Music

Kris Kristofferson, Singer-Songwriter And Actor, Dies At 88

Published

3 months ago

2024-09-30

Los Angeles — Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a slick writing style and gruff charisma who went on to become a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, has passed away.

Kristofferson died on Saturday at his Maui, Hawaii, home, according to family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland in an email. He was 88.

McFarland stated that Kristofferson died quietly, surrounded by his family. No reason was given.

Kris Kristofferson, Singer-Songwriter And Actor, Dies At 88

Beginning in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native penned such country and rock ‘n’ roll songs as “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” “For the Good Times,” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson was a singer, although many of his songs were best recognized when sung by others, such as Ray Price’s “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee.”

He featured opposite Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” opposite Barbra Streisand in 1976’s “A Star Is Born,” and alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s “Blade” in 1998.

Kristofferson, who could read William Blake from memory, combined sophisticated folk music lyrics about loneliness and sweet passion with popular country music. With his long hair, bell-bottomed slacks, and Bob Dylan-influenced counterculture tunes, he represented a new breed of country songwriters with Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Tom T. Hall.

“There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson declared at a BMI award presentation in 2009. “Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”

Kristofferson stopped performing and recording in 2021, making only sporadic stage appearances, including a performance with Cash’s daughter Rosanne during Nelson’s 90th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2023. The two sang “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again),” a smash for Kristofferson and a long-time live staple for Nelson, another brilliant interpreter of his music.

In the mid-1980s, Nelson and Kristofferson formed the country supergroup “The Highwaymen” alongside Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

Kristofferson was a Golden Gloves boxer, rugby star, and football player in college; he earned a master’s degree in English from Merton College at the University of Oxford in England; and he flew helicopters as a captain in the United States Army before declining an appointment to teach at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time caretaker at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966, when Dylan recorded tracks for the iconic ‘Blonde on Blonde’ double album.

At times, Kristofferson’s legend was larger than life. Cash loved to tell a highly exaggerated story about Kristofferson landing a helicopter on his lawn and handing him a recording of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” while holding a drink. With all due respect to Cash, Kristofferson has stated in interviews over the years that, while he did land a helicopter at Cash’s house, the Man in Black was not even present at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one ever actually cut, and he could not fly a helicopter while drinking beer.

In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he stated that he may not have had a career without Cash.

“Shaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I’d decided I’d come back,” Kristofferson told the audience. “It was electric. He took me under his wing before he recorded any of my tunes. He produced my first record, which was the record of the year. “He put me on stage for the first time.”

“Me and Bobby McGee,” one of his most recorded songs, was composed in response to Monument Records founder Fred Foster’s proposal. Foster had a song in his brain called “Me and Bobby McKee,” which was named after a female secretary in his building. In an interview with the magazine “Performing Songwriter,” Kristofferson stated that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man and woman on the road together after seeing the Frederico Fellini film “La Strada.”

Joplin, who had a close friendship with Kristofferson, altered the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a guy and recorded her version just days before her death from a drug overdose in 1970. The recording became Joplin’s posthumous No. 1 smash.

Kristofferson released hits like “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “A Song I’d Like to Sing,” and “Jesus Was a Capricorn.”

In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge, and the two had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy Awards. They got divorced in 1980.

The establishment of the Highwaymen, with Nelson, Cash, and Jennings, was another watershed moment in his career as a musician.

“I think I was different from the other guys in that I came in it as a fan of all of them,” Kristofferson told the Associated Press in 2005. “I respected them while I was still in the Army. When I moved to Nashville, they were like great heroes to me because they took their music seriously. It seemed surreal to not only be recorded by them but also to be friends with them and work alongside them. “It was like seeing your face on Mount Rushmore.”

From 1985 to 1995, the group released only three albums. Jennings died in 2002, while Cash died a year later. Kristofferson stated in 2005 that there was some discussion about reuniting the group with other musicians, such as George Jones or Hank Williams Jr., but that it would not have been the same.

“When I look back now — I know I hear Willie say it was the best time of his life,” Kristofferson stated in 2005. “I wish I had been more mindful of how brief the time would be. Despite the fact that it had been several years, it felt like a blink. “I wish I had cherished every moment.”

Nelson is the only one of the four still alive.

Kristofferson’s sharply worded political songs occasionally hampered his appeal, particularly in the late 1980s. His 1989 album “Third World Warrior” concentrated on Central America and the consequences of US policies, but critics and fans were unimpressed with the overtly political songs.

During a 1995 interview with the Associated Press, he recalled a woman objecting about one of the songs, which began with slaughtering babies in the name of freedom.

