Barbra Streisand mourns Kris Kristofferson: ‘Something special’

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Barbra Streisand paid tribute to Kris Kristofferson following the country music legend’s death Saturday at age 88.

“The first time I saw Kris performing at the Troubadour club in L.A. I knew he was something special,” she wrote in a heartfelt post shared to her Instagram. “Barefoot and strumming his guitar, he seemed like the perfect choice for a script I was developing, which eventually became A Star Is Born.”

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She continued, “In the movie, Kris and I sang the song I’d written for the film’s main love theme, “Evergreen.” For my latest concert in 2019 at London’s Hyde Park, I asked Kris to join me on-stage to sing our other A Star Is Born duet, “Lost Inside Of You.” He was as charming as ever, and the audience showered him with applause. It was a joy seeing him receive the recognition and love he so richly deserved.”

Streisand ended her tribute by sending her thoughts to Kristofferson’s wife, Lisa, “who I know supported him in every way possible.”

Streisand and Kristofferson worked together on the third iteration of the popular story, which first starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in 1937 and includes a version that featured Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in 2018 and a 1954 musical that was led by Judy Garland and James Mason.

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In their 1976 version, Kristofferson played a self-destructive musician who falls in love with an aspiring singer (Streisand).

The film was a box office smash and Streisand’s Evergreen went on to win the Oscar for best original song.

Other music stars paid tribute to Kristofferson, including Dolly Parton, with whom he sang From Here to the Moon and Back and Put It Off Until Tomorrow.

“What a great loss What a great writer What a great actor What a great friend. I will always love you, Dolly,” Parton shared on her Instagram Story. 

Reba McEntire wrote, “What a gentleman, kind soul, and a lover of words. I am so glad I got to meet him and be around him. One of my favorite people. Rest in peace, Kris.”

Kristofferson died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. No cause of death was given, but family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said he passed away peacefully while surrounded by family.

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“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 28 at home. We’re all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all,” his family said in a statement.

In addition to acting in films like Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Cisco Pike, Heaven’s Gate and the Blade series, Kristofferson was a respected country music singer and songwriter, penning hits for Janis Joplin (Me and Bobby McGee) and Johnny Cash (Sunday Morning Coming Down), and writing his own classics, including Help Me Make it Through the Night and For the Good Times.

In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said Cash played a pivotal role in his early career as a musician trying to make his way in 1970s Nashville.

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“Shaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I’d decided I’d come back,” Kristofferson said. “It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first time.”

“There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Willie Nelson said at a 2009 BMI award ceremony honouring Kristofferson. “Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”

In the mid-80s, he formed the country supergroup The Highwaymen alongside Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

But Kristofferson wasn’t a fan of his own voice. “I don’t think I’m that good a singer,” he said in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview. “I can’t think of a song that I’ve written that I don’t like the way somebody else sings it better.”

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In 2021, Kristofferson quietly retired from touring after more than 50 years.

As the coronavirus pandemic shuttered live music venues in 2020, Kristofferson’s decision not to return to the road felt natural, his longtime manager Tamara Saviano told Variety at the time.

“It was just sort of a slow changing of the guard thing,” Saviano said. “To us on this side of the fence it was an organic, normal, ‘things are changing’ thing. Kris is aging; Kris is 84. It didn’t feel like such big news to us.”

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