4:00

He was a great songwriter and performer. He

4:02

was a good singer. He wasn't going to

4:04

give you a Roy Orbison type octave range,

4:06

but for what he did, he was really

4:08

great. Not only that, but before that, he

4:10

was a Rhodes scholar. He was

4:12

a helicopter pilot in the army. He was

4:14

also in the infantry and an army ranger.

4:17

And, and then really flipped gears in

4:19

the late sixties, got radicalized in

4:22

the counterculture movement and really

4:24

followed the template that was started

4:26

by Bob Dylan in the early

4:28

sixties of just mature existential songwriting.

4:31

Brought it to the country music

4:33

fold and just gave us some

4:35

standards right off the bat,

4:37

something more coming down for the good times,

4:40

helped me make it through the night and

4:42

so many others. So that's my

4:44

first time. Joe, how about yourself? Hey

4:48

guys, to introduce myself, my name is Joe Kay.

4:50

I host a podcast called play that rock and

4:52

roll. Chris Christofferson is

4:54

definitely a favorite of

4:56

mine. I became a fan of his via the

4:59

highwayman. I discovered the

5:02

highwayman about 10 years or so ago.

5:05

And I knew the names

5:07

of the other three guys in the band, but

5:09

I didn't know who Chris was at that

5:11

point. He sounds great on

5:14

that record. From there, I started

5:16

to learn more about him. I

5:18

watched their live DVD and he's

5:21

a standout, especially with his original

5:23

pieces. My fandom starts

5:26

in the later years of his recording

5:28

career, because we slowed down after the

5:31

early eighties, as far as his output

5:33

goes, but I really like him

5:35

in the highwayman, I've definitely come around to realizing

5:37

like how great he was as a solo act

5:40

and I love knowing that so many of my

5:42

favorite Johnny Cash songs were actually written by him.

5:46

Yeah. I'm going to pin a

5:48

pin on that. I have a thought about the highwayman,

5:50

but when is my

5:52

rookie guest? She has not

5:54

been on the podcast before

5:56

very kindly on Twitter,

5:59

AKX. said, wow, I

6:01

wish I'd seen this earlier. And so we

6:03

jumped on when welcome to the podcast. You

6:05

want to tell us a little about yourself

6:08

and your quick thoughts on

6:10

Mr. Christofferson. I've

6:13

been a fan of

6:15

his since I was a little girl. Wow.

6:20

And in various

6:23

ways, not just his music, but his

6:25

movies. I was a

6:27

little girl who had a crush on him initially

6:30

and started watching his

6:32

movies and then listening to his

6:35

music and read a

6:37

book about his relationship with Janice

6:39

Joplin. I feel fortunate

6:41

that I did get to see him solo

6:44

and as well as I got to see the

6:46

highwayman. And I really just

6:48

wanted to join because as one of you

6:50

said, yeah, he was 88. So

6:53

it wasn't that much of a surprise, but

6:56

it was still a shocker. The last shocker for

6:58

me was David Crosby. I just

7:00

wanted to hear what other people had to

7:02

say about him because Liz, a

7:05

great songwriter, a great songwriter, but

7:07

he was also a warrior who

7:09

stood up for people

7:11

who had less than and things like that.

7:13

Yeah, I'm sad when and we're going to

7:15

dwell it. We're going to try to do

7:17

tribute to all of that. And

7:19

then last but not least, my buddy, Tim.

7:23

I am feeling a little bit like I'm

7:25

going to be the underwhelming guest. I haven't

7:27

written a book or do podcasts or anything

7:29

like that, but I am a massive music

7:31

fan and it have been my entire life.

7:33

And as part of

7:36

that, I idolize songwriters. They're the

7:38

apex of human achievement in my

7:40

opinion. It's the Springsteen's, the Dylan's,

7:42

just name it. And so

7:45

I love Christopherson for his

7:47

songwriting. I just watched Pat

7:49

Garrett and Billy the Kid

7:52

and it's a perfectly good serviceable

7:55

movie, but it's got a great

7:57

soundtrack by Dylan. I absolutely idolize

7:59

Chris. for his songwriting. He writes

8:01

in a way that maybe only

8:03

Chris Stapleton

8:06

could even come close to writing these

8:08

days. Those songs that just

8:10

rip your heart in two. He does an

8:13

amazing job and what I love about him.

