana Jam '79.

Kristofferson and Coolidge divorced in 1980.

Later work

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 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. The single from the Album Highwayman also titled Highwayman was awarded the ACM's single of the year in 1985.[11] 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 Mahatma Gandhi. Kristofferson also appeared in Amerika at about the same time; the miniseries 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 by John Sayles) 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.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted Kristofferson in 1985, as had 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."[citation needed]

In July 2007, Kristofferson was featured on CMT's "Studio 330 Sessions" where he played many of his hits.

On June 13, 2008, Kristofferson performed an acoustic in the round set with Patty Griffin and Randy Owen (Alabama) for a special taping of a PBS songwriters series to be aired in December. Each performer played 5 songs. Kristofferson's included "The Best of All Possible World's," "Darby's Castle," "Casey's Last Ride," "Me and Bobby McGee," and "Here Comes that Rainbow Again." Taping was done in Nashville.

Kristofferson released a new album of original songs entitled Closer to the Bone on September 29, 2009. It is produced by Don Was on the New West label. Previous to the release, Kristofferson remarked: "I like the intimacy of the new album. It has a general mood of reflecting on where we all are at this time of life."[12]

On November 10, 2009, Kristofferson was honored as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI Country Awards. Throughout his career, Kristofferson's songwriting has garnered 48 BMI Country and Pop Awards.[13] He later remarked that "The great thing about being a songwriter is you can hear your baby interpreted by so many people that have creative talents vocally that I don't have."[14]

In December 2009, it was announced that Kristofferson would be portraying Joe in the upcoming album Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a collaboration between rock singer John Mellencamp and novelist Stephen King.[15]

On May 11, 2010, Light in the Attic Records is releasing demos that were recorded during Kristofferson's janitorial stint at Columbia. "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos" is the first time these recordings have been released and includes material that would later be featured on other Kristofferson recordings and on the recordings of other prominent artists, such as the original recording of "Me and Bobby McGee".

Personal life

Kristofferson has been married three times and has eight children. In 1960, Kristofferson married his high-school sweetheart Frances (Fran) Beer. They had two children, a daughter, Tracy, and a son, Kris, before divorcing in 1969. Afterwards, Kristofferson dated Janis Joplin, not long before her death, before dating Barbra Streisand. Joan Baez admitted in a 1983 Rolling Stone interview that she and Kristofferson had had a brief fling somewhere around 1970–71. In 1973, he married singer Rita Coolidge and together they had one child, Casey Kristofferson. They divorced in 1980. In 1983, he married Lisa Meyers and together they have five children—son Jesse Turner, son Jody Ray, son Johnny Robert, daughter Kelly Marie and son Blake Cameron. Jody is a professional wrestler, who made an appearance on the August 13, 2010 edition of WWE SmackDown, losing to The Big Show in a 3 on 1 handicap match. WWE commentator Matt Striker made reference to him after a move by saying "There goes the Highway man." Jody also wrestled Brodus Clay on August 9, 2011 in a tryout match.

He has said that he would like the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire" on his tombstone:

Like a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.

Discography

Main article: Kris Kristofferson discography


Filmography

Games

  • Kristofferson features in the 2010 Bethesda release Fallout: New Vegas as Chief Hanlon, a grizzled old soldier at the end of his career.
  • Also provides the voice of Ned, the player character's adoptive father in the Activison-released GUN.

References

  1. ^ Kris Kristofferson Biography (1936–).
  2. ^ O'Connor, Colleen. "dallasnews.com – Archives". http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED3D0EC465C64D5&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. 
  3. ^ Acts of Will, Pomona College Magazine, Winter 2004
  4. ^ Schneider, Jason "Kris Kristofferson: the Pilgrim's Progress" "Exclaim!" October 2009.
  5. ^ "Oh Boy Records | Kris Kristofferson Bio". Ohboy.com. http://www.ohboy.com/krisbio.html. Retrieved April 10, 2010. [dead link]
  6. ^ http://ww2.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=346
  7. ^ http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/kris-kristoffersons-rock-and-rules
  8. ^ Ron Thibodeaux, "He Made It through the Night," New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 29, 2006.
  9. ^ Hawke, Ethan (April 16, 2009). "The Last Outlaw Poet". Rolling Stone (1076): 57. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/27113898/the_last_outlaw_poet. Retrieved May 23, 2009. 
  10. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001434/bio
  11. ^ "Kris Kristofferson Biography" "CMT" 2004.
  12. ^ "Kris Kristofferson". newwestrecords.com. http://www.newwestrecords.com/KrisKristofferson. Retrieved August 26, 2009. 
  13. ^ "Kris Kristofferson to be Honored as Icon at 57th Annual BMI Country Awards". bmi.com. http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/538885. Retrieved September 15, 2010. 
  14. ^ 'I never doubted once', country icon says. CNN. November 11, 2009. http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/11/i-never-doubted-once-country-icon-says/. Retrieved November 12, 2009. 
  15. ^ "John Mellencamp Official Site | A Year-End Conversation with John". Mellencamp.com. December 15, 2009. http://www.mellencamp.com/?module=news&news_item_id=527. Retrieved April 10, 2010. 

