Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS MORRIS
Who: Kris Kristofferson
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Pavilion at the Aquarius, Laughlin
Tickets: $29.95; (800) 435-8469 or aquariuscasinoresort.com
"Kristofferson" (1970)
"The Silver Tongued Devil and I" (1971)
"Border Lord" (1972)
"Jesus Was a Capricorn" (1972)
"Full Moon" (with Rita Coolidge, 1973)
"Spooky Lady's Sideshow" (1974)
"Breakaway" (with Rita Coolidge, 1974)
"Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame" (1975)
"Surreal Thing" (1976)
Easter Island (1978)
"Natural Act" (with Rita Coolidge, 1978)
"Shake Hands With the Devil" (1979)
"To the Bone" (1981)
"The Winning Hand" (with Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Brenda Lee, 1982)
"Music From Songwriter" (with Willie Nelson, 1984)
"Highwayman" (with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, 1985)
"Repossessed" (1986)
"Highwayman 2" (with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, 1990)
"Third World Warrior" (1990)
"Live at the Philharmonic" (1992)
"The Road Goes on Forever" (with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, 1995)
"A Moment of Forever" (1995)
"The Austin Sessions" (1999)
"Broken Freedom Song: Live From San Francisco" (2003)
"Comin' to Your City" (2005)
"This Old Road" (2006)
"Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" (1973)
"Blume in Love" (1973)
"Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974)
"Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974)
"The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea" (1976)
"A Star Is Born" (1976)
"Semi-Tough" (1977)
"Convoy" (1978)
"Heaven's Gate" (1980)
"Lone Star" (1996)
"Blade" (1998)
"A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" (1998)
"Fire Down Below" (1997)
"Payback" (1999)
"Planet of the Apes" (2001)
"Chelsea Walls" (2001)
"Blade II" (2002)
"Blade: Trinity" (2004)
"The Jacket" (2005)
"Fast Food Nation" (2006)
His voice is gritty, like sandpaper; his face a road map of a life well traveled.
The fiery rebel who wrote such classics as "Me and Bobby McGee." "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night" has become an old warrior.
At 71, Kris Kristofferson is still outspoken, still fighting the fight for justice and human rights.
"It's even worse today," he says.
But when he speaks there is a sincere warmth in his voice. He laughs often.
His early life offers only hints of the prolific singer, songwriter and actor of the past 40 years: Texas native, Air Force brat, writing contest winner, Rhodes Scholar, Army captain, helicopter pilot.
Kristofferson turned down a commission as an English professor at West Point and instead settled in Nashville, Tenn., to write songs. He's released more than two dozen albums, won three Grammys and been nominated for an Oscar for best song for the 1984 film "Songwriter." He's appeared in more than 70 films and won a Golden Globe for best actor for his performance in "A Star Is Born."
Kristofferson spoke to the Sun by phone from the Los Angeles airport, where he was waiting to board a flight for Ireland to begin a tour that included England and Colorado before a stop in Laughlin on Saturday .
Q: Do you think about aging?
(Laugh.) Do I think about aging? I'm 71 years old. I think about it every morning when I brush my teeth. (Laugh . ) Sure. I probably think more about the shortage of time left, since all my heroes and friends are dropping. I'm pleased to see that people like Bob Dylan are still creative and still doing the job, you know, still making good albums, writing good songs and out there performing. I would like to do the same. I feel as alive as ever. I'm just not as fast and I forget things more. (Laugh . )
Age is relative, don't you think?
I think so. What did Satchel Paige say? How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? (Laugh . ) I think, I hope that's the way it stays. I can't imagine getting to the point to where I just sit around and watch TV. Although I can do that , too. (Laugh . )
You've had a great career, but would you have done anything differently?
I'd be afraid to. Things have turned out so well for me. I just put my kids on an airplane to go back home, where I live in Hawaii (Maui). I have eight kids and a bunch of grandkids and they all love each other and I'm able to earn my living doing what I love to do. I'm sure there are things I would maybe do different. I might have bothered Bob Dylan more to get to be really close friends with him. But nah, I'd probably still be afraid to do that. I really wouldn't want to change anything. I feel like I've been so blessed.
And you're still touring. Are you promoting a new album?
No. I'm not really promoting an album. There's nothing special. I feel kind of guilty because I'm not selling something. (Laugh . ) But I was real pleased with the last album, "This Old Road," and I'm real pleased with the reaction of the crowds. I probably would be doing more touring this year, except my kids had different priorities.
Do you routinely tour during the summer ?
