This story originally ran in an April 1974 issue ofRolling Stone.
Hell, he offers rurally, wouldnt surprise me none you said itwasblood.
The latter includes a composer named Kris, with aK.
Kris Kristofferson, circa September 1974.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
though he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, his speech is Brownsville bowling alley.
before he calmed her, shed stepped on his hand.
Man, I didnt even think when I grabbed that bridle, and he laughs down at the page.
I didnt know shit about horses; if Id thought Id never a done it.
Hes lit another brown Bull Durham cigarette; he more or less chain-smokes.
Hell, I was straight outa Nashville with shit on my boots.
(Dennis hates even short-term defections and probably has the railroad station watched.)
K.s hand still bandaged from horse incident; he insists, though, in carrying along his guitar.
Im a joker, Im a smoker, Im a midnight toker.
Because theres about him the good, gentle loser?
Good lines in a song about Bobby McGee (Bobby a girl?
About there, his laugh becomes a cough and he shakes his head as if it hurt.
Yeh, I lived with Janis awhile.
My first break, an all.
I used my last cash for the plane.
Shed kicked heroin, wasnt even letting her old connections on the place.
Sad: All this crap you read about her, its like Who Killed Norma Jean?
So She Did
The grins the old one.
Oh, there was a lotta drinkin an high boogyin there at Janiss.
I never did intend tstay, but Bobby Neuwirth took off and he had the car.
Maybe if I hadnt a left .
I always figured people could be talked outa offing themselves.
And I finally did gypsy off, to Nashville, to cut my first album.
Wow, it wasveryheavy for a long time after that.
So much pain tput yourself through!
The movie looked like itd be a day at the beach; it wasnt.
Jesus!I had absolutely no idea shed recorded it!
Kristofferson studies the recorder as if its rudeness had restored his own good humor.
Rose Mary Woods is lurkin somewheres, he announces.
Think we can fix it?
And he manipulates and strokes it, successfully.
Know what that really was?
I do want that quoted right, Tom, because everybodys exploitin the hell outa Janis.
Painstakingly, he repeats.
So I sat there in Woodstock and listened to that tape all night, I-dunno-how-many times.
The next mornin, my sister in California called to say my dad died.
It was a fairly traumatic New Years.
Id also had walking pneumonia for something like four months without knowing it.
Took three weeks off, went back on the road, and been on the road ever since.
And thats the whole story.
So I dont wanta nail em now.
Well, they were right.
I never did care.
He sees that reaction in your eyes.
They were just the only way I could express some kind of…suffering.
Shit, no, separation.
I always felt separate.
Played, yeh, but I busted my head and cartilage in my knee.
An quickly found out what a fucked-up little wimp I was, damn!
Unexpectedly, he slaps his knee.
Those British, shit, peel off layers a bullshit instantly!
They maintained an American couldnt know shit from rugby.
Nothing much is gonna impress those British!
I never did wanta pick up any British accent.
They all called me Yank, so I just kept on talkin more like I always had.
He laughs, tentatively.
But through his Grand Ole Opry inflection constantly surfaces, like ice floes, the precision of Academe.
So Im an oral schizophrenic.
Thats what I felt in England.
An I had gottenheavyinta literature over there.
William Blake had just opened doors for me.
Id even started writin a novel.
He went home to California for Christmas, and I never did go back.
See, there was this girl at home, Id gone with her in high school.
Fran Beer, as in beer.
Tom, I really figured right then, goodbye writing.
If you was really bad, you got stuck inta one a those places.
It was my first time there, everybody called me Captain.
He wrangled a meeting with Johnny Cash.
I was determined to meet him; there was no way in hell that I wouldnt have.
Johnnys got an instinct bout pickin people who are going to make it.
I rented this $50-a-month cold-water flat, a tenement.
Smiling, as if nostalgic, he adds, I still got that apartment.
Still talking, he goes to open a fresh Tia Maria bottle.
I went to see the house, she tells Kris, with a smile like his.
Kris stretches and half-bows, like the cats, who follow them to the kitchen.
And that house, its just ten times better than anything else I saw!
Its just so peaceful up there on that hill!
Her speech, like his, is rural.
A nice older couple live there now, they really love the place but they want to travel.
They said today they think thatweought to have it.
His reading is unexpectedly urbane.
You tell the accountant that.
Well, what they meant was, and shes smiling, they thought wed be happy livin there.
When she goes in to cook supper, Kris offers, Jesus, I never owned no house before!
Its like buyin a ball and chain, but you cant bring up a baby in motel rooms.
When he hears the price of this place, the accountant will shit.
Yeh, I can afford it, its just very heavy, settlin down, becoming a father again.
Babys due next month; last night I had tgo again with Rita to her natural-childbirth class.
One black, one Jewish, one Chicano, one straight, and us, the freaks.
It was the only job I could get.
But didnt his songs actually satirize Pierce, Tubb and the whole country-and-western tradition?
Well, yeh, thats sorta true.
The songs are…well, I dunno what they are.
I think theyre pretty easy to understand.
Damn, it needs work!
He strums and sings until Rita puts a chicken sandwich in front of him.
Then he has to go work with his band.
Turned out the guy was in his class at Pomona, he asked whatever happened to him.
He shook his head sadly, and said, We always thought hed do something big.
But there always was something …elseabout him, nice as he was.
In a funny way, I wasnt surprised we didnt hear of him again.
No, maam, I dunno whats wrong with it, except it keeps stoppin.
My mechanical knowledge is nil.
