LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Reba McEntire says Kris Kristofferson was a gentleman, a kind soul, a lover of words. Barbra Streisand remembers her "A Star Is Born" co-star as special and charming. Singer, songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson has died at his home in Hawaii at the age of 88. Melissa Block offers this appreciation.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ME AND BOBBY MCGEE")
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON: If it sounds country, man, that's what it is. It's a country song.
MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE: And a Kris Kristofferson song has characters so vivid, you feel like you're right there with them on the next bar stool or in the cab of a truck.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ME AND BOBBY MCGEE")
KRISTOFFERSON: (Singing) Busted flat in Baton Rouge and heading for the trains. Feeling nearly faded as my jeans. Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained. Took us all the way to New Orleans.
BLOCK: Janis Joplin's version of that song shot up to become a No. 1 single. Kris Kristofferson played football and was a Golden Gloves boxer at Pomona College. He was, it's safe to say, the only country star who was also a Rhodes scholar. He dove into Shakespeare and William Blake at Oxford, harbored dreams of writing the Great American novel. After Oxford, he joined the army, where he was a helicopter pilot, but he ditched the army and moved to Nashville to chase his songwriting dream. For that choice, he was disowned by his parents.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ME AND BOBBY MCGEE")
KRISTOFFERSON: (Singing) Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Nothing ain't worth nothing, but it's free.
BLOCK: Kristofferson wrote indelible songs about loners and wastrels and lovers. Oh, yes, about lovers.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT")
KRISTOFFERSON: (Singing) Take the ribbon from your hair. Shake it loose and let it fall. Laying soft upon my skin, like the shadows on the wall. Come and lay down by my side.
RODNEY CROWELL: It is literally a form of seduction. It's silver tongue seduction.
BLOCK: Singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell.
CROWELL: For country music, it was earthshaking and a paradigm shift. It was sensuality.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT")
KRISTOFFERSON: (Singing) Help me make it through the night.
BLOCK: Crowell was one of many young songwriters drawn to Nashville by the beacon of Kristofferson's success. It wasn't just the poetry of the lyrics, Crowell says. Kristofferson was magnetic, movie star gorgeous, with a roguish grin and electric blue eyes.
CROWELL: You know, women loved him, you know, I mean, absolutely fell over. So he was a sex symbol and a rock star. It was like, I want to be like that. You know, it was like, how do you do that? How do you have that kind of swagger?
BLOCK: Swagger and brilliant storytelling both.
STEVE EARLE: He raised the bar single-handedly in country music lyrically to a place that that writers are still aspiring to, you know, and I still aspire to, to this day.
BLOCK: That's musician Steve Earle. He remembers first hearing this song, "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," as a teenager and running out to buy Kristofferson's first records.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUNDAY MORNIN' COMIN' DOWN")
KRISTOFFERSON: (Singing) And there's nothing short of dying half as lonesome as the sound on the sleeping city sidewalks, Sunday morning coming down.
BLOCK: In his later years, Kristofferson suffered from profound memory loss but still kept performing. In an interview with NPR in 2013, Kristofferson reflected on his life. He had just released an album titled "Feeling Mortal."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
KRISTOFFERSON: To my surprise, I feel nothing but gratitude for being this, you know, old (laughter) and still aboveground, living with the people I love. I've had a life of all kinds of experiences, most of them good. And I got eight kids and a wife that puts up with everything I do and keeps me out of trouble.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FEELING MORTAL")
KRISTOFFERSON: (Singing) Wide awake and feeling mortal at this moment in the dream.
BLOCK: Melissa Block, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FEELING MORTAL")
KRISTOFFERSON: (Singing) That old man... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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