“And I responded, ‘Well, what made you mad—the fact that I was saying it or the fact that we’re doing it? They were upset at me because I told them what was going on.”

As the son of an Air Force General, he joined the Army in the 1960s because it was required of him.

“I was in ROTC in college, and it was just taken for granted in my family that I’d do my service,” he said in a 2006 AP interview. “From my background and generation, honour and service to one’s country were taken for granted. So, later, when you come to question some of the acts done in your name, it was really terrible.”

Kris Kristofferson, Singer-Songwriter And Actor, Dies At 88

Hollywood may have rescued his musical career. Even though he couldn’t afford to tour with a full band, he was able to gain notoriety through film and television roles.

Kristofferson played his first appearance in Dennis Hopper’s 1971 film “The Last Movie.”

He enjoyed Westerns and used his gravelly voice to portray beautiful, stoic leading males. He played Burstyn’s ruggedly gorgeous love interest in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and a sad rock singer in a tumultuous romance with Streisand in “A Star Is Born,” a character reprised by Bradley Cooper in the 2018 adaptation.

He played the teenage title outlaw in filmmaker Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” a truck driver for the same director in 1978’s “Convoy,” and a corrupt sheriff in director John Sayles’ 1996 film, “Lone Star.” He also starred in “Heaven’s Gate,” a 1980 Western that cost tens of millions of dollars more than expected.

In a rare appearance in a superhero film, he played the tutor of Snipes’ vampire hunter in “Blade.”

In a 2006 AP interview, he revealed how he landed his first acting gigs while performing in Los Angeles.

“It just happened that my first professional gig was at the Troubadour in L.A. opening for Linda Rondstadt,” Kristofferson recalled. “Robert Hilburn (Los Angeles Times music critic) wrote a fantastic review and the concert was held over for a week,” Kristofferson told the crowd. “There were a lot of movie folks coming in, and I started getting film offers despite having no prior experience. Of course, I had no performance experience.”

SOURCE | AP

Music

Jay-Z Unequivocally Denies Molesting 13-Year-Old Girl

Published

2 weeks ago

2024-12-09

Geoff Brown

Jay-Z arriving at 60 Centre St for the beginning of jury deliberations in his trial in 2021. Credit: Alec Tabak

On Sunday, Rapper Jay-Z, whose actual name is Shawn Carter, was accused in a civil lawsuit of allegedly molesting a 13-year-old girl with Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2000.

The unidentified accuser, known only as “Jane Doe,” said the assault occurred after she was driven to an MTV Video Music Awards after-party, according to Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee, who filed the case.

In a long statement to NBC News Sunday evening, Jay-Z described the charges as “idiotic” and accused Tony Buzbee of extortion.

“These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!! Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?” Jay-Z said in a statement to NBC News.

“These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.”

Tony Buzbee has filed many lawsuits against Combs in recent months, all of which have suppressed the identity of the complainants. They allege assault and rape. This is his first lawsuit in which he has named another well-known defendant.

In a statement, Combs’s legal representatives called the suits “shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs.”

“As his legal team has said before, Mr. Combs has full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor,” the statement read.

Jay-Z files Counter-Suit

Combs was formally charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, and other offences by federal prosecutors in New York in September, and he is currently being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre after being denied bail for the third time last month. His trial date is May 5.

Federal prosecutors indicated last month’s court hearing that they are considering bringing additional allegations against Combs in a superseding indictment.

Before the case was refiled on Sunday, “Carter received a letter from Plaintiff’s counsel requesting a mediation to resolve this matter,” Buzbee stated in the suit. According to Buzbee, Carter responded to the letter, filing his lawsuit against the accuser’s attorneys.

“You have made a terrible error in judgement thinking that all ‘celebrities’ are the same,” Carter added in his statement Sunday. “I’m not from your world. I’m a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don’t play these types of games. We have very strict codes and honor. We protect children.”

The lawsuit claims that in 2000 when Doe was 13, Combs and Carter assaulted her at a house party in New York during the MTV Video Music Awards.

According to the lawsuit, a friend dropped her off at the VMAs at Radio City Music Hall. She didn’t have a ticket, so she approached many limousine drivers to get into the event or an after-party.

The driver allegedly told her he worked for Combs and that she “fit what Diddy was looking for.” After the event, he invited her to a party and told her to return to his car later in the evening after he drove Carter and Combs.