I worked during January, February, March and April this year. I've been off for a while, but I enjoy working. I've been going out by myself lately, and it ' s working.
By yourself? Without a band?
Yeah. I've been playing for three years just by myself, with a guitar and harmonica and some amazingly big crowds. (Laugh . ) In Ireland last time I sold out three shows in Dublin, like 2,000 people each night.
Why are you going it alone?
I started doing it when I was doing a film in Scotland and I had an offer to perform in Ireland and I didn't have time to mobilize the troops . So I went over there by myself and it worked in a way that was different. It seems to put a focus on the songs better than it did when I had a band. And I don't cause a train wreck if I make a mistake. (Laugh . ) It was a good experience so I've just been doing it. I probably will until it isn't.
I recently interviewed another actor-singer-songwriter, Billy Bob Thornton. He said you were one of the people who influenced his songwriting.
Oh really? Well, one of my best friends and guitar player, Stephen Bruton, used to play with Billy Bob.
Billy Bob is a decent singer - songwriter, don't you think?
He really is. That's where his heart his.
Yours , too?
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And I think Billy Bob is the same way. He'll be doing that till they throw dirt on him, probably, and that's the way I feel.
Who influenced you most, musically?
I think it was probably the songwriting that got me into it, into performing. I was influenced by everybody from Hank Williams to Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard - guys that I really admired. Once I decided that's what I wanted to be more than anything else , I really went to it. I was in Nashville there for about four years. I didn't have to worry about going out on the road or anything because I couldn't get a job. (Laugh . ) I was able to work around music and hang out with songwriters, like Mickey Newbury, Tom T. Hall - really good songwriters - and then Johnny Cash got me into being a performer. He like put me onstage during his show. And then I just sort of developed, on - the - job training.
What was your relationship with Johnny Cash?
One of the great things , I think , about my life has been that a lot of people who were my heroes ended up being close friends. Johnny Cash was one of them. John was probably the biggest single reason I went to Nashville. I met him when I went there on a two-week leave - I was still in the Army - and I shook his hand backstage at the Opry and I was just totally blown away. It was a very electric experience. I think I decided right then I was going to come back to Nashville and try and be a songwriter. I worked in the studio where he recorded for a couple of years and I pitched him every song I ever wrote. He didn't ever cut 'em but he was every encouraging about it. John was always larger than life to me.
Did he have a lot of charisma?
Yeah. He was on the cover of Time magazine after he died. He just got bigger and bigger. He went from being this wild man who was crazier than Hank Williams to being like the father of our country or something. He was friends with presidents, a great person, a great man.
He always kept in touch with the common man through his music. Is your heart in the same place?
Oh yeah. I think John was always sticking up for the underdog, whether it was Native Americans, before that was a hip thing to do, or prisoners. He did a lot of concerts in prisons. I've tried to do the same. I can't compare myself in my own heart to Johnny Cash, you know, but I try to be honest and stand up for the underdog. I read the other day something Willie Nelson told one of the guys I was working with, he said if Kris is involved in a fight, if there are five guys against two guys, Kris is going to be on the side with two. That was kind of a nice thing for Willie to say. (Laugh . )
Are you as political today as you were in the '60s and '70s?
I hate to even say I'm political, but I've been interested in human rights most of my life. I was working for Cesar Chavez' s United Farm Workers back in 1970. I still work with them. I'm sure I was probably the only country performer/writer who was going down into Central America - Nicaragua, El Salvador, you know - protesting what our government was doing down there. That's made me unmarketable in some places, but right now I think we're in a worse situation than we've ever been in, at least in my lifetime.
Even worse than the '60s?
Worse. It's even worse today. I was in the Army back in the '60s. After I got out of the Army, got through the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, my attitude about what was going on got a little cynical. Over the years I've come to wonder if our country is representing what I believed that we stood for. I grew up in the second World War and I thought we stood for liberty and justice and everything, but to see that turn around to where we would be aggressors, be like the neo-Nazis going in bombing innocent people. About four months ago I saw that over 600,000 Iraqi citizens had been killed since our invasion. You never see that in the paper. It's probably a million by now. We can never repay those people. What it's doing is making people who we perceive as our enemies, making them stronger, getting them more allies everywhere. I hate it. I'm hoping the future generation is going to be able to handle things diplomatically instead of militarily and to turn it around. The Kennedys started it. John Kennedy, before he got killed, did a good job of keeping us out of war with Russia. I'm hoping Barack Obama would do the same if he got the chance, but I would advise him to watch his back. There are very powerful interests that want to keep the military industrial complex strong.
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