Kris Kristofferson on Iraq and the "White House hood ornament" (Bush)

[Human Torch]

Southern Discomfort
Kris Kristofferson on Iraq, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and life as a red state outlaw
By Peter Hyman



http://www.radaronline.com/features/2006/10/post_2.php

You've always been very outspoken about politics, and this new album is no exception. On one song you refer to a "billion dollar bombing of a nation on its knees." Another asks, "Am I young enough to believe in revolution?" Are you?

Well, I think if I can ask the question, then I am. I'm shocked by where our country is compared to where we were when I grew up, during and after the second World War. We've become what Eisenhower warned against, which is a military industrial complex, where we can unilaterally attack a defenseless nation unprovoked. There are 650,000 Iraqis who have died, and we can never make it up to those people. It's a whole different place from the land of the free and the home of the brave. Even if it was working, it would be indefensible to do this to people.

Do you feel conflicted about being a Texan, given that you're so vehemently opposed to Mr. Bush, the Lone Star State's favorite son?

He's just the hood ornament. It's the machine under him that's really scary. What bothers me about all of this is that none of them ever served in the military. Do I feel a conflict? I have been booed in Texas, but I still love Texas.

You have blue state leanings, but you've spent a lot of time in red state territory. How do you reconcile those two parts of your persona?

Well, I've pissed people off in both of them, so I don't know. In the red states, I'm getting booed less these days, so maybe people are actually being transformed by what's going on. It takes a real blind mentality not to see how we are acting.

[displacedtexan]

1. "Hood Ornament!"

Priceless!

Thanks for posting this, HT!

[silverweb]

2. Great interview!

I don't much care for country music or cowboy movies, but I really do love both Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson as human beings.

This was a great interview and the "hood ornament" crack about Bush was just perfect. The machine under the hood scares me, too, Kris.

I'm delighted to know that Fast Food Nation is going to be a movie and that Kristofferson will be in it!