![\"KRIS-KRISTOFFERSON-Issue-No25\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/KRIS-KRISTOFFERSON-Issue-No25.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nOn his new album, a legendary storyteller sizes up a life well lived<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b>At 76, Kris Kristofferson is as focused on his art as he was four decades ago. \u201cFor me, the creative part is when I write it and get it on tape,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter that, I really don\u2019t have anything to do with the business part of it. Let the others do the hard part.\u201d Kristofferson\u2014whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter, actor, army officer, helicopter pilot and Rhodes scholar\u2014has done plenty on his own. His new album Feeling Mortal<\/i>, his third project with producer Don Was, is the first release on Kristofferson\u2019s own KK Records.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your writing process?<\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been writing songs since I was 11, but I was the most undisciplined songwriter I knew. There are other really gifted songwriters who worked all the time. I\u2019ve always been pretty lazy about it for one reason or another. I can\u2019t just sit down and make myself write. I would wait until inspiration hit me, and then I would do it. I could go weeks, months, without writing.<\/p>\n How many songs did you record?<\/b><\/p>\n We did about 20 for the new album, and then cut half of them. I don\u2019t really know why we selected the songs that we did. There are some old songs and some new, but the new ones that I wrote are like the ones I\u2019ve been writing all my life. None of my albums have really had a planned theme. They\u2019re just a review of where I was at that point in my life, and what I was thinking about. At this point, you start out with feeling mortal.<\/p>\n How do you and Don work together?<\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been working with Don for about 30 years now, and he\u2019s been a perfect working partner. He came into my life back when everything else was falling apart\u2014my record company had gone under, my personal life was a tragedy, I was in the middle of a divorce and taking care of a little kid by myself. He picked me up when I wasn\u2019t too together. Now that my life has turned out to be so good, it\u2019s great that he\u2019s been part of it.<\/p>\n What was the recording process like?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The recording has always been easy since I\u2019ve been working with Don. He\u2019s got a great way of understanding artists and musicians. We\u2019ve been working together for so long that he knows what I want to do, even if there are things I can\u2019t articulate.<\/p>\n How have you evolved as an artist?<\/b><\/p>\n Well, I don\u2019t think I sing or pick any better. I haven\u2019t worried about that. The serious songwriters who I respected always accepted me the way I was. I\u2019ve been blessed to have the creative gifts to have written the songs that I have. I\u2019m still getting song ideas and sort of writing them in my head. But if I never finish another song, I won\u2019t feel like I haven\u2019t done my job. It\u2019s taken me a long time to get over the joy of doing this all the time. I\u2019ve always been grateful for what I do for a living. Most of the time I was probably most caught up in the act of creation and expression. Now I separate myself from it and appreciate what we\u2019ve been through.<\/p>\n Any future goals?<\/b><\/p>\n I have to admit, I feel like I don\u2019t need to do anything. I feel like I\u2019ve been given three-quarters of a century, a very full life. I\u2019m at peace with myself, and the world now\u2014I\u2019m really just happy. While I enjoy what I do\u2014going out and singing\u2014and I imagine I\u2019ll keep recording, it wouldn\u2019t bother me if I never made another record.<\/p>\n \u2013Juli Thanki<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KRIS KRISTOFFERSON On his new album, a legendary storyteller sizes up a life well lived \u00a0At 76, Kris Kristofferson is as focused on his art as he was four decades ago. \u201cFor me, the creative part is when I write it and get it on tape,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter that, I really don\u2019t have anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[25,6207,6164,3869,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9317,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9315\/revisions\/9317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n