Kris Kristofferson has one of the most impressive resumes in country music history. He was an Oscar-nominated actor, a Rhodes scholar, and an Army veteran who turned down a teaching position at West Point. Kristofferson left the military and moved to Nashville in the mid-‘60s. Before long, he found himself surrounded by legends and well on his way to becoming one.
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In 1999, Kristofferson sat down with Charlie Rose to discuss his life and career. During the conversation, he talked about his collegiate career and military service as well as his time in the limelight. At one point, he revealed how he felt when he first moved to Nashville.
Kris Kristofferson Found Freedom in Nashville
“What happened when you went to Nashville that somehow changed your life?” Charlie Rose asked. “I fell in love with it. It was like, I guess, like suddenly being put down amongst the people you should be with,” Kris Kristofferson said.
“I went out and hung out with Cowboy Jack Clement, Bobby Bare, Mel Tillis, and Tom T. Hall. I would hang out with all of these songwriters who would be ‘roaring,’ they called it,” he recalled. “They’d be drinking and writing songs, staying up all night for three or four days, and after the Army, this was absolute freedom and ecstasy,” he said, laughing.
“I also got to shake hands with Johnny Cash at the Opry,” Kristofferson added with a note of pride in his voice. “I was just mesmerized.” Later, Cash would help Kristofferson make a name for himself by recording some of his songs including “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down.”
“Johnny was an inspiration to me. He was probably the first artist that I ever saw that was not only self-destructive and everything I thought an artist had to be but also, he stood up for the underdog. He was doing songs for the Native Americans and he was a bad boy and I’ve always been attracted to that,” he added. “John Cash, at the time, was the most creative and most self-destructive guy in Nashville. He was skinny as a snake and he just looked like electricity walking around.”
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