By that time he was, like his character, a full-fledged boozehound. "I had a half-gallon (about 1 liter) of Jose Cuervo in my trailer and they never let it empty. They just kept coming back in and filling it up, same half-gallon bottle. I don't know how much I was drinking, but it was a lot, and I had to quit it soon after. Doctor said my liver was the size of a football and that if I didn't quit, I was gonna kill myself. I had a new little daughter, so I quit. I drink wine today, but at the time I just went cold turkey. It was probably harder on the people around me than on myself."
Talking of drinkers, Kristofferson took major roles in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Convoy, two of the films that nearly killed Sam Peckinpah.
"I'll tell ya what - he was on the way out. When we were on Convoy, they tried to fire him, and I told them I'd walk, too, if they did. And I guess I was hot enough then that they gave a shit. But afterwards I'm walking out of there back to my truck and Peckinpah comes out and says, 'Goddamn you, ya stupid sonofabitch, I was almost outta here and you dropped me back in this shit!'"
Lisa, Kris' third wife and his manager, shows up just as we are broaching politics again. It's showtime, so we never get to talk about Janis Joplin (whom Kristofferson dated), or the Highwaymen (the band he formed with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings), or John Sayles (who directed him in Lone Star in 1996). But Kristofferson gets in a parting shot about Iran-Contra and the war in Iraq. "Iran- Contra! We should have jailed all those guys forever back then, and we wouldn't be where we are right now - because it's the same guys now, the same 20 guys!"
The next time I see him, he's singing Help Me Make It Through the Night. He doesn't need our help.
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