Kris Kristofferson, Country Singer, Songwriter and Actor, Dies at 88

 

 

 "A man of prodigious gifts and appetites, Mr. Kristofferson struggled early on with what path to pursue among the many that were open to him. In the song “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33,” he seemed to acknowledge as much, depicting a conflicted figure, much like himself, who took “every wrong direction on his lonely way back home.”

Such self-deprecation notwithstanding, he believed that songwriting — certainly a “wrong direction” in the eyes of his family, at least at first — was the means through which he discovered his vocation in life, and by which he achieved celebrity and artistic acclaim.

“I wouldn’t be doing any of it if it weren’t for writing,” Mr. Kristofferson said, looking back on his career, in a 2006 interview with the online magazine Country Standard Time.

“I never would have gotten to make records if I didn’t write. I wouldn’t have gotten to tour without it. And I never would’ve been asked to act in a movie if I hadn’t been known as a writer.”

The occupation listed on his passport was “Writer.”

 

READ OBIT BY  Bill Friskics-Warren