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here's a playlist of the three videos of this interview
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This is the second part of a great interview. Kris singing Vietnam Blues, talking about first success, Roger Miller and Bobby McGee; why For the good times was groundbreaking and why he didn't change that line in Sunday Morning coming down to get it played on the radio stations; about Johnny Cash and his show and Kris's first performances as a singer...

Kris about Vietnam Blues, " I'm not embarrassed about that song... but ...my own feelings about Vietnam turned 180 degrees. But I still felt, at the time, that all my friends were over there. And it wasn't their fault that they were over there. But I come to believe that it was a tremendous mistake for our government to be over there and that the things that we were doing were inhuman."

Vietnam Blues
(Kris was still in the army in Germany when he wrote that song in probably 1965)

I was on leave at the time, just duckin' the fog,
nosin' around like a hungry dog
in that crazy place called Washington, D.C.

I saw a crowd of people on the White House lawn
all carrying signs about Vietnam,
so I went on over to see what I could see.

They was a strange-looking bunch.
But I never did understand civilians.

A fellow came to me with a list in his hand.
He said, "We're gatherin' names to send a telegram of sympathy."
Then he handed me a pen.
I said, "I reckon this is goin' to the children and wives
of my friends over there who've given their lives."
He says, "Uh-uh, buddy, this is goin' to Ho Chi Minh."
I said, "Ho Chi who?"
He said, "Ho Chi Minh, People's Leader, North Vietnam."

Well, I wasn't real sure I was hearin' him right.
But I thought we'd better remove before we got in a fight
because my eyes were smartin', and my pulse started hitting a lick.

I thought about another telegram I'd read
tellin' my buddy's wife that her husband was dead.
It wasn't too long till I was feelin' downright sick.

Another held the signs that said 'We won't fight.'
And I thought to myself, 'You got that right.
You'd rather let a soldier die instead.'

I said, "You ever stop to think
that every man who died there in that far-off land
was dyin' so that you won't wake up dead?"

Of course, he looked at me like I was crazy,
just another warmonger.

Well, I left that place and went to town
and hit the first bar that I found to cool myself and pacify my brain.

See, I was on orders back to Vietnam, to a little place just north of Saigon,
and I had about an hour to catch my plane.

So, all I mean to say is, 'I don't like dyin' either.
But I care about the way I live.'

transcript of the interview
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