Kris Kristofferson has always been open about overcoming his struggle with substance abuse.
The country music legend and actor – who died at his home in Maui at the age of 88 on Saturday, September 28 – was often open about his hard-partying days as a road musician and actor in Hollywood. In a 1998 interview with PEOPLE, Kristofferson detailed how his family and desire to be with his loved ones finally motivated him to quit drinking.
“I thought all serious artists were self-destructive. That anyone worth their salt would live on the edge,” he said at the time, referring to his heavy drinking habits in the late 1960s and early 1970s – around when began a relationship with his contemporary Janis Joplin.
“I don’t know what you call a love relationship, but we were very close,” he said of the couple’s relationship. “I liked her sense of humor. I was drinking a lot then… And she was trying to kick [heroin].”
Soon after, Joplin succumbed to addiction problems, dying in October 1970 at the age of 27.
Kris Kristofferson 1996.
Paul Natkin/Getty
Kris Kristofferson suffers from memory loss but still remembers the lyrics
“It tore me up,” Kristofferson recalled of Joplin’s death, but said it still wasn’t enough to convince him to stop drinking. “I was an active alcoholic,” he told PEOPLE.
“For a couple of years it was Jack Daniels, then tequila, then it was anything,” he continued. – While I was performing, I couldn’t imagine getting up and doing it without drinking.
What really started his journey to sobriety was a role in the 1976 remake of the film. A star is bornin which he starred alongside Barbra Streisand. According to the actor, seeing his own death scene in the film, which featured a character struggling with drinking, made him change.
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“I had a pint of Jose Cuervo in my cooler that they never let empty,” Kristofferson said, recalling the on-set environment before seeing footage of his character’s death scene. “I remember feeling that it could very well be my wife and children crying for me. I stopped drinking because of that. I didn’t want to die before my daughter grew up.”
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Kris Kristofferson 2017.
Rick Diamond/Getty
Not long after the musician got sober, he met his wife Lisa Meyers in 1982. The couple had five children together, and Kristofferson also had three children from previous marriages.
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Reflecting on his peaceful family life and home in Hawaii in 1998, Kristofferson told PEOPLE, “I never could have imagined this. I’m sitting here thinking how it could have turned out so differently. I never thought I’d live past 30. I could end up dead.”
A representative for the star confirmed that he was surrounded by family when he died on Saturday.
“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on September 28 at home,” his family said in a statement shared with PEOPLE.
“We are all so blessed to have spent time with him,” the statement continued. “Thank you for loving him all these years, and when you see the rainbow, know that he’s smiling down on us all.”
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Source: HIS Education