Gram Parsons

Ingram Cecil Connor III (Gram Parsons) was born November 5th, 1946 in Winter Haven, Florida. He is often credited with being the world's first Country/Rock star. While not inventing the cross-over genre, Parsons was perhaps the first country musician to 'act' like a rock star. He was friends with the Rolling Stones, particularly Keith Richards and shared some of Keith's passion for excessive drinking and drugs. During the 1970's Parsons' efforts to blur the line between Country music and Rock & Roll was a key influence on many bands such as The Byrds, The Eagles, and the Rolling Stones; his inspiration may also be heard in many alt-country bands such as Son Volt, The Jayhawks, and Wilco. Wary of labels, Parsons was satisfied to describe his own records merely as "Cosmic American Music".

Starting his career as a folk singer in Massachusetts coffee houses, a meeting with like-minded musicians saw him for the International Submarine Band in 1966, and rekindle his interest in country music, who relocated to Los Angeles the following year, and to record an album (1967's Safe At Home). By 1968, Parsons had come to the attention of The Byrds who, depleted by the firing of David Crosby, were seeking new members. Under the influence of Gram and original member Roger McGuinn, the Byrds embraced country music wholeheartedly on their Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album (1968), which included several of Parsons' songs, including the evocative "Hickory Wind". During their subsequent tour, however, Parsons left the band, after refusing to play in apartheid South Africa, and spent the remainder of the tour building his friendship with Jagger and Richards.

In 1971 Parsons heard Emmylou Harris sing in a small club in Washington D.C. He asked her to join him in Los Angeles to record his first solo album "GP" and she later joined his band "Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels".

Gram Parsons died September 19th, 1973 in Joshua Tree, California at the age of 26 from a concoction of drugs. In a story that has taken on legendary stature Parsons' body was stolen from the Los Angeles International Airport, where it was being readied to be shipped to Louisiana for burial, by his road manager Phil Kaufman. Kaufman had heard a story that Gram had not wanted to be buried when he died, but instead would rather be taken out to Joshua Tree and burned. Kaufman and a friend managed to steal Parson's body from LAX and in a borrowed hearse drove Parsons' body to Joshua Tree where they cremated it.

For more info on Gram Parsons see: http://www.gramparsons.com/
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