Less than two months after Kris Kristofferson passed away, a familiar song filled Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. By the time the performance ended, Kris Kristofferson’s wife, Lisa Meyers Kristofferson, was on her feet, applauding and blowing kisses toward the stage.
The moment happened on November 20, 2024, during the 58th Annual CMA Awards. Ashley McBryde had just performed “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” one of Kris Kristofferson’s most celebrated compositions.
But there was something about the song choice that most television viewers might not have known. For Ashley McBryde, this was not simply an opportunity to honor a country music legend. It was a return to one of the earliest musical memories Ashley McBryde shared with her father.
The Song Ashley McBryde Learned as a Little Girl
Before the ceremony, Ashley McBryde explained to Billboard that her father had taught Ashley McBryde to play “Help Me Make It Through the Night” when Ashley McBryde was still too young to hold a guitar properly.
Kris Kristofferson was her father’s favorite songwriter and one of Ashley McBryde’s greatest musical influences.
Growing up in Arkansas, Ashley McBryde encountered songs that spoke about complicated emotions with unusual honesty. Kris Kristofferson’s writing stood out because it did not always offer easy answers or tidy conclusions.
During an interview surrounding the CMA Awards, Ashley McBryde recalled being fascinated by the song’s willingness to acknowledge human vulnerability. Ashley McBryde also credited Kris Kristofferson with helping inspire her decision to become a songwriter.
Years after learning the song beside her father, Ashley McBryde was preparing to perform it before some of the biggest names in country music.
There was another emotional connection in that moment. Ashley McBryde said before the performance that Ashley McBryde hoped her father would tune in to watch.
The Surprising History of “Help Me Make It Through the Night”
The song’s journey began more than half a century earlier.
Kris Kristofferson included “Help Me Make It Through the Night” on the 1970 debut album Kristofferson, alongside compositions that would become country standards, including “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.”
Kris Kristofferson later traced part of the song’s inspiration to an interview with Frank Sinatra about finding comfort during difficult nights.
Rather than writing a conventional romantic ballad, Kris Kristofferson created something unusually direct for country music at the time: a song about loneliness, longing, and the need for companionship.
Some performers initially considered the material too provocative.
Then Sammi Smith recorded a version that changed everything.
In February 1971, Sammi Smith’s recording reached No. 1 on Billboard’s country singles chart. The recording also crossed over to the pop audience, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Sammi Smith received a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female, while Kris Kristofferson received the Grammy for Best Country Song.
Over the following decades, artists including Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and Joan Baez recorded their own interpretations.
The remarkable thing about the composition was its ability to speak to different generations without losing its original honesty.
A Quiet Performance Before Country Music’s Biggest Stars
On the evening of November 20, Ashley McBryde appeared on the CMA Awards stage dressed in denim, carrying an acoustic guitar.
There was no elaborate production surrounding the tribute. Ashley McBryde performed the song alone with the guitar while photographs of Kris Kristofferson appeared on a screen behind the stage.
The presentation placed attention on the words Kris Kristofferson had written decades earlier.
For an audience familiar with Kris Kristofferson’s work, it was a reminder of how much could be communicated through a simple melody and a carefully written lyric.
For Ashley McBryde, it was also the song that had once connected a young girl with her father’s musical world.
The Moment the Cameras Turned Toward Lisa Kristofferson
When Ashley McBryde finished the performance, television cameras showed Lisa Meyers Kristofferson in the audience.
Lisa Meyers Kristofferson stood to applaud and blew kisses toward Ashley McBryde.
It was a brief gesture, but one that gave the tribute a deeply personal ending. Kris Kristofferson had died on September 28, 2024, at the age of 88, leaving behind a songwriting legacy that had shaped American music for generations.
Now, less than two months later, one of those songs had brought Kris Kristofferson’s widow and a younger country artist together in a moment of public remembrance.
Why the Performance Still Matters
“Help Me Make It Through the Night” was never written as a farewell to Kris Kristofferson. Its original subject was human loneliness, not the passing of a songwriter.
Yet the song carried a different meaning that November evening.
A composition that became a hit through Sammi Smith, inspired Ashley McBryde during childhood, and remained part of country music for more than five decades was now being performed in honor of its creator.
And perhaps the most memorable part was not the applause from the arena.
It was the connection between three people: a father who introduced a little girl to Kris Kristofferson’s music, a daughter who carried that song onto the CMA stage, and a widow who stood to acknowledge the tribute.
More than fifty years after Kris Kristofferson wrote “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” the song was still bringing people together.