8:15

He's an okay singer and truly

8:17

a good singer

8:20

but my like my favorite, this

8:22

is my favorite album of Chris's

8:24

songs and that's Willie Nelson singing

8:26

Christopher Simmons. But Willie's version of

8:28

Help Me Make It Through the Night. by

8:58

my side till

9:03

the early morning light all

9:09

I'm taking is your time so

9:15

help me make it through the night and

9:21

I don't care what's right or

9:24

wrong and I won't try to

9:26

understand maybe

9:33

the best version ever and

9:36

it's just like I said I

9:39

love songwriting musicians

9:41

I wish they were as eternal as the music they

9:43

wrote so I

9:46

was watching the Ken

9:48

Burns documentary on country

9:51

music and Larry Gatlin

9:53

quoted lyrics

9:55

that Chris Crossovers had

9:57

wrote he said No

10:00

one had ever thought to put those words together

10:02

in that way till Chris did it and

10:05

now it seems The only

10:07

way those words could go together, correct

10:09

and there seem to be Tom

10:12

T. Hall You know Bob

10:15

Dylan Hank Williams

10:17

Willie Nelson These

10:19

kind of classic songwriters Jason

10:22

Isbell. I'd argue that I

10:24

would Christopher sin You

10:26

mentioned a little bit Scott, but when you

10:28

think about When

10:31

he started For

10:33

the good times help me make it through the

10:35

night Sunday morning coming down I adored

10:38

for the good times before I'd

10:40

even heard of Who

10:42

Chris Christopher sin was and that's truly

10:44

one of my favorite songs. I

10:47

do think that I Wanted

10:49

to start with they say

10:51

sometimes about the legends But

10:54

you print the legend if the legend becomes bigger

10:56

than the fact but Roseanne cash

10:58

said that yes He

11:00

did land a helicopter in

11:02

her father's yard Christopher

11:06

said look I didn't have a beer in

11:08

my hand It was a tape of a

11:10

song that no one ever reported, but he

11:12

did not disargue I think the

11:15

in and I'll start with you Scott

11:17

says a historian right the idea that

11:19

he had this fantastic life a Rhodes

11:21

Scholar Offered a role to

11:23

teach at West Point and

11:25

he's a janitor Because he's trying

11:27

to get in the music business You want to

11:30

take a two few minutes about and just talk

11:32

about that? Origins and then we'll go around

11:34

the table a little bit and to discuss other things about

11:36

that Yeah, and that move I

11:38

think broke up his first marriage I don't know his

11:40

wife's name at the time, but she was not happy

11:42

that he turned down a Position

11:45

at West Point to be a janitor

11:47

in Nashville And I guess

11:49

I could understand from her point of view,

11:51

but when you have that desire man There's

11:53

no plan B and Morrison would say that

11:55

all the time There's no plan B and

11:57

he was just that confident we're talking about

12:00

his lyrics lyrics and how incredible they were.

12:02

I think his first song that

12:04

was a hit for anybody was Jody and

12:06

the Kid by Roy Druskey.

12:09

She would meet me in the morning on my

12:11

way down to the river waiting patient by the

12:13

China Berry Tree with her feet already

12:15

dusty from the pathway to the levee and

12:17

my little blue jeans rolled up to her knees. She

12:21

would meet me in the morning on my

12:23

way down to the river waiting

12:27

patient by the China

12:30

Berry Tree with her

12:32

feet already dusty from

12:35

the pathway to the

12:37

levee and

12:39

her little blue jeans rolled up

12:42

to her knees. I'd

12:46

pay no attention as

12:49

she tagged along beside me trying

12:52

hard to copy everything

12:54

I did but

12:58

I couldn't keep from smiling

13:00

when I'd hear somebody say,

13:04

Look yonder, there goes Jody

13:06

and the Kid. Who

13:12

ever wrote a song with so much description

13:15

but it's so beautiful. You would miss

13:17

it if that was taken away. That

13:20

was him. He could just describe it as a

13:22

way I tried to approach my writing to. I

13:24

never could say my book writing. I'm not a

13:26

songwriter but I've always tried to have

13:29

that simple description

13:31

or that really

13:33

elaborate description broken down into simple

13:35

terms and make it just as

13:37

flowing as that. So

13:41

he worked RCA Columbia Nashville which I think

13:43

was the, might have been Bradley's Barn or

13:45

the one on the music road built out

13:47

of the same material they used for airplane

13:49

hangers. I forget what it was called but

13:51

he was a janitor there and really started

13:54

to befriend people like Dylan.

