For country music fans there are few names that so completely embody the Country and Western genre as Kris Kristofferson.
Check out this video for the full story:
Rolling Stone called him “one of America’s finest songwriters.”
“Kris Kristofferson ruined my education” Turk Pipkin wrote proudly in Esquire in 2014.
But before he was a recording artist, Kristofferson, under pressure from his family and following in the footsteps of his Air Force General father before him, joined the U.S. Army.
Kristofferson trained as a Ranger and a helicopter pilot, eventually reaching the rank of Captain while stationed in Germany. But then he received orders to West Point to teach English.
A Rhodes Scholar educated at Oxford, Kristofferson was more interested in creative writing and music than the military, so, rather than accept orders to West Point, Kristofferson chose to leave the Army.
The move allegedly caused his family to sever ties with him, and he is rumored to not have spoken to his mother for over twenty years as a result.
Leaving the Army did not immediately pay off for Kristofferson. He found himself struggling to make ends meet in Nashville and working as a janitor at a recording studio. It was there that Kristofferson first came across June Cash. He gave her a demo tape and asked her to pass it on to Johnny Cash, which she did…but the tape went unheard.
Kristofferson, struggling to support his growing family, then briefly served in the Tennessee National Guard.
That’s when Kristofferson did something that would land most service members today in the brig:
He stole a helicopter.
“I flew in to John’s property,” Kristofferson recalls. “I almost landed on his roof.”
The country music legends Kris Kristofferson (left) and Lyle Lovett (right) performed in the East Room of The White House for D.C. schoolchildren on Nov. 22, 2011. (Image by Flickr user John Arundel | (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Kristofferson notes that he was lucky Johnny Cash didn’t shoot down the old helicopter with his shotgun.
The risk payed off, though, as Johnny Cash wound up recording the song Kristofferson was trying to get him to listen to: “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” That recording “lifted me out of obscurity,” Kristofferson admits.
Cash was a fan of Kristofferson’s bravado, and the two would go on to work together many times. With publicity help from Cash, Kristofferson penned dozens of hits, including “Vietnam Blues,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Together with Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, Cash and Kristofferson completed the group “Highwaymen.”
Kristofferson wrote songs for the likes of Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Sammi Smith, Ray Price, and Janis Joplin (with whom he had a brief relationship before her death).
(Johnny Cash & Kris Kristofferson — “Sunday Morning Coming Down” | YouTube)
His bravado served him well on screen, too, and Kristofferson has enjoyed a long running acting career in addition to his music career.
He appeared with Wesley Snipes in the “Blade” movies and even had a song on “Grand Theft Auto.” Kristofferson worked alongside Martin Scorsese, starring in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” and with Barbra Streisand in “A Star is Born,” for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor.
Kristofferson went on to work with Matthew McConaughey, Mel Gibson, and Tim Burton.
In 2014, Kristofferson received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award to go along with his many awards, gold records, and top 40 hits.
Also in 2014, Kristofferson’s son, Jesse Kristofferson, enlisted in the Coast Guard.
To think, it all happened because he bucked his family military tradition, got disowned, and stole a military helicopter.
Two country music legends, one legendary country music song.
Throughout the entire history of country music, there are few songs as iconic as “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”
Penned by the great singer/songwriter and Highwaymen member, Kris Kristofferson, “Sunday Morning Coming Down” was originally released in 1969 by Ray Stevens.
It was then released by Johnny Cash the following year, becoming a number one song, Kristofferson recorded it himself for his 1970 debut album, Kristofferson.
It went on to become one of the great country songs of all time, covered by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis and more, but perhaps more importantly, it propelled Kristofferson’s career as a singer/songwriter to new heights.
But how did it get from Kristofferson to Cash? Well, that’s a wild story…
If you didn’t know, Kris Kristofferson is quite a man… a Rhodes Scholar, Oxford grad, Captain and helicopter pilot in the United States Army, he completed Ranger School… Kristofferson seemed to excel at everything he put his mind to.
While studying English lit at Oxford, Kristofferson began to hone his craft as a singer songwriter. When he finished up in the military in 1965, he moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music.
Moving To Nashville
According to an interview from Cowboys & Indians, he credits Nashville with saving his life:
“I think if it hadn’t been for Nashville. I probably would have ended up going to Vietnam, because I’d been in the Army.
I was definitely not doing what I thought I was supposed to do. And I think I probably would have ended up a hopeless alcoholic or something.”
Kristofferson’s cousin plugged him into the music scene, but he really wasn’t having much success and took a job as a janitor at Columbia records.
Working at the record label, he would often times run into artists like George Jones, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, but these music stars weren’t exactly in the market to collect songs from the guy sweeping the floors.
He later took a job as a helicopter flight instructor with the National Guard, but when he wasn’t piloting down in the Gulf, he was still pitching songs around Nashville.
Landing His Helicopter At The Cash House
Perhaps his most infamous helicopter ride was when he landed the thing in Johnny Cash’s yard in an attempt to try and get some of his demo tapes in Cash’s hands.
According to Cash, Kris landed with a beer in one hand and the demo in the other, walked up to him half drunk, gave him the demo of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and “Me & Bobby McGee,” and left the same way he came.
However, Kristofferson doesn’t quite recall the story the same way that Cash described it.
In fact, according to Kris, Johnny wasn’t even there:
“Well, I admit, that did happen, but that didn’t do me any good, landing on John’s property. He wasn’t even there in the house at the time.
I think he told the story that I got out of the helicopter with a beer in one hand and a tape in the other. But he wasn’t even in the house.
And I never would have been drinking while flying a helicopter.”
June wasn’t home either…
Kris used to give demos to June for Johnny to listen to, but unfortunately for Kris, when June would play demos for Johnny, he ended up throwing most of them in the lake.
“She wasn’t there either… but you know what? I never was going to contradict either one of them.”
Either way, the helicopter stunt was enough for Johnny to take notice. Cash was a fan of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and played the song live shortly thereafter. He even invited Kris to perform with him at the Newport Folk Festival.
He eventually recorded it, it became an absolute smash, and the rest is history.
On an episode of The Johnny Cash Show, Cash eloquently explained what the song meant to him:
“I suppose we’ve all … all of us been at one time or another ‘a drifter at heart,’ and today, like yesterday, there’s many that are on that road heading out.
Not searching maybe for work, as much as for self-fulfillment, or understanding of their life … trying to find a meaning for their life. …
Many who have drifted — including myself — have found themselves no closer to peace of mind than a dingy backroom, on some lonely Sunday morning, with it coming down all around you.”
Iconic.