Dutifully, he looks under the hood, as she writes on a pad.
No, its with ak, and twofs .
no, both of them isos .
no, see the first also starts with ak.
When were inside before the fireplace, I ask if he thinks she recognized him.
This startles him visibly.
Jesus, I dunno.
I have no idea.
dont think about that shit, honestly, it dont occur to me.
I tell him my thinking about the songs.
Hey, yeh, nobody ever said it like that before, quite.
Im sorry, but once I finish writing, Tom, the umbilical cords cut.
I… know my limits as a performer, but not yet as a songwriter.
I can dig that.
and shit, I thought the message of that number was pretty up front!
Or they accuse me of being on a Jesus trip, they refuse tsee that Im just being humorous.
That really hurts, you might sell a zillion records and one bad review still riles you.
I got totally ripped apart byRolling Stonefor theBorder Lordalbum; the reviewer hated everything about me.
If Id had a dog hed a hated the dog.
Shit, sad about mankind, maybe, thats just inevitable.
And nothing alleviates it?
No, not too often; you should know that.
Even though hell always hurt more.
Rita says from the kitchen door, Were gonna be eatin supper pretty soon.
Its her way of extending an invitation.
Kris says into the phone, Hey, Donnie, and walks, talking, to the bedroom.
Rita comes in and sits, her hands folded placidly on the swollen stomach under her apron.
I can hardly wait!
I dont want any drugs while Im in labor, the baby can come out drugged if you do.
Rita comes from Tennessee, it turns out, her father was a Baptist preacher.
Thought Id work a year; at the end of it, I was hooked.
She started the year singing radio spots for Pepper-Tanner, Its Memphiss biggest jingle factory.
Her sight-reading got her studio work.
Then Pepper-Tanner signed me to a contract to cut a single, theyd started their own new label.
I never went back to Memphis.
Sure, weve had our falling-outs, she says easily, gesturing toward the bedroom, weve split up.
Itsveryhard, in this business, to stay peaceful the competition, for one thing.
And theres the strain of bein on the road.
But we got it together now; I think Kris is a lot more settled.
He used tlet people make all these demands on him, and hes learned to say no.
That, to me, is a Hollywood party.
Her laughs rich, a good clear arpeggio.
I ask about the first time she met Kris, and she laughs again, quietly.
I couldnt get over his face.
I didnt wanta keep staring at him, but I couldnt help it.
I couldnt get over how different he looked.
Then you talk to him, and hes sort of… fumbly-warm.
Kris offers, I think ladies roll smokes better than guys do.
Shes really far out.
Did she say how we met?
He introduced Rita, she looked .
well, like she looks: somethin else.
On the plane, they saved a seat for me.
There was this thing about her: Shelistens.
Thats two years ago, we been bookin out together ever since.
He didnt exactly divorce his first wife, he adds, until just last summer.
Fran and I are friends, I see the kids whenever I can.
He listens, understandably alarmed, and grins, Gable-like.
Hell, thank you.
But I just fell into the acting.
Down in Peru I thought Id like to learn todirecta movie, but acting?
Got to the office, I waswasted, it was right outa a Kafka novel.
He didnt get the part, but they offered himCisco Pikeanyway.
People said, Dont do it, take acting lessons first!
Not only that, but it was Kris who talked Dylan into his acting debut.
I called him; he said, But if I do it, then theygotme, onfilm.
We didnt, but I think Bobby, at least, came off pretty good in the picture.
Hell,nobodyknows Bobby that well.
Hes … a dozen different people.
A genius, I guess.
I sure know he digs pickin …
Except in this new one Im gonna make in Tucson.
Name of itsAlice Doesnt Live Here Anymore.
I used to be like that, but no more.
I mean, now I got .
The rubbery, urban word is awkward in his mouth.
When troubled, he tends to hunch forward and growl sotto voce as if through smoked ham.
Aw, shit, I guess I got no complaints.
Its just, you get to this point, you become so fuckingvulnerable.
Well, I think you got a responsibility tonotbe that way.
Ill tell ywhen I felt put-upon: when I was a janitor.
Grin, and he shakes his head comically.
As he studies his hands, it occurs to you that theyre good, but not young.
Uncannily, as he does, he completes your unspoken sentence.
Shit, I already feel old: Time presses.
Well, Im 37.
I just got this long letter from Johnny Cash, which he wrote cause we ainttalkedin two years.
They come backstage everywhere, with songs, could I listen for five minutes?
Jesus, I just been performing, Im wasted, I ask em for a tape to take home.
But its only two songs!
He grabbed me and shouted, Learn!
Just how many song hitsyouhad?!
Yougottalaugh, or itd get you.
Its just thatallof its started to take me too far away from what I really am: a writer.
For instance, this acting, I dunno.
Youcantquestion your own importance.
Maybe you gotta hang out with the people who make em.
Well,yououghta know, thats the bullshit printed in papers.
We even went to a couple a those movie-star parties there.
Comical, Rita adds, and they laugh, looking at each other.
One night we went on a double date with this big agent.
I dont want any fuss, just give us tickets!
A regular drill sergeant.
Ill tell ya, it crosses mine.
A movie star did that!, the publicist had whispered, as if describing Kohoutek.
Kris considers this as he kills the engine.
Well, it cant be that big a deal.
You mean in movies, nobody ever say thanks for anythin?
Soft pastel spots are the only lights in the little recording studio.
Through the bullet-colored velvet of smoke, he consults his sound engineer.. .
Enclosed behind glass, he begins a new lyric, quite believable, about a lonely musician.