13:56

They recognized him and then Johnny

13:58

Cash started recording He captured

14:00

Johnny Cash's attention trying to get demos

14:03

to him of his music And

14:06

he did befriend June Carter and gave her a

14:08

stack of demos Which she probably got

14:10

those all the time and she gave her Johnny just put

14:12

him on his desk So he did he was

14:14

flying an oil he was working on

14:16

oil rigs out in the Gulf and

14:19

I guess he was up near Nashville one day

14:21

and Just decided to

14:23

land his helicopter in Johnny's

14:25

country estate out there which

14:27

I think they portray they don't portray the scene

14:29

in the movie walk the line but The

14:32

house that he was in there and that

14:34

that's one way to make an impression man Hey,

14:38

I'm here because not there aren't too

14:40

many aspiring songwriters who could fly helicopters

14:47

Randy Rhodes flew at once you can fly it and

14:49

keep it in the air I

14:51

think that's just the type of guy he was

14:54

he was a big splashy personality. He was pretty

14:56

laid-back You can see in

14:58

any interview had that great Silver

15:00

raspy voice of his that worked

15:02

so well for him in movies

15:04

and narration Once he got

15:06

rolling he couldn't be stopped using the movies girls were

15:08

falling in love with him Can you

15:10

remember when you first discovered him? Oh My

15:15

gosh, I must have been I

15:18

don't know I was a teenager and And My

15:23

dad being the kind of

15:25

cool dad he yeah bought

15:27

me a poster of chris

15:29

like shirtless I was

15:31

like 15 when

15:36

Um a star is born came

15:38

out. Yes I

15:41

was visiting my grandmother

15:43

in Miami beach

15:46

and I had a cousin there as

15:48

well That was the third

15:50

remake of that movie New

15:53

Year's Eve my cousin and I went to

15:55

go see it and all these senior citizens

15:58

Are in the theater? like

16:00

dress to the nines and

16:02

half of them walked out

16:04

before the movie was even

16:06

half over. Like where's

16:09

Judy Garland? Yeah, because the most

16:11

recent version is more similar to

16:13

the Chris and Barbara version. Those

16:16

two are to the first two. Yeah.

16:18

And by the way, I really enjoyed the

16:20

Judy Garland. I remember I was in high

16:23

school when that came out. We

16:26

loved that. The Judy Garland

16:28

version? No, almost. I

16:30

was when Christopherson and Streisand came out.

16:33

It's a true story. They wanted Elvis to

16:35

play the Chris Christopherson part, but

16:37

the Colonel would not let

16:39

him have second billing to Barbara

16:42

Streisand, and Barbara Streisand had

16:44

to do as a producer in the star. And

16:47

as much in another world, I would have

16:49

loved to see Elvis play that part, but

16:53

Christopherson was just perfect in it

16:55

and playing that kind of self-destructive.

17:00

And he's incredibly sexy. His

17:02

voice works perfect. And

17:04

Barbara Streisand talked about that just

17:08

in relatively recent terms when they were

17:10

doing so, they were a tribute. She

17:13

had Chris come and sing her not with

17:15

the other duet they had, not Evergreen. She

17:18

talked about when she saw him, she knew that he

17:20

was perfect for the film. I

17:22

did want to ask Joe

17:25

and Tim this

17:28

question about the Highlumen. Was

17:30

Chris Christopherson the Jeff Lynn? You

17:33

know, in the Wolverines?

17:35

Yeah, the Wolverines, right? I

17:37

realize that's probably a very

17:39

shaky, deaf kind of comparison.

17:42

A lot of people like who the hell is Jeff Lynn and

17:44

other people would know. But when

17:46

you look at Johnny Cash,

17:48

Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson versus

17:50

Bob Dylan, Petty, Roy Orbison,

17:52

I think there's a little bit

17:54

there. There's definitely a

17:57

lot of similarities between the Wilburys

17:59

and the the high women

18:01

because they're, it's

18:03

each a super group in their own genre

18:06

of people who have had

18:08

immense success prior to forming

18:11

together and bringing their collective talents together.

18:14

But yeah, you could say he was like

18:17

Jeff Lynn. He might've been the Bob Dylan

18:19

in the fact that he was the songwriter.

