“I Didn’t Want To Die Before My Daughter Grew Up” – Kris Kristofferson Sobered Up After Filming His Death Scene In “A Star Is Born”

A life-changing moment for the country music legend. Kris Kristofferson , who passed away on Saturday at the age of 88, was obviously best known for his incredible songwriting on songs like "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," "Me & Bobby McGee" and "Help Me Make It Through The Night." But Kristofferson was one of the most interesting men in country music. He was a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of Oxford, and a Captain and helicopter pilot in the Navy before moving to Nashville to pursue a career in music. And once he got to Music City, he went to great lengths to make his dream a reality, taking a job as a janitor at a record label and even landing a helicopter on Johnny Cash's lawn to deliver some demo tapes in hopes that The Man In Black would record his songs. (It worked). And he was also an actor, starring in dozens of movies and TV shows throughout his long career. One of his best known roles came in 1976 when he starred as John Norman Howard in a remake of the 1937 film A Star Is Born. Kristofferson's character, a self-destructive rock star who falls in love with an unknown singer played by Barbra Streisand. At the end of the movie, Howard's hard-partying ways finally catch up with him as he's killed in a car accident while driving drunk. And while filming this movie, Kristofferson realized the parallels between his character and his own life. During an interview with PEOPLE from 1998, the country music legend admitted that at the time, he was drinking heavily - because he thought that's what artists were supposed to do: "I thought all serious artists were self-destructive. That anybody worth their salt was going to be out there living on the edge... For a couple of years, it was Jack Daniels, then it was tequila, then it was anything. When I was performing, I couldn't imagine getting up and doing it without drinking." At the time of filming "A Star Is Born," Kristofferson was married to singer Rita Coolidge, with whom he had one child. He also had two children from his first marriage, which ended in 1969. So when his character in the movie was killed due to alcohol, it was a wakeup call:

"I had a half quart of Jose Cuervo in my icebox that they never let get empty.

I remember feeling that that could very easily be my wife and kids crying over me. I quit drinking over that. I didn't want to die before my daughter grew up."

Kristofferson and Coolidge would divorce in 1980, but in 1983 he married his third wife Lisa Meyers, with whom he would have 5 children and remain married to until his death this weekend. And though he ultimately ended up living a full life and passing away while surrounded by his family, Kristofferson admitted that he once thought it would end very differently: "I never could have imagined this. I sit right here and think how it could have turned out so differently. I never thought I'd live past 30. I could have ended up dead." Luckily for Kris and for everybody else, a role in a movie changed his life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-O0pu_Gu7U