Music Profile

Kris Kristofferson

The Thinking Man's Outlaw By Jim Allen

One of the biggest game-changers to ever hang up his songwriter shingle in Nashville

One of the biggest game-changers to ever hang up his songwriter shingle in Nashville, Kris Kristofferson came from Texas to turn country music upside down. Alongside the likes of Tom T. Hall and Billy Joe Shaver, Kristofferson brought a rough-edged, renegade-poet approach to songwriting and somehow injected it straight into the country mainstream in the late-‘60s/early ‘70s, when everyone from Johnny Cash to Sammi Smith cut high-profile versions of tunes like "For the Good Times" and "Sunday Morning Coming Down." Kristofferson's own ragged voice didn't keep him becoming an influential recording artist either, and his debut album, Kristofferson, is still seen as a milestone today. At the same time, his rugged good looks helped him establish a long career in films; over the years he appeared in a host of big-deal flicks including Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, A Star is Born, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Lone Star, ultimately becoming at least as famous for his acting as his music.

TAGS: Actor, Country Music, Leading Man, Nashville, Outlaw Country, Poetry, Political Activism, Rebel, Rhodes Scholar, Singer/Songwriter, Texas,

FACTS: Born/Formed: June 22, 1936; Location: Brownsville, Texas, United States; Kris Kristofferson

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