KRIS KRISTOFFERSON was singing in my house this week – a kind of mourning lament by the recently deceased himself, reminding one of how much pleasure he had given over the years. Also, I reread Stephen Miller's Kristofferson: The Wild American. The only book that can take you close to this genius country singer.
Kristofferson: The Wild American is “unauthorised", meaning that Miller did not enjoy the collaboration of his subject. Nor those of his exes or his family. Which is surprising, because Kristofferson's own memoir, announced by Hyperion Books in 2009, has not yet appeared. Nor will it ever, because Kristofferson's memory had been playing tricks on him since 2004.
In that year, doctors told the singer that he had Alzheimer's disease. He kept it quiet and took all the medication they prescribed. His condition worsened, and in 2016, Rolling Stone magazine announced that Kristofferson had been diagnosed with Lyme disease. The Alzheimer's diagnosis was wrong, and the medication had exacerbated the Lyme disease.
Miller's book prompted Kristofferson's prestige to soar in my eyes. It's dead honest about the man's flaws and quirks, and especially the effects of alcohol and depression on his life. It was published in 2009 – sparing the reader the trauma of Kristofferson's last decades – because Miller was still searching for what had never been written about him in the press.
In many ways, Kris Kristofferson was the stereotypical country star whose life was dominated by booze, marijuana and willing women. He was also hyper-intelligent and won a Rhodes scholarship to study English literature at Oxford University, with a particular focus on the poems of William Blake. He was obsessed with rugby at school in the US and played for his Oxford college.
Also interesting were his military days, and their aftermath – going from helicopter pilot to floor scrubber in Nashville. Miller covers all the phases of Kristofferson's singing and film careers. Along with his three marriages and the eight children that we know he fathered.
The most famous anecdote is told by Johnny Cash, the one that Kristofferson sent him recordings of his songs. Cash did not listen to them, whereupon Kristofferson set down a helicopter in Cash's frontyard and put a copy of the cassette in his hand. The result was Cash's famous recording of “Sunday Morning Coming Down”.
Unfortunately, half-true. Kristofferson did land on Cash's lawn by helicopter – but he wasn't home. However, the incident made Cash realise he would have to do something to get rid of the intrusive Kristofferson. From the handful of songs on the cassette, he chose “Sunday Morning Coming Down", which became a huge hit in 1970.
Another part of the book one reads with great pleasure, especially after Barbra Streisand's windswept narrative of it in her 2023 memoir, is how the two quarrelled while making the movie A Star is Born. It helped turn Kristofferson into a movie star, but his participation was due to Streisand's little plot to make Jon Peters, her boyfriend and hairdresser, jealous of the man she had recently had a fiery romance with – our Kris. Peters wanted either Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Neil Diamond or Marlon Brando in the role of John Norman; Streisand chose Kristofferson.
But it was hell for Kristofferson to do the picture (“We're making a Barbra Streisand lollipop extravaganza") and it was the elephant in the room for years whenever Kristofferson and Streisand socialised.
The book is more than light entertainment and raises the singer and actor in one's estimation and respect. It's now instantly accessible via Amazon.
Also read Willem Kempen's portrait of Kristofferson.
Kristofferson: The Wild American by Stephen Miller was published by Omnibus Press and costs $19.95 (~R350) at Amazon.
What can Elizabeth Strout not do? After reading Tell Me Everything, I am convinced that she lives in the fifth dimension, from where she has seen all the histories of the Kitteridge, Bishop and Barton families play out, and now she's back in the fourth dimension to tell us what has happened to these people. If you haven't read anything of hers, don't start with Tell Me Everything. It would be terribly boring. Go back to Amy and Isabelle (1998). By the time you get to Olive Kitteridge (2008) and My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016), you'll know what I mean.
Tell Me Everything is the story of Lucy and William's current situation (they want to remarry) and Bob Burgess, their lawyer friend, who becomes involved in an interesting murder case. This is solved, but the real reason why Strout wrote this novel with its myriad lesser stories is to keep us up to date with everything that has happened to all of her characters. I suspect something big is coming in her next novel, but in the meantime, all I can do is wholeheartedly recommend the book to all fellow fans of this gifted author. If you don't know her novels, now is the time to catch up.
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout was published by Random House and costs $21 (~R365) at Amazon.
♦ VWB ♦
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Kerneels Breytenbach is a former publisher and journalist from Cape Town. He also authored the short story collection Morsdood van die Honger, the novels Glimlag, Piekniek by Hangklip, Ester, and Hond se Gedagte, and the cookbook Die Lekkerste Lekker. He often writes for magazines about food and restaurants, and as a journalist has also become known as an expert on pop music.
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