The Devil Kris Kristofferson Knows
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music classic • preview The Devil Kris Kristofferson Knows there is no better word bow’ again — a tune that was based Each of those odd jobs have soured and I are good friends, and I know coholism. His daily bottle and a half than honest to describe almost verbatim on dialogue be- and shined for him again and again that even he doesn’t think I should be of Jack Daniels habit cost him his the tales and songs of tween characters that scrape togeth- — his lauded performance as a rac- singing.” pilot’s licence, after he was caught kris kristofferson er a few sweet morsels of kindness at ist sheriff in 1996’s Lonestar helped It’s a searing sort of perseverance, passed out behind the controls of his a diner during the Great Depression salvage his reputation as an actor and Kristofferson has been able to helicopter. Kris Kristofferson in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, decades after Heaven’s Gate, one of draw enough strength from every After sobering up, outlasting all River Cree Resort and Casino and went on to become a favourite the biggest financial flops in movie moment that has scathed him to that turmoil didn’t immediately pen Saturday, Oct. 30, 8 p.m. anthem of Kristofferson’s friend and history. His latest disc, 2008’s Clos- write songs such as “The Pilgrim, a new redemptive anthem — it be- Tickets: $49.50 and $59.50 at Ticketmaster mentor, Johnny Cash. er to the Bone, was hailed by crit- Chapter 33” where he sings with came clear that Kristofferson had “I think I might’ve changed a word ics as a masterpiece years after his confidence “The goin’ up was worth already written a more fitting tribute By kyle mullin here or there, ya know, just to make concept album Third World Warrior the comin’ down.” to Hopper, Joplin, Cash, and all his Long after the song is over, some- it rhyme. The scene always moved was panned and left him branded That song was also inspired, in loved ones that had wrestled with ad- thing more can be heard in the fading me,” says Kristofferson. “I loved as a has-been. Kristofferson nearly part, by the struggles that nearly diction and crippling heartache. hum of the strummed guitar strings, (Steinbeck’s) style, and at the time crashed one of the helicopters he still strangled his recently deceased Kristofferson had titled it felt only by fingertips toughened (that I wrote the song) I wanted to be flew as a hobby in the early ’80s be- friend Dennis Hopper for years — his “To Beat the Devil” on his from years of plucking those lonely a novelist myself, so I could identify cause he was still sweating out much career had stalled after the success of very first self-titled album. notes. It’s a beautiful revelry in what with what he was doing. I’d love to of the whiskey he’d downed the night the motorcycle odyssey Easy Rider, Part song and part spoken word nar- remains, and Kris Kristofferson has think that I could write a book like before. And his career as an outlaw and soon his life began to imitate his rative, the track didn’t detail obvi- spent a lifetime finding that special that someday, but I wonder some- troubadour nearly died before it be- stoner art. ous or deliberate evil deeds. Instead sort of salvation from the fringe edg- times if I have the brain just to do my gan, because most record execs in “For Dennis, it was like that for a it touched on far darker and subtler es he’s forced himself towards — be it shows. As long as I keep playing gigs the late 1960s dismissed the narrow lot of us at that time,” Kristofferson sins — the kind that make the bro- the Sunday morning hangovers he’s it’d be harder to finish something range of his husky voice. said of the indulgences that turned ken-hearted lose all hope. become so famous for singing about, longer (than my songs), but I would “I tell ya, it probably kept me from deadly for many in showbiz dur- ”It’s about the evil in apathy, giv- or a memory dulled by the much like to write a novel before I totally being a performer for awhile, at least ing the ’60s and ’70s. “I think Den- ing up, or any kind of selfishness,” more potent brew of old age. lose my memory.” five years or so,” he says of his in- nis would agree with everything (in Kristofferson says of what is now The latter is a prime example of Novelist is one of the few voca- famous limitations as a singer. “But ‘The Pilgrim, Chapter 33’). After considered one of his most under- the 74-year-old entertainer’s biggest tions he has yet to try — from raw after that it didn’t seem to matter be- Easy Rider life got very difficult for rated gems. current struggle — right now he’s outlaw country singer, to song- cause I was speaking my own songs him. So many people have (faced the “Sometimes just earning a living sitting, racking his brain to remem- writer for the likes of Johnny Cash ... if I weren’t a songwriter I would same thing), I probably hadn’t yet at and keeping your mouth fed can ber the name of the John Steinbeck and his old flame Janis Joplin, to have no reason to be a performer, the time.” hollow you. There are many things novel he used as a reference for one actor, to Rhodes Scholar, to Army but I’m able to move audiences in But eventually he did — by 1980, that’ll pick and push you away from of his most renowned songs. Ranger helicopter pilot, to janitor the direction I want to go, and just Rita Coolidge, Kristofferson’s second the creative person you want to be. “It was inspired by, whatcha callit,” at the Nashville studio he hoped to the communication of the songs so wife and frequent performing part- The trick to beating the devil is in not he says of “ ‘Here Comes That Rain- one day record his own ditties in. far has kept me going. Willie Nelson ner, divorced him because of his al- getting turned away.” e Harm Blam eet… THE WAY WE GREEN PRESERVE AND SUSTAIN EDMONTON’S ENVIRONMENT Are you concerned about Edmonton’s Environment? The Way We Green Public Forum Learn. Discuss. Contribute. 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