Film
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Source: Netflix / Netflix
It’s been more than a year since the sudden passing of legendary TV host Jerry Springer, and while many youngn’s wouldn’t understand why he’s held in such high regard among the older generation, they’ll be able to get an idea as to why he was beloved as a new documentary is set to release in the new year.
According to Variety, Netflix is set to release a two-part documentary dubbed Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, which is set to release Jan. 7, 2025. The documentary will delve into how Jerry Springer went from a reporter at a local television station to hosting one of the most ratchet and entertaining talk shows of the 90s. It. Was. Amazing. Kids used to skip school, watch the show and risk getting “Cutting Cards” sent to their homes, but y’all youngn’s wouldn’t know anything about that.
The Hollywood Reporter reports:
Per Netflix, the “jaw-dropping” doc will feature “first-hand testimony and revelations from show insiders,” as well as interviews with producers and former guests who help uncover “a murkier picture” of “The Jerry Springer Show” and “the destruction it caused.”
“Fights, Camera, Action” promises to raise “renewed questions about who was responsible, and how far things should go in the name of entertainment.”
“The Jerry Springer Show” ran for 27 seasons, from 1991 to 2018, and became popular due to its trashy, unfiltered approach to controversial topics such as incest, racism and adultery. The guests were characteristically rowdy, often breaking out into fist fights and screaming matches, broken up by security guards. It also became a trend for women in the audience to flash their breasts in exchange for “Jerry Beads,” Mardi Gras-style necklaces with the show’s logo.
Again: It. Was. Amazing.
While most people felt it was staged, scripted and rehearsed, none of that mattered. It was junk food for the brain and we indulged in it every time.
Will you be checking out Netflix’s Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action when it premiers on Jan. 7, 2025? Let us know in the comments section below.
Pianos anchor both Abigail Barlow’s and Emily Bear’s Los Angeles apartments. Self-described “Barbie girl” Barlow, 25, has a shiny magenta lacquered Yamaha U1, as brightly hued as her hair and her bedazzled Stanley mug. The “old-ass” Steinway upright — a refurbished turn-of-the-century specimen purchased from “a random warehouse downtown” — belongs to 23-year-old Bear.
It would be tempting to assume that the two musicians are polar opposites, based on their instruments as well as their backstories. Barlow is a pop singer-songwriter who first dreamed of becoming “a musical theater actrice”; Bear was a wunderkind classical and jazz pianist, a Quincy Jones protegée who played for Beyoncé on the Renaissance tour and was intent on writing film/TV scores. And while both entered the industry in their teens, it wasn’t until a mutual friend introduced them in 2019 that they started writing songs together. Their creative partnership (and friendship) has been, as Barlow says, “just like alchemy,” ever since.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Barlow & Bear co-wrote The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album, inspired by the book series and hit Netflix drama, which became a viral sensation, racking up 60.3 million on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate, and winning the duo the best musical theater album Grammy Award in 2022. (Netflix sued the pair that July for copyright infringement when it put on a live, for-profit performance of the album at the Kennedy Center; the suit was reportedly settled out of court a few months later.) But now, their collaboration is about to hit the mainstream. Barlow & Bear’s music for Moana 2, in theaters Nov. 27, will make them the youngest (and only all-women) songwriting duo to create a full soundtrack for a Disney animated film. Two of their songs — “Beyond,” a soaring showcase for star Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), and “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Maui) — will, Disney reveals, be submitted for Academy Award consideration.
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Like much of the musical theater-loving world, Walt Disney Music president Tom MacDougall first became aware of Barlow & Bear as a team through Bridgerton. (For Bear, it was also a full-circle moment: As an 8-year-old pianist, she had met MacDougall, who gifted her a Tangled score signed by storied composer Alan Menken that still hangs on her wall.) About three years ago, he met them for lunch to “sort of put it on our radar that he might have a project for us,” Barlow recalls. She and Bear didn’t expect much to come of it — but MacDougall was impressed by the storytelling in their Bridgerton music. “That spirit of deciding to musicalize this thing that wasn’t a musical gave me the confidence they could pull [a Disney film] off,” he says. “If they could conjure up the spirit to create songs where they didn’t exist, I had a good feeling that if we gave them moments to build songs around, they’d be able to deliver.”
