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Gram Parsons: A Stolen Body, Heroin, More Rolling Stones and Cosmic American Music · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons are insane. He died at just twenty six
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: years old. His body was stolen, unceremoniously disposed of, and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the story became the stuff of instant rock and roll legend.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons was a prodigious junkie, drunk and creative confidant
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. He was scarred by grief,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: wore his deep emotional pain on his sleeve and channeled
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: at as best he could through the music he grew
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: up on the music of the American South country, soul,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: blues and R and B. In the process, Graham Parsons
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: invented a new genre of music, all country and unknowingly
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: inspired a future generation Grandma's with the Stones at Altamont
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and at Elcot for the making of Exile on Main
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Street and Somehow I Stall the Chaos and drug use
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: with his bands The International Submarine Band, The Birds and
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Flying Burrito Brothers, and then later as a solo artist.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons made great music. And that music I played
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: for you at the top of the show that wasn't
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: great music. That was a preset loop from my melotron
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: called the Lost Gourd MK one. I played you that
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: loop because I can't afford the rights to Delta Dawn
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: by Helen Ready. And why would I play you that
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: specific slice of recycled rockabilly cheese? Could I afford it?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: September nineteenth, nineteen seventy three, and that was the day
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons died, setting off one of the most enduring
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: rock and roll legends of all time, the stealing of
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Graham parsons body. On this episode a reservoir of grief,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: cosmic American music, disappearing dead bodies and Graham Parsons.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: And this is disgrace, lamd.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I can shoot him if that's what you want. The
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: handler for the Rolling Stones management didn't want Phil Kaufman
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to shoot anyone on behalf of his clients. No, you
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: don't have to shoot him. In fact, please don't do that,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: just run them off. The handler was concerned with Hollywood's
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: predatory drug dealers. The Stones were in town to mix
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: their latest long player, Beggars Banquet, and the last thing
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: they needed was more drug trouble with the authorities. It
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: was nineteen sixty eight, only a year removed from the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stones. If Miss Bust sent the appeal and release
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: in London for drug possession, the whole affair was an
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: utter fiasco and in the States, the Rolling Stones needed
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: to completely avoid any such trouble if they were to
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: continue as a working band, and that's why Phil Kaufman
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: was brought in.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Someone from Bob.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Dylan's camp recommended him, or perhaps someone from the band
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: as in the band Dylan's backing band from Canada, Robbie
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Robertson Leavon Helm those dudes, Kaufman had done a turn
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: road managing them and things worked out okay, so he
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: was recommended to do the same for The Stones here
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: in la not necessarily roague work as the band would
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: be local, but more accurately babysitting the band, or as
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: mc jagger put it, Kaufman was an executive nanny. He
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: took care of things for rock stars, which, in the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: nascent years of the music industry was, as it very
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: much still is, a unique skill set.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Phil Kaufman was much more than a road manager.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: He was uniquely capable of getting whatever needed done done. Okay,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: but if I run them off and they come back,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to shoot him. The stones lack. He
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: could see that this conversation was going nowhere. It was
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: like arguing with a drunk person, an impossible task. Fine,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: he thought, yes, you can shoot them if they come back.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: The dealers would have to be suicidal not to take
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Kaufman's warning on the first go round, anyhow, and if
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: indeed they were shot, then that would be their own
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: damn fault. Phil Kaufman's command was hard not to heat.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: He was an intimidating figure, not necessarily tall, but big,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: built like a brick shithouse. He wasn't going anywhere if
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to move, and likewise, if he wanted
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: you gone, he'd.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Best take it on the arches.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Phil dressed in the requisite rock and roll biker garb
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: of the day, well worn leather, greasy dnim T shirts,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: big brando engineer boots, massive belt buckle, and he carried
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: with him an R that basically said one thing, very clearly,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: don't fuck with me. The air around him gave way
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: to his natural punk one of motor oil heavy pommade
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: unfiltered cigarettes and domestic beer. His friends called him the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Mangler and the Mangler. Phil Kaufman was every bit the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: outlaw his image projected him to be. Back in sixty seven,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: he caught a drug charge and took a state sponsored
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: vacation at Terminal Island Prison.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: In jail, he.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Took to a little dude who played the guitar. His
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: name was Charlie. Charlie was a trip. He actually liked Jie.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Phil never understood that. Charlie said it afforded him the
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: time he needed to practice his guitar playing, which he
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: did often but never seemed to progress at. Phil encouraged him.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Despite Charlie's awful playing. Phil thought his voice was pretty
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: good and his ideas his words. Those lyrics were wild,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: just like Charlie's sense of humor, except Phil could never
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: really be sure when Charlie was joking or not. The