Marijuana and Cocaine

The driver later picked her up, according to the suit, and after 20 minutes, they arrived at a white house with a U-shaped driveway. She had to sign a document she assumed was a nondisclosure agreement upon arriving — and did not receive a copy — to access the party, which the suit claims was full of celebrities and individuals using marijuana and cocaine.

She was given a drink that made her “woozy, lightheaded, and felt [like] she needed to lie down,” according to the suit, and she walked into a room to rest.

According to the suit, Combs and Carter entered the room shortly after, with Combs remarking, “You are ready to party!”

Carter allegedly took her clothes, held her down, and raped her while Combs and an unnamed female celebrity looked on. She claims Combs also raped her while Carter and the woman looked on.

The suit claims that she was able to resist being forced to perform oral sex on Combs by punching him in the neck, and he “stopped.”

According to the lawsuit, she “grabbed her clothes” and fled following the claimed assault. She went to a petrol station and contacted her father, it says.

The accuser seeks unspecified damages. The complaint was filed under New York’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act.

“My only heartbreak is for my family,” Carter said. “My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims and explain the cruelty and greed of people. I mourn yet another loss of innocence.

“Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable,” Carter added.

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Music

Bob Bryar, Drummer of My Chemical Romance Found Dead

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-12-01

Geoff Brown

My Chemical Romance drummer Bob Bryar, 44, found dead in Tennessee home

Bob Bryar, the drummer for My Chemical Romance, was discovered dead inside his Tennessee home on Tuesday. His age was forty-four. TMZ, which cited sources, said Bryar was last seen alive on November 4. Authorities do not believe foul play was involved.

It was not immediately clear what caused Bryar’s death.

Following the discovery of the former musician’s severely decomposed body, animal control was called to the residence to remove two dogs.

Bryar replaced original drummer Matt Pelissier in 2004 while My Chemical Romance and The Used were on tour. Bryar is a sound technician for The Used.

After their second album, “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,” was released, he was hired as the rock band’s permanent drummer from New Jersey.

With the release of the platinum concept album “The Black Parade” in 2006, Bob Bryar was a member of the band’s heyday.

In the United States, the album received a quadruple platinum certification. It reached the top of the Billboard Top Rock Albums 2006 list and second on the Billboard 200.

According to Billboard, Bob Bryar and lead singer Gerard Way were hurt while filming the music video for “Famous Last Words.” The drummer was given third-degree burns, which forced the band to postpone their performance at the San Diego Street Scene Festival.

Bryar’s subsequent health problems resulted in the cancellation of multiple additional performances.

Bryar left My Chemical Romance in March 2010, six years after succeeding Pelissier.

The band stated that they did not make this decision lightly and that it was painful for all of them. “We hope he succeeds in his future pursuits and ask that you follow suit.”

According to TMZ, Bob Bryar transitioned into the real estate sector after working as a tour supporter for other artists.

On November 12, My Chemical Romance revealed their “Long Live” ten-city tour, starting in July 2025.

None of the shows had Bob Bryar on the schedule.

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Music

Phil Lesh, Founding Member Of Grateful Dead And Influential Bassist, Dies At 84

Published

2 months ago

2024-10-26

Kiara Grace

Los Angeles — Phil Lesh, an 84-year-old classically trained violinist and jazz trumpeter who discovered his real calling as a founding member of the Grateful Dead by reimagining the position of rock bass guitar, died Friday.

Lesh’s death was confirmed via his Instagram account. Lesh was the eldest and one of the most enduring members of the band that helped define the acid rock sound originating from San Francisco in the 1960s.

“Phil Lesh, the bassist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, died peacefully this morning. He was surrounded by his family and filled with affection. According to the Instagram message, Phil gave enormous delight to everyone around him and left a legacy of music and love.

The message did not specify the cause of death, and attempts to contact spokespeople for more information were not immediately successful. Lesh had already survived prostate and bladder cancer, as well as a liver transplant in 1998 due to the devastating effects of a hepatitis C infection and years of excessive drinking.

Lesh died two days after MusiCares named the Grateful Dead their Persons of the Year. MusiCares, which assists music professionals needing financial or other support, mentioned Lesh’s Unbroken Chain Foundation, among other charity projects. The Dead will be honored in January at a fundraiser dinner in Los Angeles before the Grammy Awards.

Although he kept a low public profile, rarely giving interviews or speaking in front of an audience, fans and fellow band members recognized Lesh as an important member of the Grateful Dead, whose thundering lines on the six-string electric bass provided a brilliant counterpoint to lead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s soaring solos and anchored the band’s famous marathon jam sessions.

