Kristofferson leaned into the outlaw identity in the 1970s, and in the process, helped Willie Nelson build Austin as an outpost for country musicians.

Kris Kristofferson, a country music legend and actor, has died. His family told The Associated Press Sunday that he died at his home in Hawaii on Saturday. He was 88. No cause was given. Kristofferson had a decades-long career in music, from which he quietly retired in 2020.

There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Willie Nelson, bandmate alongside Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in The Highwaymen, said in 2009.