Kris Kristofferson at the Record Plant
April 22, 1973 — KSAN Broadcast, Record Plant Sausalito
By Tom Proctor
On April 22, 1973, KSAN broadcast Kris Kristofferson from the Record Plant in Sausalito. Tom Donahue introduced the set, in the loose all-star style he favored. Kristofferson arrived at the absolute peak of his songwriting fame. His songs were playing everywhere on the radio that spring.
Janis Joplin had taken 'Me and Bobby McGee' to No. 1 after her death. Ray Price had scored a hit with 'For the Good Times.' 'Help Me Make It Through the Night' won Country Song of the Year. His album 'Jesus Was a Capricorn' produced 'Why Me,' his only No. 1 solo single. That single climbed to gold by November of that year.
That same April, Pomona College gave him an honorary doctorate. Johnny Cash and Rita Coolidge stood beside him at the ceremony. Coolidge, whom he married later that year, guested at the Record Plant. Doug Sahm joined them, deepening the loose, all-star feel of the day. Their first album together, 'Full Moon,' hit No. 1 country that November.
The broadcast lands him in a remarkable concentration of talent. The same KSAN day carried Nick Gravenites, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, and Mark Naftalin. Donahue had gathered the Chicago blues diaspora and a Nashville-bred songwriter in one room. Kristofferson sat at the commercial edge of it, a crossover star among bluesmen. The set captures him before the film career pulled him away from music.
A turn toward film was already only a month away. 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid' arrived in May 1973, with a Bob Dylan score. Kristofferson took a lead role, and Hollywood claimed much of his next decade. He kept writing and acting for another five decades after this set. He died September 28, 2024, at 88, a songwriter first to the end.