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: guards told Charlie if he didn't stop banging on that
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: guitar the shit out of them that they'd never let
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: him get out of there, and Charlie responded with get
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: out of where. When Phil got out, he told Charlie
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: he'd take care of him when his stint was up,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: told him he had some music industry connections he could
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: introduce Charlie to. Phil moved into a home in Hollywood
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: up on Waverley with some friends of friends ex cons
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: turned on head types. When Charlie later got out, Phil
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: arranged for one of his housemates to pick Charlie up
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: from Terminal Island and to bring him back to the house,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: set him up, give him a place to stay, and
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Charlie showed up at the house Tony. In comparison to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the institutional life he'd grown up in, he'd never forget
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: the address three two six seven Waverley Drive, just down
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the road a piece from three three zero one Waverley Drive,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: where in just a few years death to Pigs would
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: be scrawled on the wall, and the blood of the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: homes owners Lino and Rosemary LaBianca. That's when everybody would
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: start to get an idea of who this Charlie cat
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: really was. Phil stayed in Charlie's caras for a bit
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: after he first got out, moving into where Charlie was
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: staying in Tapanga after things went south with his roommates.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: By that time, Charlie had put together a short string
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: of girls and was running them out into Hollywood during
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the day to scam up bread, food and drugs from
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Square John's who wanted in on that dirty hippie sex vibe.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Phil loved it. Later, when Phil, along with the rest
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: of America, watched Charlie manson so called family parade across
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: television screens on trial for the Tate LaBianca murders, Phil
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: would remark, I had sex with every one of those murdererses.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: But back to our story, Phil Coffin didn't have murder
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: on the mind or even sex. He had the Rolling
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Stones to occupy his brain, and specifically the conundrum of
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: how to show these rock stars a good time around
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: town while keeping them away from the kinds of trouble
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: that sometimes came with the type of good times rock
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: stars craved. Lucky for Phil Richards had made up his
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: mind for a lot of them.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: They were going to see.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Chuck Berry, who was playing that night at the Whiskey.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: At Go Go, Chuck played his band Sucked three kids
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in a makeshift pickup band, too terrified to keep up
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: with the changes, and they.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Were cheap and it showed.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Keith and Mick wanted to meet Chuck and convinced him
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: to come on the road with them and open up
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: their shows. Chuck blew them off, they bounced. Keith directed
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the entourage out to the Corral. A divy little cowboy
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: joined him to Panga to see a friend of his
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: performed the country and western songs he and Mick had
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: become obsessed with as a late Keith's Friend's name was
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons. Phil Coffin would of course meet Graham that
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: night for the first time, and neither of their lives
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: would ever be the same. The piano swung mid tempo,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: totally infectious in that honky Tonk kind of way. The
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Flying Burrito Brothers were in their element. Small crowd blitzed
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: on wild turkey and acid and whatever else was going
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: around the Canyon and found its way into the bar
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: that night with the Corral and Graham Parsons was feeling
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: himself on stage.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: He was in that sweet spot.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Between buzzed and obliterated when the heroin Jones hadn't quite
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: kicked in, the alcohol hadn't completely taken over, and the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: pills weren't yet working the way the good doctor had intended,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and Graham was inspired his famous friend Keith Richards was
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: in the crowd. Keith loved Graham, and Graham loved Keith,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: and Mick Jagger hated them both for it, but he
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: was too cool to show it, so he played along. Sure, Graham,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: you can hang out and sing your country songs and
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: shoot your heroin, but you'll never be a rolling stone.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons knew about being lonesome, and Mick Jagger could
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: give a fuck. Keith thought Graham was some sort of
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: cosmic poet who'd mainlined the best that his native South
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: had to offer. Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: somehow had a bead on cracking the code, the code
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: that they were all trying to crack, the one that
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: took traditional American music, country, blue soul and R and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: B and re fashioned it into something modern and previously unheard,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: a new kind of rock and roll. Graham was onto something,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Keith thought, and whatever it was, Mick knew that he
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and Keith were also chasing it down and were hot
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: on its heels as well, but as of yet still
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: hadn't quite captured it. Not on beggars anyway. Maybe on
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the next go round or the next in the meantime,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: whatever it was, maybe Graham Parsons would inadvertently help the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Stones find it, lead them around the right creative corner.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Or just as likely, Mick thought, maybe Graham Parsons would
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: just lead Richard straight down a heroin hell hole. Graham
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: was a prodigious drug addict and a bad drunk. Unlike
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Macon Keith, Graham couldn't handle his drugs. It was downright embarrassing.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: He was a slob, and despite his soft spokenness, when
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: wasted alout, he came on to women hard slobberd drooled,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: passed out and had to be taken care of. He