18:21

I think that's fair. Dylan

18:23

isn't renowned for his voice either. He's

18:25

renowned for his songs. And so yeah, I could

18:27

see that. But you

18:30

could almost make the case that none

18:32

of the highway men were known as

18:34

having that voice like Charlie

18:36

Pride or Frank Sinatra, right?

18:38

They're all my favorite. Willie

18:41

and Johnny definitely had the voice, but my

18:43

dad had a friend who said that Willie

18:45

Nelson sure talks a good song. Joe,

18:48

thoughts on that and the compare

18:50

the highway men in comparison to

18:52

the Willard traveling over with

18:55

the parallel be that Lynn and

18:57

Christopher Sin are the

18:59

least appreciated in the lineup, but

19:01

most talented. You

19:05

could argue most

19:07

because again, it's

19:09

hard to fight Dylan, but there's groups

19:11

are stacked to the rafters. But

19:14

there's a highway men tribute band

19:16

that is a national act right

19:18

now, but it's three guys. And

19:21

there isn't a Christopher Sin in it.

19:23

That to me says he's always been

19:26

a little underappreciate. And again, going

19:28

back to my first exposure to him, I didn't know who he

19:30

was at that point because I didn't

19:32

grow up with those movies. So he

19:34

was the one I had a little

19:36

research on. But like with Jeff Lynn,

19:38

who I've come to appreciate later in

19:40

life, there's an incredible songbook there. Underappreciated

19:43

all the way around. Unless you

19:46

were a fellow musician, there's so

19:48

many people that love music can

19:50

say, oh, I'm the biggest

19:53

music lover ever. And they have

19:55

no idea the songs he wrote.

19:58

I will, I'll take issue with. the voice

20:00

thing. Waylon Jennings had an incredibly strong, powerful

20:04

voice and a lot of range. So he

20:06

was definitely the most accomplished singer. I agree

20:08

with that. I will raise my hand and

20:10

say I committed a foul on that.

20:12

I wasn't thinking about that. Yes. Willie

20:15

could probably challenge Chris for songwriting,

20:18

but they had two completely different

20:20

approaches to it. Willie was more

20:22

based in traditional country, whereas Chris

20:25

was the new guard that came in after the

20:27

folk movement in the 60s. I'll

20:29

say that Chris was probably more outlaw

20:31

than Willie was and doesn't get credit

20:33

for starting that whole outlaw.

20:36

Willie is definitely on the

20:39

vanguard of that, but just

20:41

not playing by the machine's rules. Chris

20:43

started with that as well. Yeah,

20:46

there'd be no outlaw movement without Chris

20:48

Offersen. Absolutely, without Willie, but both of

20:50

those are integral

20:52

to that movement. So this

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22:25

And the other one of the other podcasts

22:27

I do is I do Perfect Good podcast,

22:30

Blade and Plug here, John Hyatt

22:32

in alphabetical order. And almost 90%

22:34

of the people that

22:38

are listening or go, I do not know

22:40

who John Hyatt is, but he is well

22:42

known as a songwriter in

22:44

the, when the musician communities

22:47

and Roseanne Cash, they've done duets

22:49

together and things. Yeah,

22:51

it is when you think about, when

22:56

I was trying to think about going

22:59

back to that Ken Burns documentary, when

23:01

you think about all the songs Hank

23:03

Williams wrote, if he only wrote

23:05

one or two of those, he would

23:08

be known as a great

23:10

songwriter. And then when you think

23:12

about the multiple, and I think

23:15

the same thing was Christopher Sin,

23:18

me and Bobby McGill, had me to

23:20

get through the night, Sunday morning coming

23:22

down, why me just on and on,

23:25

incredibly why

23:28

he's in the Country Music Hall of Fame

23:30

and a lifetime achievement work from the recording

23:32

Academy. And the songwriter Hall of Fame, it's

23:35

an embarrassment of riches. And

23:37

the fact that we can sit

23:39

here and toss out song names that

23:42

everybody knows whether

23:44

or not they know who wrote it, but

23:47

it's just, it's an impressive body of work.