Abigail Barlow (left) and Emily Bear
Maggie Shannon
A year later, in 2022, Barlow & Bear met with the creative team for Moana 2 — a sequel to the 2016 animated film about the titular young girl who sets out to save her Polynesian island — which was then planned as a Disney+ streaming series. “Both of us, weirdly, were going through similar struggles to what Moana faces in this new journey,” Bear explains. “It was easy to put ourselves in her shoes and understand that she’s just a young woman trying to find her place in the world, as are we.”
Around the middle of last year, Disney reenvisioned Moana 2 as a feature film — by which point Barlow & Bear were immersed in learning the ropes of composing for Disney, absorbing some imparted wisdom of their Moana composing predecessor, Lin-Manuel Miranda. “He gave me a stack of books about how to structurally craft a lyric not only to be storytelling-accurate, but to roll off the tongue, to fly off the page and into people’s minds and hearts,” Barlow says.
For her part, Bear dove into the treasure trove of foundational material from Moana by their soundtrack teammates, composers Opetaia Foa’i (a Samoan-born singer whose Polynesian music group, Te Vaka, performs on both Moana soundtracks) and Mark Mancina. “They recorded a huge library of logs and skins and vocal samples, so there were grooves that inspired entire songs,” Bear says. “Even if we started or wrote a song on our own, the root of it was still Opie.”
Though Barlow and Bear both admit that working on Moana 2 still feels surreal, they don’t have much time to soak it in: They’re booked and busy, in part because of that Grammy win. But both say the award’s significance to them was more symbolic. “We grew a lot as human beings through the whole [Bridgerton] process, and becoming like, ‘mature, professional girlie’ was something my soul desperately wanted and needed,” Barlow says. Bear agrees. “I’ve done a lot, but mostly as a kid, and for some reason that felt like it didn’t really count. I’ve been working so hard to outrun the ‘prodigy’ label,” she says. “[The Grammy] was really big for me because it was the first time people purely judged me based off music I did as an adult.”
Abigail Barlow (left) and Emily Bear
Maggie Shannon
Their post-Moana 2 slate as a duo includes the forthcoming biopic of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers starring Jamie Bell and Margaret Qualley and their first produced stage musical, currently in development with a creative team attached. Bear (who is also an Emmy winner for her score for the PBS documentary Life) has scored two forthcoming films: Anderson .Paak’s feature debut, K-Pops, and Our Little Secret, a Netflix Christmas film starring Lindsay Lohan. Barlow, with a chuckle, says she may soon “release the album I wrote, like, a year-and-a-half ago.”
And then there’s the mystery “little musical idea” that first brought them together, a “very production-heavy” show “bringing you down the rabbit hole of what pop musical theater can be… which is very dear to us,” Barlow says with a knowing grin. It’s a reminder of the excitement they felt when they first met — and still feel in any session together. “We’re in love, musically,” Barlow says, “for real.”
This story appears in the Oct. 26, 2024, issue of Billboard.
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Source: @jamesgunn / Twitter
It looks like Superman won’t be flying solo when James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy hits theaters in 2025 as he’ll be having a special friend by his side who’ll be making his own cinematic debut after only existing on print for decades.
According to Deadline, Krypto, the Superdog, is primed and ready to help Superman save the world as Gunn shared the first image of the super-powered K-9 sitting next to the Man of Steel on X yesterday (Oct. 15). While fans didn’t even know Krypto was going to be a part of Gunn’s rebooted DCU, it was welcomed news as the character is beloved and has even gotten his own animated series on Cartoon Network back in 2005. Taking to social media to break the news, Gunn explained how his own rescue dog, Ozu, became the inspiration for Krypto’s involvement in the film as Ozu destroyed almost everything in his home after he was adopted.
