Doctors began treating country legend Kris Kristofferson with medicine after suspecting that his unpleasant health issues were caused by Alzheimer’s.
Kristofferson is now an 86-year-old healthy man after being diagnosed with Lyme illness and receiving the proper therapy.
And, despite his celebrity, he recognises his death and wishes to have the opening three lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s song, “Bird on a Wire,” engraved on his tombstone.
The world knew a star was born the moment Kris Kristofferson unleashed his vocals. His sky-blue eyes, white hair, and well trimmed beard have kept him a fan favourite since he began his profession nearly 55 years ago.
He claims that the beard was not intentional. “I had pneumonia and had to go into the hospital for a week, and I didn’t shave the whole time,” Kristofferson told the Guardian.
“When I first came out, a magazine took a picture of me and dubbed me ‘the new face of country music.'” Willie has been looking as crazy as hell ever since.”
Kris Kristofferson, as one of the genuinely great wordsmiths of our time, has a distinct vibe – and if you don’t get it, you’ll probably never get it.
After graduating from Oxford in 1960, he served in the military before landing a career as a commercial pilot with Louisiana’s Petroleum Helicopters International. In his spare time, he would sit on an oil platform and write future hits like as “Help Me Make it Through the Night” and “Bobby McGee.”
The young artist, who met Johnny Cash while working as a caretaker in the studio where he recorded, took a risk in order to gain attention.
“I discovered him, and so did a lot of other people around the same time,” Cash recalled about Kristofferson in an earlier interview. “That’s how I got a lot of Kris’s songs, but one day he got so impatient that he landed a helicopter in my yard and brought me a tape of ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down.'” So I heard that song, and I did it on a network television show and talked about Kris, and he was on his way, then he went to Newport Folk Festival and stole my show, and he did fantastically well. I was pleased with him.”
Kristofferson’s career soared to heights that no aircraft could match.
And his hits, such as “For the Good Times” and “Why Me Lord,” have been covered by everyone from Johnny Cash to Janis Joplin to Bob Dylan, many of whom he considers to be his heroes.
In 1985, he formed the supergroup The Highwaymen with Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson, with the title song from their debut album earning single of the year from the Academy of Country Music.
“Every time I stood on stage, at some point during the show, I had to pinch myself to realise that I was really up there on stage.” “Every one of these guys was my hero before I even knew them,” Kristofferson explained, adding that he volunteered as a caretaker one Saturday at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville since Waylon was doing a demo at the time. “I’d never heard someone like him before. Because, as human as Johnny Cash is – or was – he was always larger than life. He always reminded me of something from Mount Rushmore.”
Bob Dylan, who also recorded in the studio Kristofferson cleaned, is his hero.
“Every time I stood on stage, at some point during the show, I had to pinch myself to realise that I was really up there on stage.” “Every one of these guys was my hero before I even knew them,” Kristofferson explained, adding that he volunteered as a caretaker one Saturday at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville since Waylon was doing a demo at the time. “I’d never heard someone like him before. Because, as human as Johnny Cash is – or was – he was always larger than life. He always reminded me of something from Mount Rushmore.”
Bob Dylan, who also recorded in the studio Kristofferson cleaned, is his hero.
“It was a real eye-opener to see the way he worked,” the “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” singer remarked of his first meeting with Dylan. At the moment, I was really awestruck by him. But I never said anything to him. I didn’t want to annoy him. I just emptied the garbage cans and stood there watching him.”
Since becoming a fame, Kristofferson has sung numerous Dylan songs and adds, “He’s still a hero.”
“Every performer who has done my songs has done them better than I have.” “I guess Janis doing “Me and Bobby McGee” moved me profoundly because of our relationship,” he remarked of the singer, who was formerly his lover and died in 1970. “I met her not long before she passed away. But we were almost there. Unfortunately, she had just died when I first heard her rendition. “And it blew me away,” he recalled of the woman, whose posthumous version of “Me and Bobby Mcgee” topped the charts for several weeks in 1971.
Kristofferson, the father of eight children by three wives–Fran Beer, singer Rita Coolidge, and his current wife Lisa Meyers–has had relationships with a number of celebrities, including Jane Fonda, Cara Simon, and Samantha Eggar.
Though the chemistry between Kristofferson and his co-star in A Star Is Born (1976), Barbara Streisand, was undeniable, the two were never romantically linked. Kristofferson, who played a rockstar in the film, said he was inspired by Streisand, whose on-screen character was an aspiring singer. “I was scared to death of her,” he later admitted, adding, “it’s exciting to work with someone who has that much talent.”
His health began to deteriorate significantly in the late 1990s.
Kristofferson’s health was excellent until 1999, when he underwent successful cardiac bypass surgery.
He began experiencing a variety of unpleasant symptoms in 2004, and physicians diagnosed him with Alzheimer’s disease. He was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which should have been the first sign that a Lyme disease test was necessary.
Kris had severe spasms that stretched throughout his back and legs, producing excruciating discomfort. His spasms were so severe that his nerve endings generated agonising contractions the size of golf balls.
Acupuncture, thermal therapy, and massage were among the treatments used to treat his ailment. A rheumatologist eventually delivered a spinal cortisone shot, and a low dose of an antidepressant was prescribed to alleviate the chronic agony.
“He had painful knees and annual knee shots, a pacemaker for arrhythmias–which we now know could be caused by Lyme disease–and so much Advil for headaches that he became anaemic,” his wife of 40 years, Lisa Meyers, said.
“After a year of iron supplements and visits to a haematologist, he just didn’t look healthy.”
In 2016, after she insisted that her husband consult an integrative doctor, he was eventually diagnosed with Lyme illness. Meyers claims he was bitten by an infected tick while filming Disappearances (2006), in which he spent a lot of time crawling through the grassy grounds of a Vermont forest.
“He was taking all these medications for things he doesn’t have, and they all have side effects,” Meyers said of the Alzheimer’s and depression medication. Meyers says that Kristofferson recovered after three weeks of Lyme disease treatment. “All of a sudden, he appeared. “Some days he’s perfectly normal, and it’s easy to forget he’s fighting anything,” she explained.
But, when the time comes, Kristofferson wants these words engraved on his tombstone: “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free.”