Kris Kristofferson


Kristofferson in 2018

Born Kristoffer Kristofferson
June 22, 1936 (age 84)
Brownsville, Texas, U.S.
Alma mater: Pomona College (BA)
Merton College, Oxford (B.Phil)

Website: www.kriskristofferson.com

Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are the songs "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night", all of which were hits for other artists. Kristofferson composed his own songs and collaborated with Nashville songwriters such as Shel Silverstein.

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Early life

Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a U.S. Army Air Corps officer (later a U.S. Air Force major general). His paternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden, while his mother had English, Scots-Irish, German, Swiss-German, and Dutch ancestry.[citation needed] Kristofferson's paternal grandfather was an officer in the Swedish Army.[citation needed] When Kristofferson was a child, his father pushed him towards a military career.

At the age of 17, Kristofferson took a summer job with a dredging contractor on Wake Island. He called it "the hardest job I ever had".

Education

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 in 1954. An aspiring writer, Kristofferson enrolled in Pomona College that same year. Kris Kristofferson's early writing included essays which won him prizes, and "The Rock" and "Gone Are the Days" were published in The Atlantic Monthly. These early stories reveal the roots of Kris' passions and concerns. "The Rock" is about a geographical feature that resembled the form of a woman, while the latter was about a racial incident.

He experienced his first dose of fame in 1958 when he appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" on March 31 for his achievements in collegiate Rugby Union, American football, and track and field. He and his classmates revived the Claremont Colleges Rugby Club in 1958, which has remained a Southern California rugby institution. Kristofferson graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in literature. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa his junior year. In a 2004 interview with Pomona College Magazine, Kristofferson mentioned philosophy professor Frederick Sontag as an important influence in his life.

Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he studied at Merton College. While at Oxford, he was awarded his Blue for boxing, played rugby for his college, and began writing songs. At Oxford, he was also acquainted with fellow Rhodes scholar, art critic, and poet Michael Fried. With the help of his manager, Larry Parnes, Kristofferson recorded for Top Rank Records under the name Kris Carson. Parnes was working to sell Kristofferson 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. This early phase of his music career was unsuccessful.

In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a B.Phil. degree in English literature. The following year he married his longtime girlfriend, Frances Mavia Beer.

Career

Military service

Kristofferson, under pressure from his family, joined the U.S. Army, was commissioned as a second lieutenant and attained 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. During this time, he resumed his music career and formed a band. In 1965, when his tour in Germany ended, Kristofferson was given an assignment to teach English literature at West Point. Instead, he decided to leave the Army and pursue songwriting. His family disowned him because of his career decision, and sources are unclear on whether or not they reconciled. They saw it as a rejection of everything they stood for, in spite of the fact that Kristofferson has said he is proud of his time in the military, and received the Veteran of the Year Award at the 2003 American Veterans Awards ceremony.

Music

After leaving the army in 1965, Kristofferson moved to Nashville. He worked at a variety of odd jobs while struggling for success in music while 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 Recording Studios in Nashville. He met June Carter there and asked her to give Johnny Cash a tape of his. She did, but Cash put it on a large pile with others. He also worked as a commercial helicopter pilot for south Louisiana firm 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]."

Weeks after giving Carter his tapes, Kristofferson landed a helicopter in Cash's front yard, gaining his full attention. A story about Kristofferson having a beer in one hand and some songs in the other upon arrival was reputed, but has been disproven, with Kristofferson saying that, "It was still kind of an invasion of privacy that I wouldn't recommend. To be honest, I don't think he was there... John had a pretty creative memory." But upon hearing "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", Cash decided to record it, and that year Kristofferson won Songwriter of the Year at the Country Music Awards.

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Kris Kristofferson - Me And Bobby McGee (1979)
1,551,092 views•Jul 10, 2011

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Kris's tribute to Dorsey Burnette

Dorsey last appeared in public on August 18, 1979 at The Performing Arts Center in Oxnard, California, the day before he died of a massive coronary at his home in Canoga Park, California, aged 46. He played a half hour show at a benefit for the Arthritis Foundation.

Patrick Landreville, who played the final show with Dorsey, stated

"Most people that play benefits for national or international charities get paid for their performances, at the least their expenses are paid. But Dorsey and I choose to play for free at these affairs, though neither one of us is well off financially. Dorsey is a legendary figure in music and could command a hefty sum for his services but he's chosen to give, not to take. I'm proud to know him and to have had the opportunity to make music with him and I'm especially proud that he considers me his peer."

After his death, singer and friend Delaney Bramlett organized a benefit concert for Dorsey's widow at the Forum in Inglewood, California, in which Kris Kristofferson, Hoyt Axton, Tanya Tucker, Glen Campbell, Edward James Olmos, Duane Eddy, Delaney and Bonnie, Gary Busey, Maureen McGovern and Roger Miller appeared.