Watch: Kris Kristofferson’s Final Full Concert Aboard a Ship in 2020 With Merle Haggard’s Band and an All-Starr Send-Off

Before revealing his retirement in 2021, Kris Kristofferson played his final full concert on the Outlaw Country Cruise, aboard the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship on January 30, 2020.

Backed by members of Merle Haggard‘s band The Strangers, inside the Stardust theater Kristofferson, who was then 84, opened the night with his 1986 song with the Borderlands, “Shipwrecked in the Eighties,” a cover of Lefty Frizzell’s “That’s the Way Love Goes” and a deeper cut from his 1970 self-titled debut., “Darby’s Castle.”

The 20-song set was filled with more of his classics “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” telling of his early struggles trying to make it in the music industry, “Me and Bobby McGee,” which became a posthumous hit for Janis Joplin, and his famous hangover tale, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” along with “For the Good Times,” “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again),” “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33,” and more.

Singing Wide awake and feeling mortal / At this moment in the dream / That old man there in the mirror / And my shaky self-esteem, hallway in Kristofferson shared the somber “Feeling Mortal,” the title track from his 2013 album, his final album of new material before The Cedar Creek Sessions in 2016.

Kristofferson also peppered in five Haggard covers throughout the night—”Okie From Muskogee,” “A Place to Fall Apart,” “Daddy Frank,” “Sing My Back Home,” and “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink.”

When Kristofferson played the Outlaw Cruise, it wasn’t to be his final performance. He was also scheduled to play the Luck Reunion at Willie Nelson’s property in Austin, Texas, in March 2020 before the pandemic hit. Though quietly retired from performing in 2020, he didn’t reveal it until 2021.

[RELATED: The Hangover Song Kris Kristofferson Delivered to Johnny Cash by Helicopter]

“Kris is aging; Kris is 84,” said Tamara Saviano, Kristofferson’s longtime manager in 2021. “It didn’t feel like such big news to us. That’s why there was no announcement: It was just sort of a slow changing of the guard thing.”

Prior to his retirement, Kristofferson revealed that he had been suffering from memory loss since his 70s, which he attributed to concussions from contact sports as a youth. He was also diagnosed with sleep apnea, and in 1999, Kristofferson also underwent bypass surgery. In 2016, he was also diagnosed with Lyme Disease, which he believed he contracted while filming the 2006 film Disappearances.

Kristofferson believed the Lyme Disease contributed to his memory loss and started writing about it in an unfinished song: I see an empty chair / Someone was sitting there/ I’ve got a feeling it was me / And I see a glass of wine / I’m pretty sure it’s mine.

He continued to make occasional guest appearances over the next few years, including his final performance, a duet with Rosanne Cash at Willie Nelson‘s 90th birthday with Kristofferson’s “Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again).”

In 2022, Kristofferson drove with his wife Lisa to the home of then-ailing Jerry Lee Lewis to present him with his Country Music Hall of Fame induction medallion.

Towards the the end of the set on the Norwegian Pearl, several artists that Kristofferson had influenced, including Steve Earle, Jim Lauderdale, Lucinda Williams, Shooter Jennings, and others joined Kristofferson on stage for “Why Me.” Then Kristofferson closed the set more poignantly with his 1978 Rita Coolidge duet “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends.”

[RELATED: 3 Songs Kris Kristofferson Rerecorded With Fellow Outlaws, The Highwaymen]

Setlist: Kris Kristofferson on the Outlaw Cruise, January 30, 2020

1. Shipwrecked in the Eighties
2. That’s the Way Love Goes
3. Darby’s Castle
4. Me and Bobby McGee
5. How Far to Jordan
6. Help Me Make It Through the Night
7. Okie From Muskogee
8. Casey’s Last Ride
9. A Place to Fall Apart
10. Feeling Mortal
11. From Here to Forever
12. Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)
13. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)
14. Sing Me Back Home
15. The Pilgrim, Chapter 33
16. I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink
17. Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down
18. For the Good Times
19. Why Me
20. Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends

Photo: Kris Kristofferson performs a live concert during the Danish music festival Heartland Festival, Kvaerndrup, Denmark, May 31, 2019. Thomas Rungstrom / ZUMA Press / Photo by Gonzales Photo/ZUMA Press/Shutterstock