23:49

And it's just, you know, it's

23:52

something just, I

23:54

don't know, I'll give you an example of I

23:58

went and saw Willie Nelson's 90s. birthday

24:00

concert in theaters. Roseanne

24:03

Cash came out and did a Chris Christopherson song. And

24:09

then about halfway through the song, Chris

24:11

walks out. To my knowledge, that may

24:13

be his last musical appearance. The

24:16

entire theater started crying

24:18

because they knew he was frail. It

24:21

was just so sad seeing this

24:23

absolutely legendary person in

24:26

this state, but he's still saying, and

24:29

when it was over, she kissed him. But

24:31

it was the most amazing, the

24:34

entire dais and

24:36

full of stars. Nothing

24:38

but musical stars after musical stars were

24:40

on that. But in that

24:43

four hours, that was the moment that

24:45

everybody realized Chris Christopherson

24:47

was the man. I

25:29

am healing

25:32

as the colors in the

25:35

sunshine and the shadows of

25:37

your eyes. My

26:01

fingers on the scale Oh,

26:04

oh, oh Wapping

26:09

out the traces of the

26:12

people At the places that

26:14

I've been Teaching

26:21

me that yesterday Something

26:24

that I've never thought I'd

26:26

try I'm

26:29

not letting in Talking

26:33

out tomorrow And

26:36

the money bubble time we had

26:38

to spend And

26:44

loving you is easier

26:47

than anything I'll ever

26:49

do again Loving

26:53

you is easier than

26:55

anything I'll ever do

26:57

again Loving

27:04

you is easier than

27:07

anything I'll ever do

27:09

again It

27:23

was just one of the most amazing things

27:25

I had seen It's

27:32

heartbreaking to see what he still Music

27:36

he still knew everything even

27:38

though he was He

27:42

was just a little bit of a fan I think

27:44

it was just a little bit of a

27:46

fan But everybody

27:48

knew that song They

27:51

didn't know who wrote it necessarily after

28:00

that they did. So when finding him

28:02

as an actor first, when

28:04

did you start discovering his music around

28:07

the same time? Okay. I

28:11

have a lot of my

28:13

musical influence initially came from

28:15

my parents. My parents had

28:17

decent taste in music. Yeah.

28:19

So I

28:22

probably knew heard of Johnny

28:24

Cash before I heard Chris

28:26

Kostofferson. I remember being really

28:28

little and like hearing

28:30

a boy named Sue and they

28:33

were bleeping out the cuss

28:35

word. And I was like, what is it? You

28:37

know, but pretty young. It was

28:39

the 70s. I

28:42

already had an album of his. I loved

28:46

Sunday morning coming down. I played

28:50

it over and over. I

28:53

actually, as much

28:55

as I loved Janice

28:58

Joplin doing me and Bobby McGee,

29:00

I like hearing Chris do it

29:02

better. Busted,

29:11

flattened, Baton Rouge,

29:14

heading for the trains, feeling

29:19

nearly faded as

29:21

my jeans. Bobby

29:25

thung the diesel down

29:28

just before it rained, took

29:32

us all the way to New

29:35

Orleans. I

29:39

took my harpoon out

29:41

of my dirty red

29:44

bandana and was

29:46

blowing sad while Bobby sang the

29:48

blues. With

29:52

them when she wipers,

29:54

slapping time and Bobby

29:57

clapping hands, we finally see.