Further reading

  • Bernhardt, Jack. (1998). "Kris Kristofferson." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 286–7.

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Johnny Cash		 First Amendment Center/AMA "Spirit of Americana" Free Speech Award
2003		 Succeeded by
Steve Earle
v · d · eGolden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (1961–1980)

Glenn Ford (1961) · Marcello Mastroianni (1962) · Alberto Sordi (1963) · Rex Harrison (1964) · Lee Marvin (1965) · Alan Arkin (1966) · Richard Harris (1967) · Ron Moody (1968) · Peter O'Toole (1969) · Albert Finney (1970) · Topol (1971) · Jack Lemmon (1972) · George Segal (1973) · Art Carney (1974) · Walter Matthau (1975) · Kris Kristofferson (1976) · Richard Dreyfuss (1977) · Warren Beatty (1978) · Peter Sellers (1979) · Ray Sharkey (1980)

Complete List · (1950–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–2020)
v · Kristofferson  · The Silver Tongued Devil and I  · Border Lord  · Jesus Was a Capricorn  · Spooky Lady's Sideshow  · Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame  · Surreal Thing  · Songs of Kristofferson  · Easter Island  · Shake Hands with the Devil  · To the Bone  · The Winning Hand (with friends)  · Music from Songwriter (with Willie Nelson)  · Repossessed  · Third World Warrior  · A Moment of Forever  · This Old Road  · Closer to the Bone
With Rita Coolidge:
With The Highwaymen:
Highwayman  · Highwayman 2  · The Road Goes on Forever
Live:
Live at the Philharmonic  · The Austin Sessions  · Broken Freedom Song: Live from San Francisco
See also:


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Kris Kristofferson — beim South by Southwest Festival 2006 Kristoffer „Kris“ Kristofferson (* 22. Juni 1936 in Brownsville, Texas) ist ein US amerikanischer Country Sänger, Songwriter und Schauspieler …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Kris Kristofferson — En 2006 Données clés Naissance 22 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Kris Kristofferson — Una imagen de Kris Kristofferson en el South by Southwest Festival 2006, Kristopher Krisfofferson nació el 22 de julio de 1936 en Brownsville, estado Texas, es un compositor de música country, actor cantante estadounidense …   Wikipedia Español

  • Kris Kristofferson discography — This is a discography for American singer songwriter Kris Kristofferson.: For a discography as a member of The Highwaymen see The Highwaymen. Albums *A Kristofferson was re released in 1971 as Me and Bobby McGee *B The Old Road also peaked at #14 …   Wikipedia

  • Kris Kristofferson — …   Википедия

  • Breakaway (Kris Kristofferson album) — Infobox Album Name = Breakaway Type = Album Artist = Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge Released = December 1974 Recorded = Genre = Country Length = 41:51 Label = Monument Producer = Fred Foster Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|3|5… …   Wikipedia

  • Full Moon (Kris Kristofferson album) — Infobox Album Name = Full Moon Type = Album Artist = Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge Released = September 1973 Recorded = Genre = Country Length = 41:51 Label = A M Producer = David Anderle Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|4|5… …   Wikipedia

  • Why Me (Kris Kristofferson song) — Infobox Single Name = Why Me Artist = Kris Kristofferson from Album = Jesus Was a Capricorn A side = B side = Released = April 1973 Format …   Wikipedia

  • The Austin Sessions (Kris Kristofferson album) — Infobox Album Name = The Austin Sessions Type = Album Artist = Kris Kristofferson Released = August 24, 1999 Recorded = Genre = Country Length = 47:16 Label = Atlantic Producer = Fred Mollin Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|3|5… …   Wikipedia

  • Kristofferson — Kris Kristofferson beim South by Southwest Festival 2006 Kristoffer „Kris“ Kristofferson (* 22. Juni 1936 in Brownsville, Texas) ist ein US amerikanischer Country Sänger, Songwriter und Schauspieler …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”