"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."
It is too late now. Time has run out. There simply will be no autobiography by Kris Kristofferson anymore. Nor will there be an authorized look, at least by himself, at a person who seemingly was always on the search and, with his surprising complexity, seemed to belong everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
As an actor and musician, he left many traces behind, but none as deep as his work as a songwriter. Not only did he change the country genre, as Bob Dylan once noted: "You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything." At the same time, he also impressed generations of musicians and listeners with his lyrics and melodies.
After all, an autobiography might not have told much more about the contradictions of Kris Kristofferson as a person than his songs already have. Such as 'The Pilgrim, Chapter 33' off his second album ("The Silver Tongued Devil And I") from 1971:
He has tasted good and evil in your bedrooms and your bars
and he's traded in tomorrow for today.
Runnin' from his devils, Lord, and reachin' for the stars
and losin'
all he's loved along the way.
But if this world keeps right on turnin' for the better or the worse,
and
all he ever gets is older and around,
from the rockin' of the cradle to
the rollin' of the hearse,
the goin' up was worth the comin' down.
(The Pilgrim, Chapter 33 / Kris Kristofferson)
Given the occasion, the following is a reprint of my German blog entry from March 4, 2017, entitled: For the Good Times.
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[The age of 21 represents adulthood and thus the end of a carefree youth.]
Finkenstein Castle was first mentioned in the 12th century. In the 14th century it passed to the Habsburg dynasty and almost 100 years later on to the Austrian noble family of Dietrichstein. It remained in their possession until the end of the 18th century. After that it slowly began to decay and become the ruins that are now a tourist destination in the Austrian province of Carinthia. Since the 1980s the newly built arena in the form of a small amphitheater in its center has been used as an event location. With its unique view over Lake Faak, the Finkenstein Castle Arena still offers an unforgettable atmosphere for musical events, especially in the evenings.
So this is where Kris Kristofferson will be performing on July 9, 2017.
His once dark hair has long since turned snow white and when looking at his face, one has to acknowledge that Kris Kristofferson has grown old. But he is allowed to do so. After all the former Oxford student and Golden Globe winner will be 81 years old in June of 2017. His performances have become him as a solo artist with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica. He no longer wants to change the world, as he tried to do in the late 1980s with his albums "Repossessed" and especially "Third World Warrior".
In a major interview with Rolling Stone Country ("An Outlaw at 80") on the occasion of his 80th birthday last year, he spoke openly about how
his memory had begun to fail him. And about the justified hope that this was
only due to side effects of the medication he had taken for a Lyme disease.
This gnawed at his self-confidence and was probably one of the reasons why he
even canceled the contract to write his autobiography.
Unfortunately, to date there is only one un-authorized biography about the person and artist Kris Kristofferson: "Kristofferson: The Wild American" by Stephen Miller, written with great passion and definitely worth reading. It at least tries to give an insight into Kristofferson the person, who often seems as contradictory and lost as the characters in many of his fascinating songs.
His music catalog has hardly grown in recent years. Only a number of new releases of material not previously available digitally and concert recordings of mostly old material have been added. So there is the excellent "An Evening with Kris Kristofferson" from 2014, which was recorded in the Union Chapel in London. Or the current release "The Cedar Creek Session" from 2016, which was surprisingly even nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album in February of 2017.
In between was the monumental release of his albums recorded for Monument and Columbia in the 1970s, including previously unreleased recordings from the archive. "The Complete Monument & Columbia Album Collection" thus comprises a total of 16 albums and hence the core of his musical legacy.
When I got the chance to see Kris Kristofferson live for the first time in the 1980s at the Finkenstein Castle Arena (actually a marquee had been set up in order to better accomodate the large crowd which otherwise would have exceeded the capacity of the rather small castle arena), I will never forget how touched the then almost 50-year-old was when he was confronted with the enthusiasm for his music by an audience in a tiny place in the middle of nowhere. Back then, he still had a full band and the charismatic look that we all knew him for in his films.
The last time he performed there was in 2010, this time in the smaller Castle Arena. By now only as a solo artist, more mature and some 20 years older. Now he is in the 8th decade of his life and has been living in Hawaii with his wife and children for quite some time. But he is still active. There are small roles in films, and of course performing his music live. He now is a welcome sight everywhere when he repeatedly performs the songs that have almost all been made into hits by others. Songs that have become so big that many people do not even know who the writer behind them was.
And since time does not stand still, but moves inexorably from a beginning to an end, people are now increasingly beginning to pay his work and influence the respect it deserves. On March, 2016, for instance, everyone who is anyone in country music came together at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville to celebrate his music with himself.
A year earlier, in April of 2015, Skyville Live also held a small tribute concert for Kris Kristofferson. However, as it was streamed exclusively via Internet, it was hardly noticed. Despite the fact that well-known artists such as Lady Antebellum, Martina McBride and Raul Malo were present. Parts of it are now available on the Internet via YouTube and thus allow these moments to be relived in perfect quality.
It's not just the songs that we've heard so many times that keep touching us, but also the charisma in Kris Kristofferson's voice. He was never considered a great singer by most (including himself), but the melodies and lyrics make that easy to forget. Even when Charles Kelley from Lady Antebellum proves what an emotionally great singer he is with 'Help Me Make It Through The Night' and Raul Malo takes 'For the Good Times' to a new dimension, we still like to hear Kris Kristofferson sing his own songs.
In the end, Kris Kristofferson, who has always been reflective in his songs, remains someone to be looked up to. A man who, despite all his efforts, has never been at the top. Neither as a singer, entertainer or actor. But always very close. And should the poet's time eventually come to an end, few words will be more comforting than his own, which he wrote for his first album "Kristofferson" in 1970:
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