Whatever happened to... Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson

The breakthrough:

Kristofferson began songwriting in 1965. In 1970, Johnny Cash recorded Kristofferson's Sunday Morning Coming Down, which was voted Song of the Year by the Country Music Association.

In 1971, film director Dennis Hopper offered him a bit part in The Last Movie, and so began his acting career. In 1973, Kristofferson and his second wife, singer-songwriter Rita Coolidge, won a Grammy for their duet on From the Bottle to the Bottom. In 1976, he achieved worldwide fame acting with Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born.

Kristofferson had 60 movie roles and wrote country classics such as Help Me Make It Through the Night and For the Good Times. More than 500 artists have covered his gritty, gospel-influenced tunes.

The background:

Kristofferson, the eldest of three children, was born in Brownsville, Texas. His father was an Air Force officer whose itinerant lifestyle took the family to San Mateo, California. There, Kris was a Golden Gloves boxer and studied creative writing.

When he won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford to study for a master's degree in English literature, his life bloomed. Before Oxford, Kristofferson was in the US Army in Germany. There he heard Cash when he entertained the troops.

Kristofferson opted to try Nashville rather than teach at the West Point military academy. It was a great schooling, as was his time as janitor at Nashville's Columbia Studios. While there, Kristofferson finally met Cash and the pair bonded. "He told Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell that my buddy Mickey Newbury and I were the best songwriters in Nashville. It was a great endorsement."

At 68, Kristofferson looks like an unreconstructed version of his younger, wilder self, but his alcoholism, and the triple heart bypass five years ago have left their mark.

Why is he back? "I'd been off the road a while, and didn't miss it much," he says. "But then I did a solo gig in Nashville after Johnny Cash's funeral and the songs seemed to take on a new resonance."

Kristofferson says the loss of Cash still "weighs heavy". It was Cash who introduced him at a gig at the Newport Folk Festival in 1969. "That performance is forever etched on my memory because it was the night of the first moon landing. After that, John kept a lyric of mine, The Golden Idol, in his wallet. He never recorded it, but just the fact that he was carrying it around was big for me."

Of A Star is Born, he says: "It was a box-office smash, but the critics panned it. They had in it for Barbra. It changed everything for me, too. Suddenly, my band and I were playing stadiums."

Kristofferson has always been politically outspoken and albums such as Repossessed (1986) and Third World Warrior (1990) left him "pretty much unmarketable. Because of the stances I was taking on human rights, for example, country radio wouldn't touch me." Cash intervened, helping to launch a renaissance Kristofferson is still enjoying.

Politically, Kristofferson continues to wade in. Of George Bush's foreign policy, he says: "I think it's the worst thing that's happened in my time on the planet."

Last seen and heard:

Kristofferson, who has been with his wife, Lisa, for 21 years, is still giving concerts. His last was this month in Birmingham, England.

He continues to write music, including scores for film and television, most recently for Sam Peckinpah's Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade. Later acting work includes Blade: Trinity (2004), Silver City (2004), Blade II (2002), Planet of the Apes (2001) The Joyriders (1999) and Blade (1998).

So where's the autobiography? "I'm too busy living life to pull up and start writing."

- INDEPENDENT