Wanted: Kris Kristofferson

Interview, Sept, 1998 by Jack Mathews

JM: Throughout the '70s, you were that rare pop crossover, a marquee name in both music and movies. Then came the New York premiere of Heaven's Gate in 1980.

KK: Oh, God, I was there! I was in the rest room during intermission, and nobody said a word. Nobody knew what to say. Then as soon as the first review came out, which was horrible, they all jumped on it. To me, Heaven's Gate was assassinated.

JM: You wrote a song called "Shipwrecked in the '80s." You were referring to the Reagan era, but personally, you must have felt a little shipwrecked after Heaven's Gate.

KK: That was a terrible year. My agent, Stan Kamen, died, my manager was dying, my record company went bankrupt and took my last album with it, and my old lady [Rita Coolidge] split. I was kind of adrift in the '80s.

JM: Well, things are happening now. You had a successful album with Moment of Forever in 1995, and then came Lone Star, and the rest, as they say . . .

KK: I have John Sayles to thank, and I've got an agent now, Steve Chasman, who's got a plan for me.

JM: You also have a new family.

KK: We've got five little ones here. The youngest is three and the oldest is fourteen. I've got eight kids altogether. My oldest daughter is thirty-seven.

JM: That's quite a range.

KK: Yeah, it's irresponsible, but I love it. It's so different raising kids when you're older. You can give them the attention they deserve. When you're younger, you're scrambling, still trying to be whatever you turn out to be.

JM: Bill Willis in A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries is a successful writer dealing with young children, too.

KK: I feel like my life has really prepared me for this role. I feel a real kinship to that guy and I'm pleased that Kaylie [Jones] felt I was a lot like him. She was in tears when she saw the movie.

JM: People tend to put "Rhodes scholar" in front of your name as if it were a jaw-dropping modifier for a country songwriter. Do you look back on yourself as an overachiever or underachiever?

KK: I've always felt like an overachiever. Back when football was important to me in college, I made first string because I had the desire. I always knew I wasn't good enough to be out there, but I was. I think I've gone through a lot of my performing the same way, knowing I didn't really deserve to be on the same stage with Willie [Nelson], Waylon [Jennings], and Johnny [Cash], but I was there. And at least once in every film, I'm convinced that I'm uniquely unequipped to do the job, that I should never do another one. But I get over it.