29:59

The same of every song

30:02

that driving news Freedom's

30:08

just another word for

30:10

nothing left to lose

30:15

Nothing ain't worth nothing

30:17

but it's free Feeling

30:22

good was easy Lord when

30:24

Bobby sang the blues Feeling

30:28

good was good enough for

30:31

me Good

30:35

enough for me, Bobby

30:40

Yeah, even in that one line,

30:42

freedom's just another word for nothing

30:44

left to lose and nothing ain't

30:46

worth nothing but it's free That

30:48

line just really got to me

30:51

I had it written on notebooks

30:53

in school I

30:56

remember seeing him in Lake

30:59

Charles sometime because I remember,

31:01

I don't know if he

31:03

was Rita Coolidge

31:05

because they were still married at the time

31:08

and then he was the mainstream so

31:10

I'd seen him at least once You

31:13

mentioned you've seen him a couple times correct? I

31:16

saw him solo once and with the highwayman

31:18

once And how about the rest of

31:20

you, Joe? Unfortunately, no, I

31:22

have not seen him live I had

31:25

one shot where I could have seen him with

31:27

Willie Nelson here in Milwaukee

31:29

at our annual Summerfest That was

31:31

a well-reviewed show in 2016 Looking

31:35

back, I should have taken that opportunity Instead,

31:38

I've mostly just watched that

31:40

Highwayman Live concert DVD a

31:42

bunch of times PBS

31:45

a couple of times, I did a remaster

31:47

or something I've watched that a couple of

31:49

times I have friends that we get

31:51

together They live in different cities so we can

31:53

only get together every couple of months and

31:56

we always rotate songs to play

32:00

One that always comes up is the live

32:02

version of help me make it through the

32:04

night from that highway men concert. And there's

32:06

a bit in the song where

32:08

he sings, I don't care what's right or

32:10

wrong. And then there's a beat and

32:13

the Christopherson just says, yes, I

32:15

do. And

32:18

I don't know why, but it always hit

32:20

us as really funny. So now whenever we

32:22

listen to it, we always pause for that

32:24

beat and we all three say, yes, I

32:26

do. How

32:28

about you Scott seen him live? No,

32:31

never saw him live. But for me, he, it

32:34

came through the his attention. I,

32:37

he came to my attention just mostly to a

32:39

song writing like everybody else here. In

32:41

fact, it was through songs written, recorded

32:44

by others. It's one of those things

32:46

when you collect records, like I do,

32:48

like people shop for groceries

32:51

all my life. I would always see,

32:53

yeah, you'd always look at the credits. When I

32:55

had drifters records, I would see Goffin King, Lieberstolt,

32:58

Man Wheel. And you just see

33:00

these, and they're great songs. And

33:02

then I remember when I started collecting country, I

33:04

would see Christopherson. I remember I think my first

33:07

hearing Sunday morning coming down on the radio. And I

33:09

really was taken by the songs. I was just a

33:11

kid and I, my father, I remember

33:14

he was singing it because he loved the song.

33:16

He was 20 years old when that song came

33:18

out. I got into that and then started collecting

33:20

Weyland Jennings records from the sixties. And I'd see

33:22

Christopherson there. And obviously Roger Miller

33:25

was the first one to have a hit

33:27

with me and Bobby McGee. That's how he

33:29

came to me. I think the closest I

33:31

saw him live, I think I saw him

33:34

at Sirius XM once. That's the closest I

33:36

came to seeing him live. But no, his,

33:38

his songwriting is just superior to his contemporaries.

33:40

Little Steven posted one of the truly great

33:43

uncompromising outlaws as

33:45

an artist and

33:47

a righteous uncompromising warrior as a

33:49

man, one of the very

33:51

few to achieve total credibility as a

33:54

musician and an actor, a big

33:56

loss to the positive energy of

33:58

the universe. Jason Isbell

34:00

said nobody has ever beaten

34:03

freedom's just another word for nothing left

34:05

to lose Christopher

34:08

was a hero and a gentleman always

34:10

so kind and is brilliant as a

34:12

songwriter could possibly be a

34:15

bright light in the world a Friend

34:18

of mine sent a note and

34:20

if you guys will indulge me just a little Laurie

34:23

had actually gotten to be her

34:26

family Got to

34:28

be casual friends with him. She

34:30

says growing up in Wyoming. You have to be a

34:33

country music fan I grew up

34:35

on Johnny Cash Willie Nelson, Whaling

34:37

Jennings, Dolly Parton, John Denver, and

34:39

of course Chris Christopherson among others

34:42

Chris music was always iconic as

34:44

were his movies. I love Star

34:46

is Born, convoy, stagecoach, so many

34:48

more When Chris

34:51

starred in the TV miniseries America The

34:53

world as my family knew it was

34:56

forever changed that miniseries had our mother

34:58

looking into US politics and history We

35:00

were always Democrats in a very Republican

35:03

state But his mom learned

35:05

more we followed along with Chris endorsed

35:07

Jesse Jackson for president mom and I

35:09

campaigned for him We learned

35:11

the truth about Leonard Peltzer's Incarceration

35:13

and then what we could to help

35:16

Chris fight for Leonard's freedom. We learned

35:18

the truth of the

35:20

Ira can free asco that Ronald Reagan got

35:23

us into they Got

35:25

met through Chris or his fan club

35:28

Saw him alive several times and he would

35:30

always wave to them and would

35:32

always give them hugs at the concert because they were

35:35

friend She says he was

35:37

a friendship that I always cherish. He's a mentor

35:39

and he was family Any

35:41

thoughts on the his not only

35:43

his acting but his so

35:45

many people especially

35:49

On both sides of the aisle. I won't just blame the right

35:52

shut up and sing you have no place

35:54

in politics and As someone

35:56

who served our country, I

35:59

guess he felt differently when I'll

36:01

start with you any thoughts about

36:03

his activism and his work for

36:05

chair whole lot of thoughts, especially

36:08

since you mentioned Leonard Peltier and I

36:11

don't know if the rest of you

36:13

know who Leonard though, I would encourage

36:15

all of you to look this up.

