From 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' and 'Help Me Make It Through the Night' to 'Feeling Mortal,' Variety picks 10 Kris Kristofferson immortal classics.

Kris Kristofferson was a master at penning really heartbreaking song lyrics, and these four songs feature some of his best work.

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” Joplin sang in her signature blues-rock yowl — perhaps the best-known piece of wisdom in Kristofferson’s very wise catalog. “Me and Bobby McGee” topped the Hot 100 in March 1971, less than six months after Joplin’s death at age 27.

Kris Kristofferson wrote some of the best songs in country music history. Here are five songs made famous by other artists.

Kris Kristofferson led one of the most interesting lives of any songwriter in country music, and it shows in the richly textured and subtly nuanced songs that he wrote. The iconic songwriter started life as the son of a military officer,

Kris Kristofferson was a generational singer-songwriter whose craftsmanship made country music feel broader and deeper.

Kristofferson died Saturday at his home in Maui, Hawaii, a representative for Kristofferson confirmed to USA TODAY. A cause of death was not given. "It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather,

Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.

The country singer and songwriter, who died on Saturday at 88, tucked enduring aphorisms into tales about facing up to loss.

Kris Kristofferson, an Oxford-educated Rhodes Scholar and Army veteran who wrote hit songs for Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash before starring in Hollywood movies, died Saturday at his home in Maui, a family spokesperson said Sunday evening.