It was Kristofferson's first full-length solo album since 1981's To the Bone, although the singer did collaborate with other artists in the meantime, most notably on Highwayman with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.

In the early 1980s his political activities – which also included appearing in concert for UNICEF and stridently protesting U.S. policy in Central America – overshadowed his music, like at the 1981 Grammy Awards show press conference, when the former army captain, without so much as a cue or a provocation, issued his first loud condemnation of U.S. involvement in Central America by blurting out "Let's get the hell out of El Salvador," as the paparazzi and fellow actors looked on.

[3] It is unsurprising, then, that such geopolitical concerns would find their way into his songwriting, with Streissguth noting: In 1986, his album Repossessed, his first for Mercury Records, took aim at the sitting president as well as his policies on El Salvador.

[2] "Shipwrecked in the Eighties" became Kristofferson's show opener and was partly inspired by a chance meeting with a Vietnam vet, although it also reflected the mess the singer's career had been reduced to in the early years of the decade.

Repossessed contains some sentimental moments, such as "The Heart," a song of praise and affection for Kristofferson's father[2] that was covered by Lacy J. Dalton on the album Survivor in 1987, and the closing track, "Love Is the Way," a paean for peace that was accompanied by a mawkish music video with picturesque landscapes and waterfalls, two newborn babies (one black, one white), toddlers, and puppies.

"Mean Old Man" features rock and roll legend Carl Perkins on guitar, and the song would serve as the title track for Jerry Lee Lewis's 2009 release.