Marcus King & Brittney Spencer Honor Kris Kristofferson With ‘Me & Bobby McGee’ Cover In Houston

Marcus King and Brittney Spencer came to the Bayou Music in Houston on Thursday. The pair paid tribute to legendary Texas-born singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson, who passed away on September 28 at the age of 88, with his timeless classic “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Guitarist Marcus King and singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer have been touring together throughout the Southeast, Midwest and Texas. Following Marcus King favorite “Wildflowers & Wine,” Spencer emerged to help the guitarist close the concert with “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Kris Kristofferson wrote “Me and Bobby McGee” after Monument Records founder Fred Foster pitched him the title.

“He called one night and said, ‘I’ve got a song title for you. It’s ‘Me and Bobby McKee,’” Kristofferson told Performing Songwriter in 2015. “I thought he said ‘McGee.’ Bobby McKee was the secretary of Boudleaux Bryant, who was in the same building with Fred. Then Fred says, ‘The hook is that Bobby McKee is a she. How does that grab you?’ (Laughs) I said, ‘Uh, I’ll try to write it, but I’ve never written a song on assignment.’ So it took me a while to think about.”

The subject matter of the song was inspired by famed Italian filmmaker Fredrico Fellini’s La Strada, specifically “a scene where Anthony Quinn is going around on this motorcycle and Giulietta Masina is the feeble-minded girl with him, playing the trombone,” Kris recalled. “He got to the point where he couldn’t put up with her anymore and left her by the side of the road while she was sleeping.”

The main character then discovers that the girl has died. “That night, Quinn goes to a bar and gets in a fight,” Kristofferson continued. “He’s drunk and ends up howling at the stars on the beach. To me, that was the feeling at the end of ‘Bobby McGee.’ The two-edged sword that freedom is. He was free when he left the girl, but it destroyed him. That’s where the line ‘Freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose’ came from.”

While “Me and Bobby McGee” was initially recorded by Roger Miller, followed by Kenny Rogers and Gordon Lightfoot, among others, it is Janis Joplin’s posthumously released 1971 recording that is the definitive version of the song.

“The first time I heard Janis Joplin’s version was right after she died,” Kris said. “Paul Rothchild, her producer, asked me to stop by his office and listen to this thing she had cut. Afterwards, I walked all over L.A., just in tears. I couldn’t listen to the song without really breaking up.”

In Joplin’s native Southeast Texas last night, Marcus King and Brittney Spencer swapped vocals on “Me and Bobby McGee,” coming together on the sing-along and Spencer channeling Janis’ soaring vocals on the coda. Watch Marcus King and Brittney Spencer honor Kris Kristofferson with “Me and Bobby McGee” below:

Elsewhere in the concert, King leaned heavily on his 2024 album Mood Swings. He performed seven of the LP’s 11 tracks including standouts “F*uck My Life Up Again,” “Delilah” and the title track. Marcus also nodded to Kristofferson’s Highwaymen bandmates and Texas legends Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson with “Good Hearted Woman.” Additionally, the guitarist also delivered a cover from the catalog of Lone Star State guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Texas Flood.”

Marcus King is set to perform at the Mempho Music Festival today (October 4) before continuing his tour with Brittney Spencer in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday. King’s Mempho set can be viewed live from Memphis at 6:45 p.m. ET/3:45 p.m. PT via nugs.net. Scroll down for King’s itinerary and ticket info.