Page 10 - Songwriters Workshop issue 2
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Kris Kristofferson SO
e was the sound of the 70s, and now Kris Like a lot of famous people, Kristofferson seems
Kristofferson is back. The country leg- smaller in real life (he is about 5ft 8in), and the
Hend talks booze, hellraising and landing a neatly trimmed beard and hair are making the
chopper on Johnny Cash’s lawn with John Patterson. transition from silver to white. He is 71 and looking
good on it, despite having had heart-bypass surgery
Kris Kristofferson is alone on stage here at a few years ago. He is smart, poetic and witty in a
Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and dry, southern way, and seems to have absolutely no
the ladies in the house could not be happier. They pretensions about himself.
call out encouragement between songs, some of it
mildly ribald, even though for the most part they Kristofferson always saw himself first and foremost
are respectable women whose knicker-flinging days as a songwriter. “None of the other stuff would ever
are deep in the past. But they still remember the have happened if it wasn’t for the songwriting. I’ve
bare-chested man who smooched with Barbra come to appreciate how special a song is compared
Streisand in A Star Is Born, back in 1977. They to other art forms, because you can carry it around
remember Jesus Was a Capricorn, and Loving Her in your head and your heart and it remains part of
Was Easier, and Help Me Make It Through the you. It just comes as natural as a bird to me, always
Night; they remember Kristofferson’s did. It’s the way singer-songwriters make sense of
medallion-man physique, his sexy growl, his our lives.”
silver-flecked beard and come-hither eyes.
Apparently, it’s still an intoxicating brew. My own Kristofferson moved to Nashville after leaving the
date - who has campaigned, shall we say, army in 1965, and started pitching songs up and
aggressively for my plus-one ticket - is here to see down Music Row. “I gotta tell you, I really didn’t
one man and one man only. And it isn’t me. know if I was ever gonna sell any songs for a long
time. I figured I was in it for me and whatever
On stage, Kristofferson sings plaintively in his satisfaction I could get out of it. But eventually it got
untutored baritone before clamping his mouth so I could make a living.”
around his harmonica and - yikes! - emitting an
ear-splitting off-key note, followed by a splutter, It took a long time - five years - but by the time his
a laugh and the meek excuse, “Wrong goddamn material caught on, he was selling songs to the
harmonica!” It’s the kind of moment that gets people biggest names in town. Sunday Morning Coming
yanked off stage at amateur night, but this audience Down went to Johnny Cash after Kristofferson
is more forgiving. landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to catch his
attention. Waylon Jennings recorded The Taker.
Pepperdine, a conservative university, isn’t a place Me and Bobby McGee went to Roger Miller, whose
one associates with a left-winger like Kristofferson, version then fell into the hands of Janis Joplin, for
who is on first-name terms with Daniel Ortega. For whom it was a hit, her biggest ever, in the immediate
a start, the dean of its law school is a former nemesis aftermath of her death in 1971.
of Bill Clinton’s - hence my question when
Kristofferson and I meet before the show: “So, have In his heyday, Kristofferson wrote songs for so many
you and Ken Starr had your summit yet?” people that by 1972 he almost single-handedly swept
Kristofferson laughs. “Oh God, every time I’m here the Grammy songwriter awards. “I ended up
I think they’re gonna get me! But, no, I have a son being friends with all my heroes,” he recalls wistfully.
here, and my wife went here, too - though, man, I do “Lefty Frizzell, George Jones, Johnny Cash - it was
sometimes feel out of place.” incredible.” In the process he became a star in his
own right.
10 SONGWRITERS WORKSHOP
