Singer-songwriter dies at 88 Country star Kris Kristofferson is dead
He first studied at Oxford in the UK and then actually wanted to become a writer.
Image: dpa
US country singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson has died.
Image: dpa
Kristofferson wrote hit after hit, including "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night".
Image: dpa
His songs were sung by music legends such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin and Ray Charles.
Image: dpa
He first studied at Oxford in the UK and then actually wanted to become a writer.
Image: dpa
US country singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson has died.
Image: dpa
Kristofferson wrote hit after hit, including "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night".
Image: dpa
His songs were sung by music legends such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin and Ray Charles.
Image: dpa
Being on stage was like therapy for him: Kris Kristofferson had dedicated himself to music and art. This led to a falling out with his mother. But his legacy is great.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- On Saturday, Kris Kristofferson died at home on Maui (Hawaii) at the age of 88.
- His songs were sung by music legends such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin and Ray Charles.
- There was initially no information on the cause of death.
On stage or mowing the lawn of his property in Hawaii were Kris Kristofferson's two favorite places. "It's my therapy", the musician once told US radio station NPR. "Nobody can hurt me on my lawn tractor."
On Saturday, Kristofferson, whose songs were sung by music legends such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin and Ray Charles, died at home on Maui (Hawaii) at the age of 88, according to his family. The cause of death was not initially released.
Country star Dolly Parton (78) said an emotional farewell to her deceased colleague. "What a great loss, what a great writer, what a great actor, what a great friend," Parton wrote on her Instagram channel on Monday night. She added: "I will always love you, Dolly".
Student in Oxford, helicopter pilot in Rhineland-Palatinate
The grandson of Swedish immigrants was born in Brownsville in the very south of Texas in 1936. He studied at Oxford in the UK on a scholarship for the gifted and initially wanted to become a writer. When he was unsuccessful, he became a helicopter pilot in the US military and was stationed in Bad Kreuznach (Rhineland-Palatinate) from 1962 to 1965.
He was then supposed to teach literature at the famous West Point military academy near New York, but he followed his heart and went to Nashville, the stronghold of country music. "The whole thing still baffles me," Kristofferson told Rolling Stone. "I was on my way to a completely different life. And suddenly I subordinated my whole future, my family and everything else to that. It was pretty scary."
Disappointed mother didn't speak to Kristofferson for years
His mother was horrified and didn't speak to her son for years. "She said I was a disgrace to the family. I gave them proud moments, for example with my scholarship, but she said, "That will never outweigh the huge disappointment you've always been." Why would you say that to your child?" Kristofferson's first marriage also broke up in Nashville.
There, he initially scrubbed floors in the studio while Bob Dylan was recording. To convince Johnny Cash of his talent, Kristofferson landed in his garden in a helicopter. "I didn't know for a long time whether I would ever sell songs. I told myself that I was doing it for me and for all the satisfaction I could get from it. But eventually I was able to make a living from it." Soon Kristofferson was on stage alongside Dylan, writing hit after hit, including "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". "Eventually I was on stage with all my heroes. It was incredible." He also became a celebrated movie star.
Extended family with third wife
Three years after divorcing his second wife Rita Coolidge, Kristofferson married lawyer Lisa Meyers in 1983, with whom he lived in Hawaii until the end. Together they had five children and foster children. "He can't be managed," his wife once said about him. "Even when someone tells him to have a good day, he replies: 'Don't tell me what to do'."
Kristofferson always started his concerts with the song "Shipwrecked in the 80's" until the end. Out of superstition. The song was supposed to bring him luck. The fact that he even toured as a singer with his songs and filled halls probably surprised him the most. "Every artist who has sung my songs has done it better than me," Kristofferson once said. "I sing like a frog." The "New York Times" took a similar view: "Mr. Kristofferson never got past three chords." Nevertheless, the fans loved him, for whom the singing poet embodied the broken attitude to life of the Vietnam generation with his social criticism and melancholy.
Kristofferson had made provisions for his farewell and chose a line from Leonard Cohen's song for his gravestone: "Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free."
dpa