KRIS KRISTOFFERSON - KRISTOFFERSON TO BE HONOURED WITH CASH ACCOLADE

Singer/songwriter KRIS KRISTOFFERSON is to be honoured with the Johnny Cash Visionary Award by Country Music Television (CMT) next month (APR07). The star will be presented with the accolade by the late musician's daughter ROSANNE CASH at a ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee on 16 April. He says, "John was my hero before he was my friend, and anything with his name on it is really an honour in my eyes. "I was thinking back to when I first met him, and if I ever thought that I'd be getting an award with his name on it, it would have carried me through a lot of hard times." Cash's daughter Rosanne has praised Kristofferson for being the "living artistic link" to her father - the pair played together alongside WILLIE NELSON and WAYLON JENNINGS in country supergroup THE HIGHWAYMEN. She says, "I love Kris fiercely, not just because he and my father are cut from the same spiritual cloth, and because he is the living artistic link to my dad, but because he is my ideal as a songwriter and a human being. "He and my dad were closer than brothers. They loved each other early, and it is so fitting that he receive this award named after dad." Previous winners of the award include Cash, HANK WILLIAMS JR and LORETTA LYNN.