http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blo...t-plaza/129409
Good event at the Plaza Feb. 24, with Del Bryant, president of BMI, getting the Golden Mike from the Broadcasters Foundation of America.
Bob Schieffer hosted, and it was clearly more than a typical rubber chicken event for Bob, who dabbles in country music. Schieffer described himself as a "hard charging, struggling songwriter—and a member of BMI."
Del being head of BMI and all, there was plenty of music. The singer/songwriter Brenda Russell called Bryant "a wonderful human being" who treated her the same whether or not she'd had a song on the charts, before she belted out a few numbers.
Kris Kristofferson, a friend of Bryant's dating back to '67, then told the back story of his best known hit, "Me and Bobby McGee," saying how Bryant's parents, the famed Nashville songwriting duo Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, had a female secretary named Bobbi McKee who inspired the song. Kristofferson's acoustic version of the song at the event had Bobbi as a female. He improvised one chorus to go, "good enough for me—and Janis—good enough for me and Bobbi McKee."