Legendary singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson has died at the age of 88. As his many fans mourn his death, we're finding out more about his troubled medical history.
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00:00In 2013, doctors told singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson the bad news. They
00:06believed he had Alzheimer's, or a related form of dementia. The Grammy winner, then
00:10in his 70s, was having debilitating memory problems. His friends also took notice of
00:15his declining mental acuity, but what doctors thought was dementia turned out to be the
00:19tick-borne bacterial illness known as Lyme disease.
00:23Kristofferson's medical treatment reversed many of his symptoms, and he went on to live
00:26another eight years. But on September 28, 2024, he died at his home in Maui at 88 years
00:32old. No cause of death was given.
00:35The legendary performer was born in Brownsville, Texas, in 1936. He came from a long line of
00:40military men, and it appeared he, too, would follow the same path. After becoming a prestigious
00:45Rhodes Scholar, which allowed him to study at Oxford University in England, he joined
00:49the U.S. Army, where he was a helicopter pilot. He achieved the rank of captain before dropping
00:54out of the military to pursue his dream of being a full-time musician. It was a hard
00:59road made harder after his family disowned him, and he held a series of low-paying jobs,
01:04including being a janitor at CBS Records in Nashville. But Kristofferson eventually hit
01:09it big as a songwriter.
01:11Everyone from Johnny Cash to Janis Joplin rode to the top of the charts with Kristofferson's
01:15songs, and by the early 1970s, so had he. Hollywood soon came calling, and Kristofferson
01:22earned a Golden Globe for his role in A Star is Born.
01:25If you laugh, I'll kill you.
01:28I promise I won't laugh.
01:30Besides a slew of hit records and film roles, Kristofferson was also part of the supergroup
01:34The Highwaymen with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. But by the early 2000s,
01:40Kristofferson's health issues began to pile up.
01:43Times have changed. Times, maybe. Not me.
01:49Kristofferson's medical issues began at the dawn of the 21st century. In 1999, he had
01:54triple bypass surgery. Then, following a role in the 2006 film Disappearances, which was
01:59filmed in the Vermont woods, doctors diagnosed him with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder.
02:04Lisa, the singer's wife of more than 40 years, told the journal The Lime Times in 2016 that
02:09the actor was experiencing massive, painful spasms all over his back and legs, adding,
02:15He had painful knees and annual knee shots, a pacemaker for arrhythmias,
02:19which we now know could be from Lyme, and so much Advil for headaches that he got anemic.
02:24Then came the worsening memory problems and the misdiagnosis of Alzheimer's,
02:28Lisa told Rolling Stone. He was taking all these medications for things he doesn't have,
02:32and they all have side effects. Finally, in February 2016, an integrative doctor
02:37suspecting Lyme disease tested the singer for the illness, which came back positive.
02:42If left untreated, Lyme disease can cause symptoms including arrhythmia,
02:45muscle weakness, swelling of the joints, headaches, and neurological problems.
02:50Christofferson's medical treatment included antibiotics and other measures that helped
02:54to reverse many of his symptoms, although he still had some memory loss. Longtime friend
02:59and fellow musician Chris Gantry saw the stark difference between the singer before and after
03:04his treatment for Lyme disease, telling Closer magazine,
03:07It's like Lazarus coming out of the grave and being born again.
03:10Before returning to touring, Christofferson began revisiting his old music to help sharpen
03:14his memory. The singer-songwriter went back on tour before officially retiring during the COVID-19
03:20pandemic. After retiring, Christofferson settled down at his home in Hawaii, where he spent his
03:25time, among other pursuits, doing yard work. He told Closer,
03:28I got a lot of lawn to mow. I want to stay right where I am,
03:31which is on an island with no neighbors and 180 degrees of empty horizon. It's a beautiful view.
03:37In the final post on Christofferson's Instagram page, his family wrote,
03:40We're all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these
03:44many years and when you see a rainbow, know he's smiling down at us all.