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: was a liability, and at the time the Rolling Stones
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: didn't need.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Any more liabilities.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: But the music Graham Parsons played and sang came from
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: an authentic place.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Having grown up.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: In Waycross, Georgia, Graham was steeped in the exact type
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: of traditional American music that had utterly captivated the Rolling
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Stones and rock and Rolls second generation of artists, the Beatles,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Eric Clapton, led Zeppelin and Moore. There was something about
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: that music and where it came from, where Graham came from,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that was endlessly compelling. That music was class music.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: Lower class music and its originators, the old blues and
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: country singers, knew pain and misery, and the music they
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: created was forged through that hardship. Graham came up in
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: that same area of the country, the South Georgia, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: though he was white and raised in a wealthy family,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: he knew of deep, deep hardship losing kind. When he
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: was twelve years old, his father took his own life
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: on December twenty third, nineteen fifty eight, ruined Christmas forever
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: for Graham when he raised the thirty eight revolver.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: To his temple and pulled the trigger. And on the
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: day of Graham's high school graduation, his mother died of
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: cirrhosis of the liver.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Having drank herself to death. Eighteen years old.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: With two dead parents, the grief from his father's suicide
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: was unprocessed. The trauma from his mother's death calcified Graham's
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: grief into a state of ever present pain. Alternately, throughout
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the rest of his short life, he would use music
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and drugs to run the grief down. Sometimes the results
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: were undeniably great, as they were with the output from
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: his first group, the International Submarine Band that he put
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: together during his brief time attending Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and later when lending his country singing and songwriting talents
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: to the very well established American folk rock group The
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Birds on their.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, an.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Album that did as much for seventy's mainstream rock and
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: roll as any other critically acclaimed or commercially received album
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: before Since its release Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline included, to.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Say nothing of what the album did for another generation
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: of alternate rockers three decades later. But whatever creative strides
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons made, they were consistently marred by the inconsistency
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and output that his drug use created. Unlike making Keith, who,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: despite whatever drugs or drink they were on, never lost
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: sight of the goal to make great, earth shattering, culture
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: defining rock and roll, Graham would let the booze, the heroine,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the pills, the acid eat them up and completely derail
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: whatever progress his music had made for him in his career.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: But still undisciplined lout that he sometimes was, he was
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: mostly a sweetheart and to everyone not named Nick Jagger,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: fun to be around. Phil Kaufman took to him instantly.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Later that night, after the Flying Burrito Brother's gig at
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the Corral, Graham, his band Phil, Keith, Mick, and the
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: rest of their entourage made it back to the home
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: the Stones were renting in the Hollywood Hills. It was late,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Keith had disappeared and so at Mick, and the party
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: was dying down. Graham was out back with the writer
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Stanley Booth, who was traveling with the Stones. He too,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: was from Waycross, Georgia, where Graham had grown up. Such
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: was the cosmic thrust of rock and roll. Two Waycross boys,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: relatively the same age, who'd grown up breathing the same air,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: but who'd never met, thrust together and missed ascending British stars,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: some three thousand mi isles from home, under Hollywood's Vampire Moon,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: sharing a joint and looking out over the glittery sunset strip.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Phil stood near, quietly sipping the Schlitz and listening to
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the two Southern boys talk. Look at it man, Graham said.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: They call it America, they call it civilization, they call
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: it television. They believe in it and salute it and
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: sing songs to it, and eat and sleep and die
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: still believing in it and I don't know. Graham paused
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and pulled again from the joint before continuing, and then man,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: sometimes the Mets come along and win the world series.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Phil Kaufman would learn this was just like Graham poetic
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: in one moment, approaching greatness and then devolving into nonsense.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons needed help, and Phil Kaufman was just the
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: guy to give it to him.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this. We were were.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons would continue on as Keith Richard's own personal
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: junkie pilot fish over the course of the next few years,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: by Keith's side during pivotal moments in the trajectory of
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the Rolling Stones at Altamont and later on the French
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Riviera a Keith's place during the recording of the Stone's
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: masterpiece Exile on Main Street, all the time angling to
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: benefit somehow from the glare of Rolling Stones stardom, perhaps
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: as an artist on the newly formed record label by
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the Rolling Stones, or cooler still, perhaps even joining the
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stones. Despite Graham parsons immense talent as a songwriter,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: when it came down to it, dude was a straight
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: up starfucker he'd been kicked out of the Flying Burrito