Phil Lesh, Founding Member Of Grateful Dead And Influential Bassist, Dies At 84

“When Phil’s happening, the band’s happening,” Garcia famously said.

Drummer Mickey Hart described him as the group’s intellectual, bringing a classical composer’s attitude and skills to a five-chord rock ‘n’ roll outfit.

Lesh credited Garcia for training him to play the bass in the unconventional lead-guitar style for which he would become famous, combining thundering arpeggios with fragments of spontaneously arranged symphonic passages.

A fellow bass player, Rob Wasserman, once stated that Lesh’s style distinguished him from every other bassist he knew. While most others were willing to keep time and play the occasional solo, Wasserman said Lesh was good and confident enough to lead his bandmates through a song’s melody.

“He happens to play bass but he’s more like a horn player, doing all those arpeggios — and he has that counterpoint going all the time,” he told me.

Lesh began his long musical journey as a classically trained violinist, taking third-grade lessons. He began playing the trumpet at 14 and rose to second chair in California’s Oakland Symphony Orchestra while still in his teens.

In 1965, however, he had mostly abandoned both instruments and was working as a sound engineer for a tiny radio station when Garcia approached him to play bass in The Warlocks, a young rock band.

When Lesh informed Garcia that he didn’t play bass, the musician inquired, “Didn’t you used to play violin?” When he responded yes, Garcia said, “There you go, man.”

Lesh sat down for a seven-hour lesson with Garcia, armed with a cheap four-string instrument purchased by his girlfriend, and followed the latter’s advice to tune his instrument’s strings an octave lower than Garcia’s guitar’s four bottom strings. Then Garcia let him go, allowing Lesh to establish the spontaneous playing style he would keep for the rest of his life.

Lesh and Garcia frequently exchanged leads, sometimes spontaneously, and the band as a whole frequently broke into long experimental, jazz-influenced jams during concerts. As a result, even well-known Grateful Dead tunes like “Truckin'” or “Sugar Magnolia” rarely sounded the same twice in a row, which drew faithful fans back to each show.

“It’s always fluid, we just pretty much figure it out on the fly,” Lesh said, chuckling, in a rare 2009 interview with The Associated Press. “You can’t set those things in stone in the rehearsal room.”

Phillip Chapman Lesh was born on March 15, 1940, in Berkeley, California, as the sole child of Frank Lesh, an office equipment repairman, and his wife, Barbara.

In later years, he claimed that listening to New York Philharmonic broadcasts on his grandmother’s radio sparked his interest in music. One of his earliest memories was listening to the famous German composer Bruno Walter conduct the orchestra through Brahms’ First Symphony.

He frequently listed composers such as Bach and Edgard Varèse and jazz legends such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis as his musical influences.

By the time he arrived at the College of San Mateo, Lesh had transitioned from classical music to cool jazz. He eventually became the first trumpet player in the school’s big band and composed several orchestral compositions for the ensemble to perform.

However, after graduation, he gave up the trumpet, determining that he lacked the lung force to be an excellent musician.

Soon after Lesh began playing bass, The Warlocks changed their name to the Grateful Dead, and Lesh began to captivate audiences with his agility. Crowds congregated in what became known as “The Phil Zone” just before his stage location.

Phil Lesh, Founding Member Of Grateful Dead And Influential Bassist, Dies At 84

Although Lesh was never a prolific songwriter, he did compose music for and occasionally sang some of the band’s most popular songs. These included the lively country song “Pride of Cucamonga,” the jazz-influenced “Unbroken Chain,” and the hauntingly beautiful “Box of Rain.”

Lesh wrote the latter on guitar as a gift for his dying father. He said that after hearing the instrumental recording, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter contacted him the next day with a lyric sheet. That sheet, he claimed, included “some of the most moving and heartfelt lyrics I’ve ever had the good fortune to sing.”

The song was frequently played at the end of the band’s shows.

After the group disbanded following Garcia’s death in 1995, Lesh frequently skipped performances with the other members.

He participated in a 2009 Grateful Dead tour and again in 2015 for a handful of “Fare Thee Well” shows commemorating both the band’s 50th anniversary and Lesh’s final performance with the others.

However, he continued to perform frequently with a revolving band of musicians he dubbed Phil Lesh and Friends.

In later years, he mainly performed at Terrapin Crossroads, a restaurant and nightclub he founded near his Northern California home in 2012 and named after the Grateful Dead song and album “Terrapin Station.”

Lesh is survived by his wife, Jill, and two kids, Brian and Grahame.

SOURCE | AP