Kris Kristofferson quietly announced on Wednesday, Jan. 27, that he has retired from recording, touring and acting, revealing the news in a clause in a press release detailing his estate’s future management. Kristofferson’s spokesperson confirmed his retirement to Rolling Stone. The press release announced that “in the wake of his father’s retirement in 2020,” Kristofferson’s son John will “oversee all of the family’s business.”
The release also revealed that Morris Higham Management will represent the Kris Kristofferson estate and that a series of “special projects” will celebrate the musician’s 85th birthday in June. Kristofferson’s last full show was aboard the 2020 Outlaw Country Cruise on Jan. 30, which capped off a six-decade career that began in the ’60s. Born in Texas, Kristofferson played multiple sports in school and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he began writing songs. He later joined the Army and when a tour in Germany ended, he turned down an assignment to teach English literature at West Point in favor of moving to Nashville to pursue his songwriting career.
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After having many of his songs cut by other artists, Kristofferson signed his own record deal and released his debut album, Kristofferson, in 1970, going on to release nearly 20 studio albums. Some of his writing credits include Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” Ray Stevens and Johnny Cash‘s “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” which was first recorded by Kristofferson and later by Sammi Smith.
Kristofferson was also a supergroup member of The Highwaymen with Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, which became a key force in the outlaw country music movement. He was inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004 and is also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, which gave him the Johnny Mercer Award, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He also received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy.
Along with his music career, Kristofferson became a well-known actor and has appeared in dozens of films, including Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Blade, Heaven’s Gate, Lone Star, Payback, The Jacket, Joyful Noise and the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born alongside Barbra Streisand, for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor. In 2013, Kristofferson revealed that he was suffering from memory loss, which he initially attributed to post-concussion syndrome from his athletic career but later learned was a result of Lyme disease, which he contracted on a movie set in 2006. His last album was 2016’s The Cedar Creek Sessions.