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Brothers over his drug use and the fact that to
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: his bandmates he seemed more interested in the Stones than
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: he was in his own band. But being without a
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: job didn't phaze Graham. He had a thirty thousand dollars
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: a year trust fund, which in twenty twenty dollars worked
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: out to roughly be about two hundred grand a year.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Graham could afford to get wasted, putts around on stage
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: and puke into the mic, or alternately chase the Rolling
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Stones around America or the South of France. His bandmates couldn't,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: so Graham was out on his own, and despite whatever
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: promises to Graham Parson said, Keith Richards mayor made out
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: of made Keith was a hard man to pin down.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Graham tried catching the creative wave burbling up from the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: basement of Keith Snellcott mansion during the Stone's exile sessions,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: but the Stones.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Shut him out, perhaps.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Because Graham was a mess shooting Corsican heroin, drinking heavily,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and generally unable to keep up with the supernova creative
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: energy and shambalic focus of Keith and the rest of
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the Stones.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Graham played it cool.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: He'd grabbed time with Keith when he could, and when
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: he couldn't, he keep working on his own songs. In
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: those rare Lucie moments at villain Elcott, when not totally
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: high on smack or fall down drunk, Graham would keep
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: his demons down by working on songs for his next
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: musical project, a solo album. Graham wanted to do things
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: his way and do them unencumbered by the creative restrictions
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: of bandmates. He had a vision, a vision of America
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: through the lens of his own cosmic experiences and aspirations
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: cosmic American music, and he would bring it to life
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: through a unique and unprecedented melding of the American country
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: sold in gospel music he'd grown up in the South,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: listening to all expressed through the prism of pain he'd
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: been enduring since his father's suicide in his mother's death,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: he kept writing, but even songwriting at its hang ups.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: No matter how he cut it, Graham kept running head
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: first into his unprocessed grief. It reared its beastly head constantly,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: making songwriting especially painful. So when Graham couldn't write, he'd
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: shoot Heroin, and when he couldn't shoot Heroin, he'd write
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: life was one long race to outrun the beast raging inside,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: daring him to look around the corner of his consciousness
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to confront the pain. For Graham Parsons, there was no peace.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Graham buoyed back and forth between complete and debriation and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: half assed attempts at songwriting, all while marveling at the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: work ethic of Keith Richards and his bandmates, who, no
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: matter what drugs.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Or drink were swimming through their systems, no.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Matter what the situation or the environment, always seemed to
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: rise to the creative challenge. Their approach to their craft
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: making the greatest rock and roll music the world had
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: ever heard, Being the greatest rock and roll band the
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: world had ever seen, and doing it all without a
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: playbook was inspiring to Graham and also totally fucking intimidating.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: But Graham gathered his own inspiration like a handful of
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: loose change to make one last purchase. Graham was motivated
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: to get his shit together to make great music, but
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: first he needed to kick Heroin. Do that, he needed
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to get out of France and stay away from Los Angeles,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: so it was decided. Joshua Tree Joshua Tree National Park
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: is about one hundred and forty mile drive from LA.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: It's located in a small desert town filled with entertainment industry,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: burnout seekers, angel dusted lsd heads, and UFO chasers. Graham
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Parsons was in one way or another, all of these things.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: After his experience at Nellcott, Graham found his way to
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: LA and burned his way through the Hollywood rock scene
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: before landing out at Joshua Tree to clean up his
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: act and start leaning into the writing process for songs
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that he hoped would become his first solo album. Graham
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: loved Joshua Tree, and why wouldn't he. It's a place
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: unlike any other on the planet. Its desert is a
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: psychedelic's acid dream come true with its trippy Yuka Tree,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: sun blistered terrain and glittering star freckled nighttime sky. And
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the town of Joshua Tree was and still is a
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: low key hippie outlaws paradise. There was a lawless vibe
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: about it. There aren't a lot of people, and most
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: of those that lived there seemed to be trying to
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: avoid some sort of hassle At night, Graham would head
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: out to Joshua Tree National Park and frolic through the desert,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: high on acid, in hopes of spotting UFOs and or God,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: both were pursuits he believed in. During the day in
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Joshua Tree, Graham would sleep off the LSD and try
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: to write songs from the cozy confines of his room
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: at the Joshua Tree Inn. Not exactly clean living, but
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: at least he wasn't doing Heroin. However, getting fucked up
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and tripping balls eventually won out, and Graham's writing took
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: a back seat. So be it being high kept the
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: pain away. He'd get around a writing in making his
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: solo record in due time. Meanwhile, the Stone's Exile on
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Main Street was a smash. Graham was happy for his
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: old friend Keith, but a part of him was pissed
