Kris Kristofferson lived much longer than he expected.
The country music star died Saturday at age 88. Over 25 years earlier, Kristofferson revealed in an interview with People that he thought he’d die by age 30 due to his alcoholism.
“I never could have imagined this,” he said in 1998 after getting sober. “I sit right here and think how it could have turned out so differently. I never thought I’d live past 30. I could have ended up dead.”
Kristofferson drank heavily during the 1960s and 1970s around the time that he briefly dated Janis Japlin, who died of a heroin overdose in 1970.
“I don’t know what you call a love affair, but we were real close,” Kristofferson said in 1998 about his relationship with the late singer.
“I liked her sense of humor. I was doing a lot of drinking then… And she was trying to kick [heroin],” he added.
The “Me and Bobby McGee” singer said Joplin’s death at age 27 “tore me up,” but he didn’t stop drinking after that.
“I was a functioning alcoholic,” he shared. “For a couple of years, it was Jack Daniels, then it was tequila, then it was anything. When I was performing, I couldn’t imagine getting up and doing it without drinking.”
Kristofferson went on to land a role in the 1976 romantic musical film “A Star Is Born” opposite Barbra Streisand. His character struggles with drinking and dies in the movie, which sparked Kristofferson’s journey to sobriety.
“I had a half quart of Jose Cuervo in my icebox that they never let get empty,” he told People, adding of his experience seeing his own death scene. “I remember feeling that that could very easily be my wife and kids crying over me. I quit drinking over that. I didn’t want to die before my daughter grew up.”
The beloved performer was married to his second wife, Rita Coolidge, at the time he filmed “A Star Is Born.” He had one child with Coolidge and two children with his first wife, Fran Beer, before welcoming five more kids with his third wife, Lisa Meyers.
Kristofferson similarly reflected on his alcoholism in a 2008 interview with The Guardian.
“I had a half-gallon of Jose Cuervo in my trailer and they never let it empty,” he said about the “A Star Is Born” set. “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.”
He added, “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.”
Kristofferson’s family confirmed his passing over the weekend, though a cause of death was not given.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 28 at home,” the family’s statement read.
“We’re all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.”
Streisand, 82, shared a tribute to Kristofferson on social media after his death and said he was “the perfect choice” to play her co-star in the film.