Once he saw the kind of havoc a puppy who wasn’t housebroken yet could do, Gunn wondered “’Gosh, how difficult would life be if Ozu had superpowers?’ – and thus Krypto came into the script and changed the shape of the story as Ozu was changing my life.”‘
Krypto arrives on screens in Superman this summer. Krypto was inspired by our dog Ozu, who we adopted shortly after I started writing Superman. Ozu, who came from a hoarding situation in a backyard with 60 other dogs & never knew human beings, was problematic to say the least. He… pic.twitter.com/zw8rVqv0n0
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) October 15, 2024
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For those who aren’t familiar with Krypto, let’s just say you won’t be mad at the character’s involvement in the upcoming Superman film.
Deadline reports:
In the series, Krypto was Superman’s pet puppy on Krypton before being sent into space before the planet was destroyed. Upon landing on Earth he is a fully grown dog who has similar abilities to those of Superman. Krypto is adopted by 9-year-old Kevin Whitney, whose family thinks Krypto is an ordinary Labrador retriever. But the canine dons the secret identity “Superdog” when he performs heroic deeds and fights evil. Other than Kevin, the only person who knows Krypto’s secret is bratty cousin Bailey, who lies so often that nobody believes his talk about the dog’s powers.
Gunn’s Superman follows the superhero of the same name as he looks to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, guided by human kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.
Whether they go with the dog’s original origin story remains to be seen, but we’re definitely looking forward to see how Gunn incorporates Supes having a super pet for the first time on the silver screen. We’re sure it’ll be for comic relief, but we know he’ll do some pretty super stuff here and there.
What do y’all think about Krypto, the Superdog, making his cinematic debut? Sound off in the comments section below.
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Beloved Man Of Steel actor Henry Cavill may not be part of the DCU’s Justice League anymore, but the actor will once again lead a five person group that ’80s babies have very fond memories of from their childhood.
According to Variety, Henry “The Calverine” Cavill has just been cast to star in a live-action Voltron film for Amazon MGM Studios, and truth be told, we couldn’t be more excited. Though Voltron doesn’t have the same popularity as say G.I. Joe or Transformers, the American-Japanese franchise was a huge hit for kids, teens and even some adults as the anime itself was considered superior to that of the aforementioned cartoon series back in the 1980s.
Now that Caville will be leading the Voltron Force to fight robotic beasts on behalf of the universe, best believe we’ll be indulging in some sci-fi action once the film hits the big screen some time in 2026.
Variety reports:
Rawson Marshall Thurber is directing the movie from a script he wrote with Ellen Shanman. Thurber most recently wrote and directed Netflix’s 2021 action flick “Red Notice” starring Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and 2018’s “Skyscraper,” which Johnson also toplined.
Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps at this time. Producers include Todd Lieberman via Hidden Pictures, Bob Koplar, Thurber and Hobie Films’ David Hoberman.
Cavill will join previously announced star Daniel Quinn-Toye, a film newcomer who has appeared on television in “Badults” and served as Tom Holland’s understudy in “Romeo & Juliet” on the West End this spring.
Will the Voltron film be an origin story? Will the Voltron Force already be at war with their arch nemesis the Evil King Zarkon from the planet Doom? Is Henry Cavill going to be “Keith” from the ’80s cartoon series or a whole new character entirely? We don’t know but we sure as hell can’t wait to find out.
What do y’all think about Henry Cavill being cast in Amazon’s Voltron film? Let us know in the comments section below.
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A few weeks ago it was announced that Kyle Chandler was in talks to star as Hal Jordan aka The Green Lantern, in HBO’s upcoming DC series, Lanterns. Now, that cast seems to be growing as another rising star is set to join the fan favorite superhero group.
