Kristofferson (Maybe) Took On One of Country's Biggest Stars

You don't mess with Kris Kristofferson, or at least you don't according to actor Ethan Hawke. In a Rolling Stone article written by Hawke, who is a big fan of the songwriter, he talks about a 2003 confrontation between Kristofferson and an unnamed country star. The assumption has been that the star in question was Toby Keith as Hawke said "at that moment in time ... had a monster radio hit about bombing America's enemies back into the Stone Age."

The unnamed singer supposedly said "None of that lefty shit out there tonight, Kris."

Kristofferson took immediate offense and responded "What the f**k did you just say to me? You ever worn your country's uniform?"

When the response from the unnamed singer was "What?" Kristofferson (who was in the Army) said, "Don't 'what' me, boy! You heard the question. You just don't like the answer. I asked, Have you ever served your country? The answer is, no, you have not. Have you ever killed another man? Huh? Have you ever taken another man's life and then cashed the check your country gave you for doing it? No, you have not. So shut the f**k up!"

On Friday, Keith appeared on CMT's Insider and responded to the story, saying it was fiction. "I don't have to defend myself on this. This is 100 percent fiction. And I'd bet a million dollars on a lie detector test that this didn't happen. So whoever he's talking about that he left nameless, there was a reason he left them nameless. He was insinuating me, which means he left it nameless because he doesn't want to deal with that."

We're guessing this isn't over.