Despite All Expectations, Kris Kristofferson Achieved Success His Way

In college, Kris Kristofferson was a Rhodes scholar and a Golden Gloves boxer who also happened to play guitar and write music. After Oxford, he moved to Nashville to pursue songwriting and eventually managed to gain Johnny Cash's attention by delivering a demo tape by helicopter to Cash's home. Cash ended up recording Kristofferson's song "Sunday Morning Coming Down," which became a hit.

So began Kristofferson's wildly successful career that included starring roles in movies. 

The image in this episode's chapters and thumbnail is from the cover of the 2010 unauthorized biography of Kristofferson by Stephen Miller, who also wrote "Johnny Cash: Life of an American Icon." It's available on Kindle and in paperback.  

Miller (not the White House deputy chief of staff!) also wrote "The Million Dollar Quartet" about the recordings made during an impromptu jam session at Sun Record Studios in Memphis. The musicians were Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Cash.

To watch Kristofferson and Cash performing "Sunday Morning Coming Down," go here. The clip is from Cash's Christmas show in 1978.

This tribute is one of 41 stories that Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime journalist, has written and recorded in honor of the music notables who passed away in 2024. He's written tributes for other years as well. You can listen to the ones from 2023 on Everyday Creation. We'll have the 2022 tributes available later this year.

Sheldon also is the creator of Song of the Day, a story that he sends by email to a list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email [e-mail] with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.   

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Audible, iHeart and Spotify.