According to Variety, DC is rounding out their Green Lantern Corps. for the Lantern series as up-and- coming actor Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge) has been cast to star as another famous Green Lantern, John Stewart. While we know female comic book fans will be swooning at the news that the green eye’d bandit will be putting on some superhero tights and flexing his muscles, others are just happy to see that the series seems to be pushing forward as Lanterns has been said to be in the works for quite some time.
Though there is word that Lanterns may not be part of James Gunn’s main cinematic DCU and end up being an DC Elseworlds project (such as Joker and The Batman), it should still be a fun show to watch once it hits HBO sometime in the future.
Variety reports:
The show was picked up for eight episodes at HBO in June. Originally intended as a Max original, the show shifted to HBO as part of a new content delineation plan.
Per the official logline, the series follows “new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
Lanterns is expected to begin filming in January of 2025 and is said to be akin to True Detective in its overall plot as Hal Jordan and John Stewart investigate a 187 here on Earth. It’ll be interesting to see which villain the two face off with in the series and if they’ll eventually make their way to James Gunn’s DCU.
What do y’all think about Aaron Pierre being cast as John Stewart’s Green Lantern? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: Nintendo / Nintendo
It looks like another video game is now about to get the cinematic treatment, but if you were born prior to the 1990s you may not be familiar with the title.
According to Variety, the cult classic ninja game Shinobi is in the early stages of development for the silver screen and has already enlisted Extraction filmmaker Sam Hargrave to helm the project along with producer Marc Platt. As surprising as this choice for a video game turned film is, us ’80s babies aren’t mad as we spent hours on our home entertainment systems slashing and gashing our way through enemies with this game.
Still, we’re not sure if a new generation of gamers and audiences will be as receptive to this as we are given that its popularity isn’t that of say a Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat or even Tekken. But with money to be made and other video game films having raked in some big bucks, Universal is looking to bank on an oldie but goodie with their latest project, and at the end of the day it may pay off.
Per Variety:
Universal has enjoyed recent success with video game adaptations, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.4 billion) and “Five Nights at Freddy’s” ($290 million). Meanwhile, Sega has scored with Paramount’s 2020 console-to-screen redux “Sonic the Hedgehog” ($319 million) and the 2022 sequel ($405 million). A third “Sonic” movie will be released in late 2024.
Ken Kobayashi (“Sunny,” “Move On”) is writing the screenplay for “Shinobi.” Platt and Adam Siegel will produce through Marc Platt Productions. Dmitri M. Johnson will produce through Story Kitchen. Toru Nakahara will produce through Sega. Mike Goldberg will executive produce alongside co-producer Timothy I. Stevenson. Universal’s senior VP of production development Ryan Jones and director of production development Christine Sun will oversee the project for the studio.
With Shinobi looking like it’s going to be an animated film, we wouldn’t be mad if they went the anime route as it just feels like that type of video game, but hey, that’s just us.
What do y’all think about Shinobi getting its own feature film? Is there any other video game you’d like to see made into a movie? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: Warner Bros. Pictures / Warner Bros.
The Joker 2 hasn’t been in theaters for a full week yet and already it’s considered both a flop and an overall horrible movie, but is it the worst comic book movie of all time? Many people seem to feel so.
According to Variety, Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux has become the lowest rated comic book film of all time with a “D” score. With disasters out there like Ghost Rider 2, Madame Web and Morbius, that’s really saying something. Even before the $200 million flop hit theaters, reviews of the film were less than stellar with many panning the sequel as lame, uninspired and even unnecessary given the success of the first film, which earned a “B+” grade upon its release.
Still, Warner Bros. studio saw fit to green light a sequel to the first film as audiences wanted more of Joaquin Phoenix’s iteration of the Clown Prince of Crime, but unfortunately, turning it into a musical with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn but having most of it in a court room and prison didn’t play out well with moviegoers. Now, everyone hates what Phillips has done with a promising franchise.
