You have to be a special talent to create a genre. You have a special ear. So, when a certain musician does blend two genres and it becomes a success to this day then the musician who thought of it should be remembered. That’s where we are going today, but the aftermath of his death is equally unique as his career. This week the Beat Marches On to 21st September 1973, the day of Gram Parsons’s funeral, but that is when the story starts.
It was at former Byrds guitarist Clarence White’s funeral that Parsons told Kauffman of his plan. White had died prematurely at age 29. He was loading his touring van when a drunk driver hit him. Not digging the religious ceremony of it all, Gram turned to his friend and said to him that his former bandmate wouldn’t want this type of ceremony. He then explained his final wishes. Take him to the desert and be cremated. Little did anyone know that in two months they would have to honour those wishes.
Parsons was not your typical counter-culture rock star. Born Ingram Cecil Conner III, he came from a well-to-do family, whereas most from that community come from humble backgrounds. His grandfather, John Snivley, was one of the biggest citrus field owners in Florida and his dad owned a successful box-making factory.
Although the family was financially comfortable there was some trouble behind closed doors. Both parents were heavy drinkers, bordering on alcoholics and at age 12 Parsons’s father committed suicide. His Mother remarried a year later, and the stepfather adopted Gram and his sister Avis and took his surname. His Mother died of alcohol poisoning the day he graduated High School. There was a family rumour that his stepdad was involved, but nothing was proven. This brought tension between the two.
Post-high school Gram enrolled at Harvard for a semester but dropped out as his love for music distracted his education. He was inspired to play at age nine when he saw Elvis perform at his school, there’s even a picture of the two. While at the university Parsons started to form his first serious band, The International Submarine Band.
The band moved to New York to get a record deal; they did but the releases had got very little attention from fans. By the time ISB released their first album Parsons had left the band and went to join The Byrds. He had befriended the bass player Chris Hillman before joining and helped the band get back on their feet after half the band had quit to pursue other projects.
Gram was only in the band for about six months, but his talent shone through in that brief time as he was a lead contributor to songs on the album ‘Sweetheart on the Rodeo’ He left in protest on the eve of a tour as they were going to South Africa and he disagreed with the Apartheid rules instated at the time.
They left Parsons in England and carried on. He fell on his feet as he befriended the Rolling Stones, especially Keith Richards and stayed at his house while the guitarist plotted his next move.
He formed The Flying Burrito Brothers in 1968, shortly after The Byrds split up. Using some of the former group members, the band had a big influence on country music in America. Parsons wasn’t in the band for long though as creative differences and excesses got him fired in 1970. The two albums released with Gram were their most successful and influential.
When the Stones went into exile on the French coast, Gram decided to follow them. Richards liked to have him around as he was the only person who could keep up with him with the taking drugs. Much to the annoyance of the rest of the band, the more Parsons was around the less work Keith was willing to do. He did help them write Wild Horses, one of the biggest songs on the future album Sticky Fingers.
After outstaying his welcome with the Stones in France he travelled back to LA and formed a solo band. He started to write new material and got a record contract, however, the persistent drug abuse was still a distraction. A few band members including a new singer he found called Emmylou Harris told him he needs to shape up if he wants to go anywhere.
Taking the not-so-subtle hint, Parsons didn’t go sober but cut down on the excesses until the album was finished. Afterwards, he could go nuts, and he did. The subsequent tour which they inexplicably took by train was a disaster. Reports from people on the tour were that most of the shows were to half-empty rooms, and didn’t make any money.
Undeterred by the disastrous tour, Parsons re-entered the studio in the Summer of 1973 to record a second solo album. He kept himself under the same restraints again, cutting out the excesses until the recording sessions had finished. He would take it too far this time.
Gram Parsons loved the Joshua Tree. He would often say that the national park had cosmic entities to it. So when he would let off the leash after recording his second album, there was only one place where he wanted to go. Parsons and his entourage parked up at the Joshua Tree Inn just as a stopover initially. It would be, however, the last place the singer would ever stay.
The party started as soon as the entourage placed down their bags. Drinks, pills, powder and syringes were being passed around the place. Everyone was having a good time until they weren’t.
Margaret Fisher, Parsons’s girlfriend, who was a frequent user of heroin started to see the signs. Gram had overdosed. She told them to get some ice and meet him in the room. This wasn’t the first time she had experienced this situation.
Once the partygoers returned with the ice, Fisher quickly dropped Parson’s trousers and shoved some ice up his backside, the shock of the ice kicks the body back into action when someone does overdose. A simple technique when defibrillators were less common. The trick worked for now and they took Parsons back to his room to sleep it off.
They checked on him a while later, and they found him unresponsive and not breathing. An ambulance was called but it was too late. Aged just 26 Gram Parsons had died, officially natural causes but everyone knew the drugs played a part.
The family wanted the body flown back to New Orleans, where they were now residing, to have a burial and ceremony there. Kaufman remembered the pact at Clarence White’s funeral though and decided to honour it if he was the only one Parsons told.
Time was against him as the body was being shipped out late the next night, for the funeral the day after. Through his many connections he made throughout the music world, he managed to get a hearse, a seasoned roadie Michael Martin and his girlfriend Dale McElroy assisted by Jim (Beam) and Jack (Daniels) and they headed to LAX airport.
Kaufman somehow managed to convince the coroner that the family had a private plane waiting for the body at the Van Eyes airport, he even signed the paperwork as Gerry Nobody. Policemen helped them put the casket in the back of their borrowed hearse and once it was loaded, they drove off to Joshua Tree Park.
They made a stop at a gas station, to use the fuel to burn the body and made their way to one of the park’s trails Cap Rock, they took the casket out of the car, opened it, then poured gasoline on the body and set it alight.
The group was disturbed by some parked headlights and scattered about halfway through the body burning. By the time they got back to Los Angeles, the news had spread and reached the tabloids. The description by airport staff of the perpetrator sounded like one person: Phil Kaufman.
Kaufman handed himself in at an LA police station and they didn’t charge him for stealing a corpse. They just issued him a fine for damaging the casket. What was left of Parson’s body was recovered from Cap Rock and was sent to New Orleans for the proper burial the family wanted.
The stealing of Gram Parson’s body wasn’t the lasting legacy of him. His influence was heard throughout the rest of the 1970s, especially in one of the decade’s biggest bands, The Eagles. Parson’s merging of classic country and rock and roll propelled the genre into modern times and his music has an influence to this day.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for eight years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
The death of Gram Parsons – a story of drugs, theft, and a burning corpse | Louder (loudersound.com)
There is a documentary on YouTube about Parsons called Fallen Angel: Gram Parsons which was also used for research.
The incident was made into a film starring Johnny Knoxville, called Grand Theft Parsons
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