Kris Kristofferson remembered thinking there was no way he would get up in front of a church full of strangers. Yet the experience that followed would lead him to write “Why Me,” a song rooted in a moment he had never expected to have.
It began with an invitation from Connie Smith. They had performed at a benefit the night before, and Smith asked him to attend church with her the next day. In a 2007 CMT interview, Kristofferson recalled that it had been years since his last church visit. He agreed to go.
At the church led by Jimmie Rodgers Snow, Larry Gatlin sang “Help Me.” Kristofferson said the performance moved him. Then Snow invited people to respond during the service. Kristofferson remembered his hand going up almost without his deciding to raise it. When the invitation came to walk forward, he initially thought he could never do that before so many unfamiliar people.
But he got out of his seat.
The Answer He Actually Gave
Recounting the encounter to CMT, Kristofferson remembered Snow asking, “Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ as your savior?” His answer was brief: “I don’t know.” Snow then told him to kneel.
Kristofferson could not recall every word spoken during the exchange. What stayed with him was the crying and an overwhelming feeling of relief. He described it as though a heavy burden had been removed from his shoulders. At the time, he was too absorbed in what was happening to feel embarrassed; that feeling came afterward, when he considered how unfamiliar the experience had been.
From That Morning to the Recording
In Ken Burns’s documentary Country Music, Kristofferson again recalled kneeling and weeping. The documentary places the writing of “Why Me” that night. Describing the songwriting to CMT, he said it felt as though he was “just holding a pen.”
Gatlin’s part in the story continued beyond the church service. The singer whose performance had moved Kristofferson that morning also sang harmony on his recording of “Why Me.”