American singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson, best known for his country music, has died. He was 88.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 28 at home,” his family said on social media. “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.”
Family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland told AP Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family at his home in Maui and no cause of death was given.
Kristofferson was born June 22, 1936, into a military family (dad, Lars Henry Kristofferson, was a U.S. Army Air Corps officer and Air Force general) and moved frequently throughout his childhood, but fell in love with country music at a young age – even penning his first song at age 11.
Kristofferson attended Pomona College in California, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing before he attended the University of Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a master’s degree in English literature. A VA profile of Kristofferson reported that his parents encouraged him to join the military after Oxford.
“He joined the Army in 1960, training as a helicopter pilot at Fort Rucker in Alabama and later completing Ranger School,” the feature stated. “In the early 1960s, Kristofferson received his commission and served with the 8th Infantry Division in West Germany. But Kristofferson never lost his love for writing and music. While in Germany, he continued to practice his songwriting and performed with a band of fellow soldiers.”
Years later, Kristofferson recalled that his military service countered his modern political views.
“I was in ROTC in college, and it was just taken for granted in my family that I’d do my service,” the star said in a 2006 interview with AP. “From my background and the generation I came up in, honor and serving your country were just taken for granted. So later, when you come to question some of the things being done in your name, it was particularly painful.”
After Kristofferson completed his tour of duty in Germany, he received an offer teaching English literature to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but he turned it down to pursue his true passion – music – and resigned from the Army in 1965.
“I just fell in love with the music community that was going on there,” Kristofferson said in a 2010 interview with Clash Magazine about his move to Nashville to pursue country music. “The way the old heroes helped out the new guys. It was a very soulful business at the time; I don’t know if it’s anything like that now, but it was definitely the best move I’ve ever made.”
It was in Nashville that Kristofferson would meet country legend Johnny Cash for the first time.
“He was the most driven, gifted, exhilarating and self-destructive artist I’d ever met, and I wanted to be exactly like him,” Kristofferson said of the encounter – which occurred backstage at the Grand Ole Opry – in a Rolling Stone interview.
But Kristofferson’s career in music didn’t exactly get off to a roaring start. In fact, he worked as a part-time bartender and helicopter pilot, as well as janitor at Columbia Records while making demo tapes in hopes of getting discovered by artists who recorded there. One of those tapes was sent to Cash, who ignored him, but Kristofferson was undeterred and landed a helicopter on the I Walk The Line star’s lawn.
“I was taking a nap and June said, ‘Some fool has landed a helicopter in our yard. They used to come from the road. Now they’re coming from the sky!’” Cash told Rolling Stone in 2009 of the encounter. “And I look up, and here comes Kris out of a helicopter with a beer in one hand and a tape in the other.”
Cash agreed to record one of Kristofferson’s songs – after he removed his helicopter – which kickstarted Kristofferson’s prolific career as a singer songwriter, with hits including: Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down (Johnny Cash), Help Me Make It Through the Night (Sammi Smith), For the Good Times (Ray Price), and Me and Bobby McGee (Roger Miller, Janis Joplin). Other artists who have recorded Kristofferson’s lyrics include Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, and Bob Dylan.
In the 1970s, Kristofferson won three Grammy awards for his music and in 2014, he was awarded a lifetime achievement award.
Despite no formal training on the silver screen, Kristofferson appeared in more than 100 film and television roles including Cisco Pike, Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, A Star Is Born, and Blade.
“I’d never even been in no school play, but I read the [Cisco Pike] script, and I could identify with this cat, this dope dealer,” Kristofferson told Rolling Stone. “People said, ‘Don’t do it, take acting lessons first!’ But it seemed to me that acting must be just understanding a character and then being just as honest as you can possibly be.”
In 2020, the superstar announced his retirement.
“Kristofferson is the artist that every artist strives to be,” MHM President and Partner Clint Higham said in a press release at the time. “He is an artist’s artist. If Mount Rushmore had a place for songwriters, Kris would be on it.”
PEOPLE reports Kristofferson is survived by his wife Lisa, eight children, and seven grandchildren.