In this March 1993 broadcast of The Dini Petty Show, Kris Kristofferson sits down for a rare, unguarded conversation about the life behind the songs. Dini starts with the résumé that still sounds unlikely: Rhodes Scholar, football player, boxer, Army captain, and the man who walked away from a West Point teaching post for Nashville.
Then Dini asks about Janis Joplin. She was a close friend, and she made “Me and Bobby McGee” immortal. Kristofferson talks about what the song means to him, about Janis herself, and about the one thing he says he never got to do. Asked for a dream dinner party, he names Janis, Willie Nelson and Roger Miller.
The rest of the hour moves through the outlaw years. He talks about the booze and trying to live up to Hemingway, running with the bulls in Pamplona, and his seven children. He explains why Johnny Cash was “violent, self-destructive” and thrilling to watch, and why Bob Dylan is the reason a lot of songwriters are still above ground. He also reflects on his acting. When Dini brings up the Playboy shoot with Sarah Miles, he makes it clear he does not want to talk about it, and then he does. He closes on a line that sums up the whole career: “God protects fools and songwriters.”
Unseen since its original March 1993 CTV broadcast, this master tape has been meticulously optimized and preserved via the official archive of The Dini Petty Show.
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