Kris Kristofferson passes away

No cause of death was given for the Country Music Hall of Famer.

Kristofferson had a long history in country music as a songwriter and singer. His biggest songs included "Me and Bobby McGee," ""unday Mornin' Comin' Down," "For the Good Times" ad "Help Me Make It Through the Night." Willie Nelson recorded an album of his songs. He also was a member of the super group The Highwaymen with Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

"It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 28 at home. We're all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he's smiling down at us all," the family said in a statement.

A press release from his publicist said, "He was a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, a defensive back, a bartender, a Golden Gloves boxer, a dancer, a forest firefighter, a road crew member, and an Army Ranger who flew helicopters. He was a peacenik, a revolutionary, an actor, a superstar, a sex symbol, and a family man. He was commissioned to teach English at West Point, though he gave that up to become a Nashville songwriting bum."

He was born Kristoffer Kristofferson in the border town of Brownsville, Texas on June 22, 1936. The son of a major general and a philanthropic mother, Kristofferson graduated high school in San Mateo, Cal., in 1954. He attended Pomona College, where he played football ("I was pretty slow, but I was small," he said) and studied writing under Dr. Frederick Sontag, who pushed him to apply for a Rhodes scholarship. At Oxford, he wrote stories and examined the works of William Blake. Kristofferson earned his master's from Oxford in 1960, then returned to California, married his high school sweetheart, joined the Army and learned to fly helicopters. In the Army, he wrote funny songs inspired by Hank Williams until he fell under the sway of Bob Dylan.

"The direction Dylan was pointing in made it a respectable ambition, a respectable thing to do," Kristofferson said.

The Army assigned Kristofferson to teach literature at West Point, a duty that frightened him once he found that he'd have to turn in lesson plans, explaining to superiors exactly what he'd be teaching in class. He said, "It sounded like hell to me."

In 1965, he came to Nashville to visit with Marijohn Wilkin, the songwriter of "Long Black Veil" and a relation of Kristofferson's Army platoon leader. On Kristofferson's first Nashville night, he met Cowboy Jack Clement, a renegade artist who would become a lifelong friend. Soon after that, Wilkin helped Kristofferson get a backstage pass to the Grand Ole Opry, where he met Johnny Cash. In less than two Music City weeks, Kristofferson decided to resign his Army post and move to Nashville to write songs. Soon after, he met successful songwriter Tom T. Hall in a Nashville bar. Kristofferson introduced himself to Hall, who said "Good to see you . . . It's a hairy-legged town."

Kristofferson scuffled for more than four years in Nashville. He worked as a janitor at CBS's Nashville studio, happy to empty trash cans and make coffee in exchange for access to recording sessions by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and others. He rode around on a Honda motorcycle, and also got divorced. When his "From the Bottle to the Bottom" was recorded by Grand Ole Opry star Billy Walker in 1969, Tom T. Hall said, "God, that's a great song" and quoted lines back to the fledgling talent.

"That kind of thing was enough to keep me going back then," Kristofferson said.

Ray Stevens recorded his "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," and Cash recorded the same song and took it to the top of the country charts. Cash performed "Sunday Mornin'" on his ABC television show, and, despite the cries of network censors, refused to change Kristofferson's line "Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned" to "Wishing, Lord, that I was home." That song was voted the Country Music Association's song of the year in 1970.

Roger Miller, one of Kristofferson's songwriting heroes, recorded "Me and Bobby McGee," a song inspired by publisher and Monument Records boss Fred Foster's suggestion that a song should be written about Foster's secretary, Bobby McKee. Kristofferson's "For the Good Times" was recorded by Ray Price and became a number one country hit.|

After arguing with Foster about his validity as a recording artist (Kristofferson said, "I sing like a fucking frog," to which Foster replied, "Yes, but like a frog that can communicate."), Kristofferson's first solo album came out in April 1970. It contained "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," "Me and Bobby McGee," "To Beat the Devil" "Help Me Make It Through the Night," "Just the Other Side of Nowhere," "Darby's Castle" and "Best of All Possible Worlds."

Kristofferson continued on a hot streak. Janis Joplin recorded "Me and Bobby McGee," which became her signature hit. And Kristofferson became a counter-culture darling, beloved by artists and listeners who had never before paid attention to country music.

"You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything," said Dylan.

Kristofferson's second album, "The Silver Tongued Devil and I," came out on Monument Records in 1971 and contained "The Pilgrim – Chapter 33," a song he claimed to write about friends Cash, Chris Gantry, Funky Donnie Fritts and others but later admitted was mostly about himself. "He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction," he sang. "Taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home."

1971, Kristofferson began a side career as an actor. He would go on to win a Golden Globe award for his role in A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand and to act in numerous films including Semi-Tough, Songwriter, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Lone Star and Blade. He toured the world with his band and with Rita Coolidge, his wife from 1973 until 1980. He moved from Nashville to California. And he released seven solo albums between 1972 and 1979.

Despite the success, Kristofferson also encountered personal problems, including alcohol issues.

"The darkness is driving me farther away from the shore/ Throw me a rhyme or a reason to try to go on," he wrote and sang in "Shipwrecked in the 80s." He found rhyme and reason in the graceful form of Lisa Meyers, who married Kristofferson in 1983 and helped him get his life under control. The couple would have five children together.

In 1985, Kristofferson joined Cash, Jennings and Nelson to form The Highwaymen. The group returned Kristofferson's voice to radio, provided a larger audience for him to relay his critical and sometimes controversial views on American foreign policy and offered him great joy.

"Every time I look at a picture of Willie and me and John and Waylon, I find it amazing that they let the janitor in there," he said.

After two roundly ignored solo albums for Mercury Records, "Repossessed" and "Third World Warrior," Kristofferson began working with producer Don Was in 1995. "It's about making sense of life at this end of the game," Kristofferson said about his 2009 "Closer to the Bone" album.

Was-produced works included "A Moment of Forever" (2006), "This Old Road" (2009), and "Feeling Mortal "(2013). On his 80th birthday in 2016, he released "The Cedar Creek Sessions," which was nominated for a Grammy for best Americana Album six months later.

"The darkness is driving me farther away from the shore/ Throw me a rhyme or a reason to try to go on," he wrote and sang in "Shipwrecked in the 80s." He found rhyme and reason in the graceful form of Lisa Meyers, who married Kristofferson in 1983 and helped him get his life under control. The couple would have five children together.

In 1985, Kristofferson joined Cash, Jennings and Nelson to form The Highwaymen. The group returned Kristofferson's voice to radio, provided a larger audience for him to relay his critical and sometimes controversial views on American foreign policy and offered him great joy.

"Every time I look at a picture of Willie and me and John and Waylon, I find it amazing that they let the janitor in there," he said.

After two roundly ignored solo albums for Mercury Records, "Repossessed" and "Third World Warrior," Kristofferson began working with producer Don Was in 1995. "It's about making sense of life at this end of the game," Kristofferson said about his 2009 "Closer to the Bone" album.

Was-produced works included "A Moment of Forever" (2006), "This Old Road" (2009), and "Feeling Mortal "(2013). On his 80th birthday in 2016, he released "The Cedar Creek Sessions," which was nominated for a Grammy for best Americana Album six months later.

"The darkness is driving me farther away from the shore/ Throw me a rhyme or a reason to try to go on," he wrote and sang in "Shipwrecked in the 80s." He found rhyme and reason in the graceful form of Lisa Meyers, who married Kristofferson in 1983 and helped him get his life under control. The couple would have five children together.

In 1985, Kristofferson joined Cash, Jennings and Nelson to form The Highwaymen. The group returned Kristofferson's voice to radio, provided a larger audience for him to relay his critical and sometimes controversial views on American foreign policy and offered him great joy.

"Every time I look at a picture of Willie and me and John and Waylon, I find it amazing that they let the janitor in there," he said.

After two roundly ignored solo albums for Mercury Records, "Repossessed" and "Third World Warrior," Kristofferson began working with producer Don Was in 1995. "It's about making sense of life at this end of the game," Kristofferson said about his 2009 "Closer to the Bone" album.

Was-produced works included "A Moment of Forever" (2006), "This Old Road" (2009), and "Feeling Mortal "(2013). On his 80th birthday in 2016, he released "The Cedar Creek Sessions," which was nominated for a Grammy for best Americana Album six months later.

Kristofferson's survived by his wife, Lisa; eight children, Tracy, Kris Jr., Casey, Jesse, Jody, John, Kelly and Blake; and seven grandchildren.