A hard-drinking singer-songwriter with an outlaw spirit, Kris Kristofferson transformed the country music scene in the 1970s by bringing lyrical sophistication, and a “rarely heard candour and depth”to the genre, said The Irish Times.
His songs were “steeped in a neo-romantic sensibility”and explored “freedom and commitment, alienation and desire, darkness and light”. He recorded them all himself; but his vocals were raspy, and many were bigger hits when covered by other artists – from Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Gladys Knight to the Grateful Dead and Michael Bublé. Notably, he wrote “Me and Bobby McGee”with its resonant refrain “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose/ Nothin’, don’t mean nothin’ hon if it ain’t free”which became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Janis Joplin (with whom he had a brief affair).
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