Kris Kristofferson was at all times open about overcoming his struggles with substance abuse.
The nation music legend and actor — who died at his Maui home at age 88 on Saturday, Sept. 28 — usually spoke candidly about his hard-partying days as a musician on the highway and an actor in Hollywood. In a 1998 interview with PEOPLE, Kristofferson detailed how having a household and desirous to be there for his family members lastly motivated him to give up ingesting.
“I assumed all severe artists had been self-destructive. That anyone price their salt was going to be on the market dwelling on the sting,” he stated on the time, referring to his heavy ingesting habits within the late Nineteen Sixties and early Nineteen Seventies — across the time he started a relationship along with his fellow modern Janis Joplin.
“I do not know what you name a love affair, however we had been actual shut,” he stated of the pair’s relationship. “I appreciated her humorousness. I used to be doing a variety of ingesting then… And she or he was attempting to kick [heroin].”
Quickly after, Joplin succumbed to her addition points, dying in October 1970 at 27 years outdated.
“It tore me up,” Kristofferson recalled of Joplin’s demise, however stated it nonetheless wasn’t sufficient to persuade him to give up ingesting. “I used to be a functioning alcoholic,” he informed PEOPLE.
“For a few years, it was Jack Daniels, then it was tequila, then it was something,” he continued. “Once I was performing, I could not think about getting up and doing it with out ingesting.”
What actually kick-started his journey to sobriety was his position within the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born, during which he starred alongside Barbra Streisand. In keeping with the actor, seeing his personal demise scene within the movie, that includes a personality who struggled with ingesting, pressured him to make a change.
“I had a half quart of Jose Cuervo in my icebox that they by no means let get empty,” Kristofferson stated, recalling the surroundings on set earlier than he noticed the footage of his character’s demise scene. “I bear in mind feeling that that would very simply be my spouse and youngsters crying over me. I give up ingesting over that. I did not wish to die earlier than my daughter grew up.”
Not lengthy after the musician obtained sober, he met his spouse Lisa Meyers in 1982. The pair went on to welcome five children collectively, and Kristofferson additionally had three youngsters from earlier marriages.
By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to remain up-to-date on the most effective of what PEOPLE has to supply, from celeb information to forcing human curiosity tales.
Reflecting on his peaceable household life and residential in Hawaii in 1998, Kristofferson informed PEOPLE, “I by no means might have imagined this. I sit proper right here and suppose the way it might have turned out so in a different way. I by no means thought I might stay previous 30. I might have ended up useless.”
A consultant for the star confirmed that he was surrounded by household when he died on Saturday.
“It’s with a heavy coronary heart that we share the information our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, handed away peacefully on September 28 at residence,” his household stated in an announcement shared with PEOPLE.
“We’re all so blessed for our time with him,” the assertion continued. “Thanks for loving him all these a few years, and while you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.”