Variety reports:
“Folie à Deux” hasn’t received as many positive reviews as the first movie. Variety‘s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review, “’Joker: Folie à Deux’” may be ambitious and superficially outrageous, but at heart it’s an overly cautious sequel. Phillips has made a movie in which Arthur really is just poor Arthur; he does nothing wrong and isn’t going to threaten anyone’s moral sensibilities. In fact, he actually blows the only good thing that ever happened to him — winning the love of Lee’s Harley Quinn — because he denies the Joker in himself. He’s now just a singing-and-dancing puppet clown living in his imagination. Is that entertainment? Audiences, I suspect, will still turn out in droves to see ‘Folie à Deux.’ But when it comes to bold mainstream filmmaking, it’s the scolds who are having the last laugh.”
With a $40 million box office debut and more people slandering the film everyday, it’s safe to say that the film will end up a bust. Whether or not it’ll become a cult classic in coming years is anyone’s guess, but one things for certain, no one’s really f*cking with Joaquin Phoenix’s iteration of The Joker right now.
What did y’all think of The Joker 2? Did you even see it? Let us know in the comments section below.
Nearly two decades after her death, iconic Spanish singer Rocío Dúrcal will be revived through a biopic that will recount her life and legacy as “the queen of rancheras,” announced last week via Sony Music México. Together with Sony Music Vision and Altit Media Group, the story of the singer of hits such as “La Gata Bajo la Lluvia” and “Como Tu Mujer” will be brought to the big screen.
“It is a true honor for us to be part of this well-deserved tribute to Rocío Dúrcal’s trajectory and celebration of her legacy, which reinforces the cultural impact she continues to have in the industry and society,” said Roberto López, president of Sony Music México, in a statement. “Additionally, it’s the perfect introduction for the new division of Sony Music Vision in Mexico.”
The production will be handled by Altit Media Group, known for The Misfits and The Good Neighbor. It will also feature the participation of Dúrcal’s daughters, Shaila and Carmen, who will play a fundamental role in chronicling this story of female empowerment within music.
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“It is an indescribable honor to see how the story of our mother, a woman who left an indelible mark on the world of music and film, will come to life on the big screen,” said Shaila and Carmen in the statement.
Born on Oct. 4, 1944, Rocío Dúrcal (real name María de los Ángeles de las Heras) began her career in her native Spain as a teenager, appearing in musical films like Canción de Juventud, Más Bonita Que Ninguna, and Amor en el Aire, which catapulted her to fame during the 1960s. By the late ’70s, she surprised many by singing rancheras under the guidance of Juan Gabriel as composer and producer. The duo marked a new era in Latin music, turning her into a mariachi queen following stars like Lola Beltrán, with the uniqueness of being a Spaniard singing Mexican music.
From Rocío Dúrcal Canta a Juan Gabriel, Vol. 1 (1977) to Rocío Dúrcal Canta a Juan Gabriel, Vol. 6 (1984), the partnership of Dúrcal and Juan Gabriel produced timeless songs like “Me Gustas Mucho,” “Fue Un Placer Conocerte,” “Tarde,” “La Gata Bajo la Lluvia” and “Amor Eterno.” After personal differences led to a professional breakup, a new stage in the singer’s career followed with other music geniuses like Marco Antonio Solís, who wrote and produced her albums Como Tu Mujer (1988) and Si Te Pudiera Mentir (1990), as well as Joan Sebastian, who co-wrote and produced Desaires (1993).
Dúrcal, who died on March 25, 2006, of uterine cancer at age 61, left an indelible mark on music and the arts, with more than a dozen film productions, over 20 albums, 11 billion streams on Spotify to date, and 13 billion hits on TikTok. Among other recognitions, in 1998 she won the Billboard Latin Music Award for regional Mexican album of the year with Juan Gabriel for Juntos Otra Vez; in 1999 she received the Billboard Hall of Fame Award; and in 2007, she posthumously received the Billboard Latin Music Award for Latin album of the year of greatest hits for Amor Eterno: Los Éxitos.
