Songwriter. Singer. Actor. Rhodes scholar. Country-music icon. Kris Kristofferson may be the ultimate Renaissance man — and perhaps the coolest dude on the planet. Tonight, the 70-year-old outlaw receives the Johnny Cash Visionary Award at the 2007 CMT Music Awards (starting at 8 pm/ET), which honors country-music videos and features performances by everyone from Kenny Chesney to Carrie Underwood. We spoke with Kristofferson about his storied career. (Also check out our recent Q&As with CMT Music Award nominees
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Question: What is a spaghetti Western? And how does it differ from a regular Western?
Answer: The short answer is that spaghetti Westerns are Italian productions set in the American West. The longer answer involves a confluence of historical, economic and cultural forces. The popular reimagining of the American West began as the West was still being won, with pulp novels, Wild West shows and touring theater productions. Movies were the next logical step in the process, and their formative years followed so closely on the heels of the conquest of the frontier that real-life legend Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) lived long enough to act as an advisor on early Westerns. American Westerns ranged from simple adventure fables aimed at children to more psychologically and socioeconomically sophisticated stories. But by the early '60s, after more than 40 years of movies and TV shows, American Westerns were running out of steam. European
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