There's a lot more to Kris Kristofferson than a grizzled voice, writes Tony Clayton-Lea
Age may have slowed him down and a sense of mortality may have seeped into his bones, but country-folk singer/actor Kris Kristofferson has reason to be energised. In the autumn of his life - he's 68 in June - Kristofferson has gained the level of respect and critical kudos he and his fans have waited over 35 years for.
"The shows I'm currently doing by myself have been great," says the gravelly-voiced man over the telephone from Glasgow, where he is currently making a movie with the rather more youthful Kiera Knightley and Adrien Brody. "Maybe it's because you hang around long enough, but the respect is there. I was surprised at selling out the first two shows in Dublin; it's gratifying and humbling."
He's in good form, clearly; a triple by-pass operation a few years ago has left him healthier than he has been in some time, and his concerns - largely political - still affect him as passionately as ever. He talks fiercely about the US's current position as the world's number one warmonger and holds out hope that US presidential candidate Wesley Clark ("he's a highly decorated officer with NATO experience; used to working with Allies, too") will help stem the flow of US bloodletting. "I think he's the best shot the world has of pulling out of the cycle of violence."
A former US army captain, Kristofferson opted out of a post teaching at Westpoint, preferring instead to follow his heart to Nashville. Growing up in a military family before, during and after the second World War - "a family where duty, honour and country were taken for granted" - Kristofferson's decision to swap his clean-cut commission for a straggly beard was not received well by his conservative clan.
It wasn't the first time he had tried his hand at music, however: while on a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in the late 1950s, Kristofferson was taken under the entrepreneurial wing of pop impresario Larry Parnes; in the first half of the 1960s, he played at US army bases in Germany. Undoubtedly, the songwriting and singing bug had bitten hard. When it was crunch-time for heading out to Westpoint to teach rookies the basic skills of military life, something had to give.
"I made what looked like a foolish move at the time, to go to Nashville; to try to start all over again at the bottom, to be a writer and be part of that life. For about four years, it looked like the biggest mistake anyone could ever have made, and I'm sure a lot of my family and friends thought I was insane. Eventually, though, it worked and I've never regretted it. It was a major decision, of course. My wife at the time was against it, as were my parents. And my peers thought I had lost my mind."
Within a year of leaving the army, Kristofferson was a janitor at a recording studio, cleaning up for people in a business those around him - family, college friends, army colleagues - considered a disreputable career.
But belief is important, he stresses, and the creative urge within him was too strong to resist.
"I went into Nashville determined to start at the bottom, and of course there was no problem with that because that's where they wanted me! Gradually, though, I carved out my own reputation and made it. All of the people against my career move eventually congratulated me."
He remembers his struggles in Nashville as doing the right thing for the right reasons: fighting for the respect of people. "I'm sure what myself and others were doing at that time looked slightly unhinged from other people's points of view. For me, though, it was a heady time, like Paris in the 1920s. Everybody was getting together every night playing these long jam sessions. None of us were known by anyone, we were struggling, but we had enough encouragement from the established guys - Harlan Howard, Johnny Cash - to make us feel like we were doing something worthwhile.
"Then Johnny began to pitch my songs to people and that's where it began. It was a great atmosphere; we were all working together pitching each other's songs."
He's of the age where he feels the loss of friends such as Johnny Cash, June Carter and Waylon Jennings, and much as he'd perhaps rather not he feels he can't help but reflect on life, death, the universe and everything.
"You get used to thinking about how precious time is but I have to tell you I don't feel a whole lot older or wiser. I'm not sure how other 67-year-old men feel; for myself, I might feel a little bit more reflective and perhaps more inclined to enjoy my family than to go out and rock 'n' roll.
"Do I feel like the last man standing? Almost. Willie Nelson is still around, but yeah, we certainly are fewer. At the tribute for Johnny Cash last year I certainly noticed that, but Merle Haggard is still hitting it and Willie hasn't slowed down a bit. But things are pretty good right now; I like where I am in life."
While his moderately successful acting career (a few decent roles, but mostly a career direction more utilitarian than inspirational) has enabled him to look after his family through the years, it's music that informs his spirit. He's been likened to a country-folk version of Leonard Cohen and it's a suitable description: a wise poetic sensibility with mournful undertones, albeit in Kristofferson's case the sensibilities are skewed by roughneck experiences far removed from cerebral pursuits.
"I would never be making films or performing music if I weren't a songwriter," he admits. "I haven't got a great voice, but I can interpret my own writing. I'd rather listen to Ray Charles, George Jones or Jerry Lee Lewis - people I consider singers - but I'm pleased that people want to hear my own versions [of songs such as For the Good Times, Me and Bobby Mcgee and Help Me Make it Through the Night]. I always wanted to be a creative person and I feel much more creative doing my music than I do acting in a film that's controlled by somebody else.
"I've never had control over a movie, although I get to rewrite my own dialogue, which is another talent I have - but you're still doing someone else's story at someone else's pace. Whereas the songwriting is my own poetry."
His songwriting is motivated, he says, by the news of the day and whatever is going on around him.
"For as long as I was making albums, I always felt they were scrapbooks of my life and experiences of that time. People like Bob Dylan are the same - writing about what it's like to be the age he is.
"I want to do that myself. I've never been any other kind of writer, and I've never been able to write a certain kind of song or a song by assignment. My songs have always been my expression of my reaction to my experiences. And sometimes that would be politically oriented, although I hate politics.
"But there are concerns about things of which you become aware, of which the major thing for me now is the violence around the world and the fact that my country is for the large part responsible."
So, how does Kristofferson express those concerns? "I have to tell the truth as I see it, which is not always popular to hear. It's not exactly a career move to express opinions that are not necessarily accepted by everybody. It's different for someone like Willie Nelson to do it, mainly because a lot of those people in the country music market think I'm a Communist! It just doesn't have the same effect when I do it, that's all."
If you miss Kris Kristofferson the singer on his Irish dates, at least you'll be able to see Kris Kristofferson the actor in a few movies this year - Blade III (with Wesley Snipes); John Sayles's Silver City (the third Sayles movie he has appeared in - "he's one of the best directors I've ever worked with"); and The Wendell Baker Story (written and directed by Luke Wilson and starring brothers Luke and Owen Wilson ("it was one of the nicest scripts I' ve ever read").
If you've got this far, however, you'll have read that writing songs and singing them is where his heart and soul reside.
Kris Kristofferson plays Dublin's Point Theatre on January 31st, February 1st and February 22nd. The first two shows are sold out. The Essential Kris Kristofferson and Broken Freedom Song: Live From San Francisco are currently on release