Kristofferson’s big break in Nashville came in an unconventional way: He landed a helicopter in Johnny Cash’s front yard in an attempt to get the star’s attention — and it worked. Cash recorded “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” and, from there, Kristofferson’s songs were recorded by, among others, Ray Price, Waylon Jennings and Kenny Rogers.
As a recording artist himself, Kristofferson put out 17 solo albums and was part of the Highwaymen with Cash, Jennings and Willie Nelson. As an actor, he is well known for his role in the 1976 iteration of A Star Is Born, for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award.
In 2013, Kristofferson revealed that he was suffering from memory loss, which, at the time, he tied to the concussions and hits to the head he suffered during his athletic career. However, in 2016, he revealed that the cause was, in fact, Lyme disease, which he likely picked up on a movie set in 2006 and had gone undiagnosed for about a decade.
“He was taking all these medications for things he doesn’t have, and they all have side effects,” Kristofferson’s wife Lisa shared at the time. He went through three weeks of treatment for Lyme disease and stopped taking medication for Alzheimer’s and depression, and “[a]ll of a sudden,” Lisa added, “he was back.”
Kristofferson was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004. As of 2016, he is a member of the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, and in 2019, he received the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Country Music Association.