Kris Kristofferson dies at 88: Dolly Parton and Barbra Streisand among tributes to the veteran singer-songwriter and actor

He died peacefully and surrounded by his family at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, said family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland.

Beginning in the late 1960s, the Texas native wrote such classics as Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, Help Me Make it Through the Night, For The Good Times and Me And Bobby McGee.

Kristofferson was a singer, but many of his songs were better known because they were performed by others, whether it was Ray Price singing For the Good Times or Janis Joplin singing Me And Bobby McGee.

Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake by heart, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair, bell-bottoms and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new generation of country songwriters alongside peers such as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T Hall.

“There is no better living songwriter than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson said during a November 2009 awards ceremony held by BMI. “Everything you write is a standard and we will all have to live with that.”

As an actor, Kristofferson played the lead opposite Barbara Streisand and Ellen Burstyn, but he also liked gunfight westerns and cowboy dramas.

He received a Golden Globe for Best Actor for the 1976 romantic drama A Star is Born, opposite Streisand.

A Golden Gloves boxer and football player in college, he earned a master’s degree in English from Oxford University’s Merton College and turned down an appointment to teach at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, to dedicate yourself to writing songs. in Nashville.

Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966, when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal double album Blonde On Blonde.

At times, Kristofferson’s legend was larger than life. Johnny Cash liked to tell a rather exaggerated story about how Kristofferson, a former US Army pilot, landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to give him a tape of Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down with a beer in one hand.

Over the years in interviews, Kristofferson said that a helicopter landed at Cash’s house, but that the Man in Black was not home at the time, that the demo tape was a song that no one recorded and that it certainly did not I couldn’t even fly a plane. helicopter holding a beer.

In a 2006 interview with the Associated Press, he said he might not have had a career without Cash.

“Shaking his hand when I was still in the military backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I decided I was going to come back,” Kristofferson said.

“It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before cutting any of my songs. He recorded my first album, which was record of the year. “He put me on stage the first time.”

One of his most recorded songs, Me And Bobby McGee, was written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in his head called Me And Bobby McKee, named after a secretary in his building.

Kristofferson said in an interview in Performing Songwriter magazine that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man. and a woman together on the road after watching Frederico Fellini’s film La Strada.

Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous number one hit for Joplin.

Hits recorded by Kristofferson include Why Me, Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do), Watch Closely Now, Desperados Waiting For A Train, A Song I’d Like To Sing and Jesus Was A Capricorn.

In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and they had a successful duo career that earned them two Grammy Awards. They divorced in 1980.

Sharing a tribute on Instagram, Streisand said, “I knew he was something special” the first time she saw him perform.

“Barefoot and strumming his guitar, he seemed like the perfect choice for a script he was developing, which eventually became A Star is Born,” he wrote.

The film won the Oscar for best original song, for the song titled Evergreen.

Streisand continued: “In the movie, Kris and I sang the song I had written for the movie’s main love theme, ‘Evergreen.’

“For my last gig in 2019 at London’s Hyde Park, I asked Kris to join me on stage to sing our other duet from A Star Is Born, ‘Lost Inside Of You’.

“He was as charming as ever and the audience showered him with applause. “It was a pleasure to see him receive the recognition and love he so richly deserved.”

Among the musicians who paid tribute to Kristofferson was American country star Dolly Parton, who wrote on Instagram: “What a great loss.

“What a great writer. What a great actor. What a great friend.

“I will always love you, Dolly.”

American singer and actress Reba McEntire posted a picture of the couple laughing on stage and described Kristofferson as “one of my favorite people.”

“What a gentleman, kind soul and lover of words. “I am very happy to have been able to meet him and be close to him,” she added.

American star LeAnn Rimes also described him as “an epic human being with the biggest heart” on her Instagram story.

Among those paying tribute was Grammy-winning singer Travis Tritt, who hailed him as an “inspiration.”

And he added: “I was lucky enough to meet him on the set of “Outlaw Justice” that we filmed in Spain in 1998.

“My deepest condolences to Kris’ wife, Lisa, and all his family, friends and fans.”

In 2004, Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Country Music Hall of Fame Executive Director Kyle Young said, “Kris Kristofferson believed that creativity is a gift from God, and those who ignore that gift are doomed to unhappiness.

“He preached that a life of the mind gives voice to the soul, and his work gave voice not only to his soul but to ours. He leaves a resounding legacy.”