Several country artists recorded the song when it first became available, but it took a fellow Texan and soon-to-be-doomed ex-lover of Kris’s to make “Me and Bobby McGee” a million-selling iconic work. As a teenager, Janis Joplin had been a bright but rebellious misfit who cast herself as a beatnik. She later dropped out of the University of Texas in Austin and hitchhiked to San Francisco, where she became the lead singer of the hard-rocking Big Brother and the Holding Company. A heavy drinker and drug abuser, Joplin later offered a throat-shredding performance at 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival before headlining as a soloist at Woodstock two years later. Later, they went their separate ways, much to the profound sadness of the narrator. The result was the story of a pair of drifters: the narrator and Bobby McGee. Together they hitched a ride from a truck driver and sang “every song that driver knew” as they made their way throughout the South. Kristofferson eventually became a singer/songwriter with Monument Records, which was helmed by Fred Foster, a businessman smitten with a Nashville secretary-Barbara “Bobbi” McKee-who worked in a nearby music office. One night, Foster phoned Kris and asked him to write a song about her (but spelling her first name differently to make it gender neutral). In their discussion, Kristofferson thought Foster had said “McGee” instead of “McKee.” In his off hours, Kris created tune after tune in his quest to become a respected songwriter. It took a while, but he eventually gained acclaim by creating such now-revered classics as “For the Good Times” and “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” Behind the music… ![]() In Nashville, the college-educated Texan once swept the floors of Music City’s Columbia Recording Studio. That honor, though, has come at a high personal price. Kris Kristofferson has earned a place in the history books as one of the great American songwriters.
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