No title or release date for the biopic has been announced yet, or who will play the role of Rocío Dúrcal. Sony Music México will provide additional details at a later date.
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While we await to see what James Gunn’s new rebooted DCU cinematic world looks like, DC Studios is looking to rip a page out of Sony’s playbook and make a new movie centered around some of their most famous Batman villains.
According to Variety, DC Studios is currently working on a film that will feature both Deathstroke and Bane and have tasked Captain America: Brave New World screenwriter, Matthew Orton, with penning the project. While little is known about the project such as who’ll star in it and whether or not the villains will be part of Gunn’s main DCU or if it’ll be an DC Elseworld feature, it seems like DC Studios is looking to cash in on villain popularity as films and series based on comic book baddies is all the rage these days.
Per Variety:
Bane and Deathstroke have also appeared in previous DC adaptations. Most famously, Tom Hardy played Bane in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises,” in which the hulking, masked king of the underworld broke Batman’s back — as he did in the character’s famous comic storyline “Knightfall” — and held Gotham City hostage. Bane also featured as a secondary villain in 1997’s “Batman & Robin,” as played by professional wrestler Robert Swenson, and Shane West played the character on Fox’s Batman prequel series “Gotham.”
Deathstroke — a superpowered mercenary also known as Slade Wilson — is also a recurring Batman nemesis, but he most frequently has been a primary villain for the Teen Titans. Joe Manganiello briefly played the character in a post-credits scene from 2017’s “Justice League” and 2021’s “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.” Manu Bennett played the role on the CW series “Arrow,” and Esai Morales portrayed Deathstroke on the Max series “Titans.”
Until we learn who’ll be taking on the roles of the aforementioned villains and which Batman universe they’ll be in, we’re not going to get too excited. Will it be Robert Pattinson or Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne/Batman world? Will it be an entirely different Bats by then?
While many loved Robert Pattinson’s iteration of the Dark Knight, rumors say that The Batman director Matt Reeves turned down James Gunn’s offer of having his Batman be a part of his rebooted DCU, hence making The Batman and it’s pending sequels an DC Elseworld franchise.
So will this new supervillain film be a part of Matt Reeve’s Batman universe or the one for which James Gunn has yet to cast a caped crusader? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
What do y’all think of DC Studio’s latest project? Sound off in the comments section below.
Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.
Kristofferson died at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday (Sept. 28), spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.
McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family. No cause was given. He was 88.
Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas, native wrote such classics as “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “For the Good Times” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”
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He also starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 A Star Is Born and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s Blade in 1998.
Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.
“There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson said during a November 2009 award ceremony for Kristofferson held by BMI. “Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”
Mary Ellen Mark
As an actor, he played the leading man opposite Barbara Streisand and Ellen Burstyn, but also had a fondness for shoot-out Westerns and cowboy dramas.
He was a Golden Gloves boxer and football player in college, received a master’s degree in English from Merton College at the University of Oxford in England and turned down an appointment to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal Blonde on Blonde double album.
At times, the legend of Kristofferson was larger than real life. Cash liked to tell a mostly exaggerated story of how Kristofferson, a former U.S. Army pilot, landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to give him a tape of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” with a beer in one hand. Over the years in interviews, Kristofferson said that with all respect to Cash, while he did land a helicopter at Cash’s house, the Man in Black wasn’t even home at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one ever actually cut — and he certainly couldn’t fly a helicopter holding a beer.
In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said he might 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 said. “It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first time.”
One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” was written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in his head called “Me and Bobby McKee,” named after a female secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview in the magazine, Performing Songwriter that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man and woman on the road together after watching the Frederico Fellini film La Strada.
Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.
Hits that Kristofferson recorded include “Why Me,” “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do),” “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 together they had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy awards. They divorced in 1980.
He retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional guest appearances on stage.