An extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime artist, and an even better man.
Sadly, country music icon Kris Kristofferson passed away at the age of 88 years old this weekend. He was at his home in Maui, Hawaii.
Of course, he will be greatly missed, and his contributions to not only he country genre, the music world in general, cannot be overstated.
One of my favorites that showed his true, compassionate character happened back in 1992, he was part of Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary concert alongside Sinéad O’Connor, where Kris introduced her to a less-than enthusiastic crowd.
She was good friends with the legendary singer-songwriter and member of the Highwaymen, Kris Kristofferson, so much so that Kris actually wrote a song for her called “Sister Sinead” which he included on his 20th studio album, a fully acoustic project called Closer to the Bone.
The concert was just a day after Sinéad famously ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II on live TV during a Saturday Night Live appearance after performing Bob Marley’s “War” as the musical guest, in protest against sexual abuses in Roman Catholic Church, which you can watch here:
Kris introduced her at the Bob Dylan concert as an artist with a name that was “synonymous with courage and integrity,” though the audience certainly didn’t agree:
“Alright, I gotta tell you, I’m real proud to introduce this next artist, whose name has become synonymous with courage and integrity. Ladies and gentlemen, Sinead O’Conner.”
As soon as she takes the stage, you can hear the crowd absolutely booing her into the next century, and Kris later said in an interview that a stage manager came up to him as that was all happening and told him to go get her off stage.
Kris was “pissed” at the entire situation. He said that he believed that Sinead had “good intentions” and that the stunt was a misunderstanding:
“A stage manager came up to me because I was one of the emcee’s and said, ‘Get her off the stage.’ I was so pissed off…
I wasn’t about to tell her to get off the stage so I walked out and said to her, ‘Don’t let the b****rds get you down”, and she replied, ‘I’m not down.’
She’s such a good example of good intentions that just get you into trouble. She’s talking about human rights, and she’s not a bad guy; the bad guys are the guys who are against human rights.”
In the video below, you can see her trying to keep it together when he walks out, as Kris whispers in her ear before she can even sing a note:
“Don’t let the b***rds get you down.”
That line is reference to a song on his own 1990 album Third World Warrior, which included a track called “Don’t Let the B****rds (Get You Down).”
Sinéad was initially supposed to sing a Bob Dylan song, as this show was obviously a tribute to Bob Dylan and his musical career, but since she couldn’t even start singing because of the crowd’s noise and waited so long, she eventually switched it up and doubled down on her previous gesture, singing (or more so, shouting) the lyrics to “War” once again.
Later on in the evening, Kris delivered a rendition of Bob’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” but his performance never made it onto the concert DVD. You can probably figure out why…
You can watch the full, uncut clip of Sinead’s performance here, where Kris comes to get her at the end of the song and almost carries her off stage, as she seemingly starts crying when he embraces her:
In Kris’ song “Sister Sinead,” he sings a lyric about that “bald-headed brave little girl,” which is a reference to Sinead’s famously bald head. She regularly shaved her hair as a statement against the superficialities of the record industry, and clearly was not one to be intimidated or told what to think by anybody, even if she was the only one who felt that way.
And regardless of whether or not you agree with her politics, it’s hard not to respect that kind of conviction and the way Kris stood up for her friend, when it was clearly not the popular thing to do… what an incredible man and the kind of friend you’d certainly want in your corner. It’s obvious in their simple hug how much that mean to Sinéad.
Around the 3:38 mark in the video below, you can also see what is rumored to be a less-than-thrilled Willie Nelson, who was also upset with the situation, introduce the next artist Neil Young, trying to salvage what little was left of the show at this point:
RIP Kris Kristofferson
