The acclaimed Country singer who died on Saturday never seemed that comfortable with public speaking. But a glance at his most famous songs reveal a man of deep Christian faith, observes Derek Walker
Kris Kristofferson was at one time a Hollywood A-lister, with films under his belt such as A Star Is Born (1976), Blade, and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. But he was also someone whose own life could have been a movie.
As well as the movie roles, he was a tremendously successful songwriter, composing hits such as ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ and ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night.’ He went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, gaining a Master’s degree in English Literature; he was a Golden Gloves boxer; and – coming from a military family – he was a helicopter pilot.
Famously, after he had left the forces, he used his experience to land a helicopter on Johnny Cash’s lawn, so that he could present a demo tape to him. Cash was not there at the time, but the stunt did lead to the Country star recording Kristofferson’s ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.’
Cash was impressed enough to play the song on his TV programme, and the Country Music Association named it Song of the Year 1970.
There are many connections between the two men, who were great friends. They recorded together; they were both in movies as well as music; they both knew the highs of major success and the lows of being forgotten. They both had issues with alcohol and (not unconnected with this) both had failed marriages. Both had late musical resurgences – Cash with Rick Rubin producing and Kristofferson rescued by Don Was.
And both were men of faith.
I found myself weeping in public, and I felt this forgiveness that I didn’t even know I needed
Kristofferson didn’t say a lot about his faith. He was shy and never seemed very comfortable with any form of public speaking. He let his lyrics do the talking. But he was drawn out on a performance DVD and asked about the background to his song, “Why Me?”
He told how he had been invited to a church led by country singer/pastor Jimmy Snow. Kristofferson recalled that, after he had been moved by a song called, ‘Help me, Lord,’ he “had a profound religious experience… something that had never happened to me before. Everybody was kneeling down and Jimmy said something like, ‘If anybody’s lost, please raise their hands’.
“I was kneeling there. I don’t go to church a lot and the notion of raising my hand was out of the question. I thought, ‘I can’t imagine who’s doing this!’ And all of a sudden I felt my hand going up and I was hoping no one else was looking.”
Snow then gave an altar call, asking people to come to the front. “I thought that would never happen!” the singer recalled, “…and I found myself getting up and walking down with all these people… I didn’t know what I was doing there. I can’t even remember what [Snow] was saying, but whatever it was, was such a release for me that I found myself weeping in public, and I felt this forgiveness that I didn’t even know I needed.”
The song begins, “Why me Lord? What have I ever done to deserve even one / Of the pleasures I’ve known? / Tell me Lord, what did I ever do that was worth loving you / Or the kindness you’ve shown? / Lord help me Jesus, I’ve wasted it so; / Help me Jesus; I know what I am. / Now that I know that I’ve needed you so, / Help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hand.”
Kristofferson’s English studies helped him hone his lyrical skills and he had more success with writing songs than singing them. With his sense of social justice, he often used his words to highlight the downtrodden, and he had an empathetic edge to his words.
‘They Killed Him’, was like his ‘Abraham, Martin and John’ – only with Jesus added to the list. In a song covered by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, after verses about Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Kristofferson wrote: “The only Son of God Almighty / The holy one called Jesus Christ / He healed the lame and fed the hungry / And for his love they took his life away / On the road to glory where the story never ends / Just the holy Son of Man we’ll never understand / My God, they killed him.”
In the title track of ‘Jesus was a Capricorn’, where Kristofferson points out how we like to have people to look down on, he wrote, “Jesus was a Capricorn; he ate organic food / He believed in love and peace and never wore no shoes. / Long hair, beard and sandals and a funky bunch of friends / Reckon may just nail him up if he come down again.”
But perhaps his most telling words about the impact of God in his life are in another title track, the reflective ‘Feeling Mortal.’ After poetically describing the fragility of life, he sings, “God Almighty here I am. Am I where I ought to be? / I’ve begun to soon descend like the sun into the sea / And I thank my lucky stars from here to eternity / For the artist that you are and the man you made of me.”
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