36:17

He is the longest serving

36:21

political prisoner in the United States.

36:23

He just turned 80 years old.

36:27

There is so much evidence that

36:30

he's innocent. Even

36:33

the judge who

36:35

initially oversaw the case

36:38

is for his release. He just

36:41

came up for a parole hearing again

36:43

in July. It was denied. The reason

36:46

it keeps getting denied is because

36:48

who was killed were a couple

36:51

FBI agents. I

36:53

could go on and on about

36:55

this. I won't. I would encourage

36:57

you to look into it sign

36:59

a petition, call the White House

37:01

to encourage the president

37:03

to grant clemency. He's very

37:05

ill. It'd be a

37:08

shame for him to die in prison. Good.

37:11

I appreciate you sharing that. I

37:13

remember when he stood up for

37:16

Sinead when they tried to

37:18

get her 30th

37:20

anniversary concert. And

37:22

it was right after the Pope incident where

37:25

she was 30 years

37:27

ahead of her time. SNL and

37:29

that is the only version

37:31

of SNL they will never

37:33

re-air. And

37:36

she got booed by the crowd

37:39

at Madison Square Garden. He hugs her

37:41

and then he actually wrote a great

37:43

song called Sister Sinead about that incident

37:45

and her speaking up for the truth.

37:47

I really think that having

37:50

somebody of his caliber stand up

37:52

for her brought a lot of

37:54

legitimacy to what she was saying. She

37:56

was 100% right with that. Yeah,

38:00

little at the time right Joe

38:02

any thoughts on that is activism

38:04

or any of these other subjects.

38:06

Oh sure Yeah, everyone's favorite topic.

38:08

Let's get real political on the

38:10

note of politics Jesse I thought

38:12

we were getting together today because

38:14

you're such a big Chris Christopherson

38:16

fan because he wrote a song

38:18

called Jesse Jackson He

38:31

was marching extra hard when he

38:33

died Oh

39:30

For freedom, then he shouldn't

39:32

be too hard Oh Truth

40:00

I swear it wasn't till Laurie

40:03

sent me this message today. And

40:05

then she said, most

40:09

of my favorite songs are his later

40:11

works. They killed him, This Old Road,

40:14

Third World Warrior, Sandinista. And

40:16

I said, that's odd. Why

40:19

is she putting my name in the middle

40:21

of this? And I had

40:23

to Google and he did write a word

40:25

song for Jesse Jackson. Bruce has

40:27

been posting about the

40:30

Sandinista things that

40:32

Kristofferson did as well. Yeah. Yeah,

40:35

it's crazy. When you say talking about

40:37

politics, we're not talking about Bruce Springsteen

40:39

doing a campaign rally for Obama back

40:41

in 2012. We're talking

40:43

about a guy who was a full

40:45

fledged supporter of the Sandinistas in

40:48

the Cold War in Latin America. That

40:51

wasn't the Peace Corps. Those were

40:53

some brutal militant fighters

40:55

in the Civil War where

40:57

enemies, the Contras, were also

41:00

evil and dangerous. We're talking about

41:02

high stakes, violent war

41:04

politics. Yeah, I mean, and

41:06

somebody brought up the fact that

41:09

Kristofferson covered this Patriot,

41:11

the Little Stevens song, right? Scott,

41:14

looks like you may want to

41:16

share something. Obviously

41:20

he was very political and certain

41:22

things hold up. Other things that

41:24

he was political about, campaigning for

41:27

Obama when Obama dropped more bombs

41:29

than anybody. That's the duality. That's

41:31

what happens because now you're saying, this is bad, oh,

41:33

but when my guy does it, it's okay. It's like

41:35

Neil Young, when there's a Democrat in

41:38

the White House doesn't say a word, but when there's a

41:40

Republican in the White House, he just goes ape shit. But

41:42

it's, you know, his- His

41:44

worst work. But

41:47

his stance on Vietnam, I am totally

41:49

in lockstep with that was a war

41:51

for the military industrial complex. He saw

41:53

it up close and personal. One

41:55

of the very first songs he ever wrote was

41:57

Vietnam Blues. Dave Dudley had a hit with it.