Kris Kristofferson, a renowned singer-songwriter, actor and activist, died at his home in Hawaii on September 28 at the age of 88. Radio Heartland’s Mike Pengra recently shared his recollection that Kristofferson had once been a guest on MPR News during a live broadcast from the Minnesota State Fair. Thanks to the MPR Archive, we were able to locate that audio. Listen to an excerpt using the audio player above. Here’s the story behind it:

As the summer of 1991 drew to a close, the Minnesota State Fair kicked off on August 22. One of the new presences at the State Fair that year was the MPR booth, which appeared near the corner of Judson and Nelson. Along with the new booth came MPR’s first opportunities to broadcast live from the fair.

On Thursday, Aug. 29, MPR News host Paula Schroeder welcomed guests David Tilsen, Winona LaDuke and Kris Kristofferson to the MPR booth to talk about an upcoming event, the Two Rivers Cultural Explosion, which brought together environmental and Indigenous groups to explore issues of treaty rights and environmental exploitation, along with a celebration of Indigenous dance and music. The event also featured performances by a bill of artists that included Kristofferson. 

Radio Heartland’s Mike Pengra, then a new producer at MPR, was tasked with escorting Kristofferson from the State Fair office to the MPR booth. Kristofferson, in a sleeveless T-shirt, carried his guitar case as he walked alongside Pengra through the fairgrounds. “People were looking at us, like, ‘Is that Kris Kristofferson?’” Pengra recalls. “I just nodded back, Yes!”

Kristofferson was already well known as an activist on issues of the environment and human rights. When Schroeder asked Kristofferson for his thoughts on Indigenous people’s connection to the environment, he replied, “It's natural that the Native Americans would be identified with care of the planet, as they were able to live in harmony with their environment since the beginning — at least for 20,000 years on this planet — and took a lot better care of the world than we have in the last 500 years.”

Later in the interview, Schroeder pointed out that Kristofferson had experienced various highs and lows during the course of his career, and asked how his life was going by August 1991. “Well, I'm a lot more sober than I was 20 years ago,” Kristofferson acknowledged, “which has … I guess it's resulted in me being a little more focused in whatever activist work that I do.

“So right now,” Kristofferson continued, “I feel like my life's pretty well integrated. I get to support the things that I believe in with the thing that I love to do, which is my music, and I just hope to do it better and more.”

During his visit to the MPR booth, Kristofferson performed two songs, “Johnny Lobo” and “Love Is The Way.” Hear those performances, along with short clips from the interview with Paula Schroeder, using the audio player above. 

Audio courtesy the MPR archive.