Kris Kristofferson was ‘a walking contradiction,’ a renegade and pilgrim surrounded by friends

AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Kristofferson led a remarkable life that might sound implausible if it appeared in fiction. He was a Texas-born star athlete, a Rhodes scholar and a captain in the U.S. Army. But he walked away from it all to become one of the great singer-songwriters of the 20th century. Kristofferson died on Saturday at the age of 88. During his life he got to see his early heroes like Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash record songs he wrote then become heroes and collaborators. Another friend, Janis Joplin, recorded maybe the best known version of one of his songs with her posthumous No. 1 hit “Me and Bobby McGee.”