Legendary country singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson has died aged 88.

His death was announced in a post issued by his family. “We’re all so blessed for our time with him,” they write. "Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.

Tributes have poured in from across the music industry. Kyle Young, head of the Country Music Hall of Fame, says Kristofferson “preached that a life of the mind gives voice to the soul," adding that he “leaves a resounding legacy."

Born in Brownsville, Texas, in 1936, Kristofferson grew up in Northern California before attending Pomona College near Los Angeles. Initially it seemed that his talents lay in sports—being a Golden Gloves boxer, track and field star, and American football. After graduating, Kristofferson’s interest in songwriting would blossom during his time at the University of Oxford where he studied English literature as a prestigious Rhodes scholar. 

Following a short stint in the military, Kristofferson began his illustrious music career, most notably with his first solo two albums—1970’s Kristofferson and 1971’s The Silver Tongued Devil and I. This period also saw the writing of his most successful solo song, "Me and Bobby McGee", first recorded by Roger Miller and most famously performed by Kristofferson’s then-girlfriend Janis Joplin.

In 1985, he formed The Highwaymen, an outlaw country supergroup consisting of him, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash. The group would release three studio albums and one of Kristofferson’s best known songs: "Highwayman".

Beyond music, Kristofferson had an extensive acting career beginning in the 1970s. First appearing in his friend Dennis Hopper’s ill-fated The Last Movie in 1971, his biggest role came opposite Barbra Streisand in 1976’s A Star Is Born. Despite an average critical reception, his role as fading rockstar John Norman Howard earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.

He would be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004, and—after a career spanning seven different decades—quietly announced his retirement in 2021. Kristofferson leaves behind his wife of 41 years, Lisa Meyers, and eight children.

Much can, and will, be written about Kristofferson’s legacy and contributions in the coming days and weeks, but perhaps nothing better sums up the songwriter than the song he himself felt should be his own obituary.

When asked in 1994 about songs that were particularly meaningful to him, Kristofferson pointed to Leonard Cohen's 1969 song "Bird on a Wire", saying that he "always figured it’d be a great epitaph." Cohen himself said that Kristofferson even told him that he would be "putting the first couple of lines of his tombstone."

Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free

Listen to Kristofferson singing the song below: