As country music fans know, there is a legendary story about how a janitor at Columbia Records got one of the biggest country singers of all time to record a song he wrote. The janitor was Kris Kristofferson, the country star was Johnny Cash, and the song was “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.”
While this song is now ranked as one of the best country songs of all time, it took a lot of effort to get Cash to even listen to it.
On the show Drunk History, people get – well – drunk, and describe some of the most iconic stories in history. Along with the storytelling, the show also recreates the story, sometimes acted out by well-known actors.
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This particular story was about how Kristofferson got Cash, played by Dukes of Hazzard star Johnny Knoxville, to record his song.
The “drunk” story begins at Columbia Records, where Kristofferson is a janitor. He receives a letter from his mother saying she disapproves of him looking up to Johnny Cash, that he will never be a songwriter, and that the family is disowning him.
Cash and Kristofferson bond over their non-approving parents and it convinces the latter to quit his job to pursue “an artist’s life.” Broke and down on his luck, Kristofferson then tries to go to a bar, but it was closed because it was a Sunday. He knew it was a song Cash needed to hear, so he landed a helicopter on his front lawn to have him listen to it.
“He really listened to the song, and the song went to the next level for Johnny. Because he understood it. He understood the isolation and the loneliness and wishin’, Lord, that he was stoned,” the drunk historian said.
The next moment proved just how drunk this historian was while telling this story! Some of these events may or may not have actually happened, but there is one thing we do know – the video is hilarious! Watch the Drunk History skit about the writing of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” below.