“I sing like a frog and my writing-well has dried up. You need to drop me,” a young Kris Kristofferson said to his promoter-producer Fred Foster. Kris was spending two weeks in Nashville promoting himself, and two weeks making money in Florida helicopter flying oil-workers to the derricks.
Fred often visited another promoter's office because of a pretty secretary named Barbara McKee. The promotor told Fred, “You don’t come here to see me. You come here to see ‘Bobbie’.”
“Oh,’ Fred joked. “Haven’t you heard about me and Bobbie McKee?” Fred called Kris and said, “I’ve got a song title for you. ‘Me and Bobbie McKee’.” Kris thought he said ‘McGee. Then Fred said, “Bobby is a she.” Kris said he’d think about it.
In Florida, Kris tried to make his way back to Nashville during a violent storm. ‘Busted flat in Baton Rouge … just before it rained … windshield wipers slapping time … we sang all the songs that daddy knew.’ That's when Kris wrote the song.
Returning to Nashville, Kris sang it for Fred who flipped over it. Kris recorded a demo and Fred played it for Bobbie. She said, “When my husband hears this, he’ll think I had an affair with either you or Kris.”
“If that costs you your marriage," Fred said, "then you don’t have a marriage.”
“I know,” Bobbie replied. They did divorce. Her husband’s name was also Bobby and, when Janis Joplin made it a hit, he told everyone the song was written about him.
Kris heard that Janis sang his song at a concert, so he met her and moved into her house. “I loved Janis. Loved being around her,” Kris said. “I didn’t know she had cut the record. The day after she died, her manager called me to his office to hear it. I couldn’t finish it. I left and went walking. It’s ironic, because it was a terrible loss for me and the biggest shot of fame for me.”
Fred Foster, at age 85, produced a Ray Price tribute album for Willie Nelson. He said. "I think I'm probably a better producer today than I have ever been."
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