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: off that he wasn't along for the ride. He couldn't
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: help but think that all that country music he'd shared
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: with Keith had helped in form the sound of Exile.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Now the record was double platinum, and what the Graham
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: had to show for it other than an increasingly intense
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Heroin addiction? But what had Graham even more upset was
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: a new band that was quickly becoming unavoidable on the
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: FM dial, The Eagles. The Eagles featured Graham's ex bandmate
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: from The Burrito Brothers, Bernie Leyden, and the band represented
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: everything Graham hated about modern rock and roll, to say
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: nothing of his annoyance out they're infusing country into their
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: brand of rock and effectively working his side of the street.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: The Eagles traded on all the country and none of
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the soul influences that Graham had been messing with since
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: he started making music back at Harvard with the International
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Submarine Band, and then through his work with the Birds
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: and ultimately to his near perfect first album.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: With the Flying Burrito Brothers.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Graham had dedicated his life diffusing country and soul into
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: a new form of rock and roll, and here was
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: this new band of frankly, by his estimation, assholes who,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: judging from the high gloss production of their singles, cared
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: little for the actual spirit of this music and only
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: for the success that its most watered down trite realization
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: could bring a peaceful, easy feeling more like plastic dry fuck,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: went Graham's sussessment. Graham Parsons hated the Eagles. Graham knew
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: he could do better. It was time. Time to get
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: out of the desert, time to put a studio band together,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: time to get some songs going and make this damn album,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and time to deal with his damn demons. To do that,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Graham needed to get in touch with his road manager
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and friend, Phil Kaufman. After connecting through the Stones, Phil
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: had joined on with Graham as a sort of part
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: time road manager and minder, but the two quickly established
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: a legit friendship. Phil saw it as his duty to
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: take care of the fragile singer songwriter. He made sure
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Graham didn't take too much smack, didn't sleep with the
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: wrong women, and made it to the gig or the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: studio on time. When Phil got the call, he high
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: tailed it out to Joshua Tree, grabbed Graham, brought him
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: back to la and nestled him into an apartment at
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the Chateau Marmont. At first, Graham was motivated, inspired, and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: ready to get down to work.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: The two made.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Travel arrangements for Graham's new muse Emmy Lou Harris, the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: beautiful singer with the enchanting voice whom Graham had met
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: on the road then they got Barry Tashian, the former
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: singer of The Remains, to fly in from Nashville and
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: immediately began working on a repertoire for Graham. Barry brought
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: with him a suitcase of song Streets of Baltimore by
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Harlan Howard and tomple Glazer, I Can't Dance by Tom
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: t Hall and Cry One More Time by Peter Wolf
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and Seth Justman of the Jay Guiles Band, a white
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: hot R and B band from back in Tashian's home
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: turf of Boston, Massachusetts. With these songs, along with the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: handful of originals he'd been working up, Graham could see
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: his album taking shape. But working on original material brought
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: painful emotions to the surface, and Graham quickly fell into
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the familiar habit of burying the pain with alcohol and heroin.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Graham was incoherent for long stretches of time, more of
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: a rambling buffoon than a tender troubadour. Kaufin and Tashian
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: knew that making this record wasn't going to be easy,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and they needed to act quick. While Graham had some
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: semblance of motivation and before he was completely consumed by
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: his addiction, so naturally, they headed to Sin City to
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: find a band in The trip to Las Vegas was
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: strictly business. Tashian and Graham had a job to convince
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Elvis Presley's band to back Graham in the studio for
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: his new record. It was a brilliant idea. While the
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: rest of the rock and roll world was busy chasing
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: country music up the charts, putting their hair and ponytails
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and fitting themselves for snap buttoned shirts and bolo ties,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: all the while paying scant attention to the soul and spirit.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: At the heart of country music.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Graham decided to hire deeply talented musicians who got this
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: music on a molecular level. And the fact that they
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: were seen at the time as being tragically un hit hit.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Backing Elvis as a show band in Vegas running through
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a career retrospective of square cheese for Beehived Housewives and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: black framed pencilnecks in for the Early Bird special on
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: junkets from the Midwest made the move.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: By Graham Altemore ingenious.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: While self satisfied country rock and rollers like the Eagles
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: fiddled with learning, Chad Atkins and Floyd Kramer riss On
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: guitar and piano.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Graham would have James Burden and Glen D. Harden playing
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: guitar and piano in his studio band, two players who
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: could both come out on your porch or step into
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: your parlor and show you how it all went down.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Hiring Elvis's band paid off big time. In addition to
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: having stone cold killers in the studio, Graham, with so
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: much respect for these musicians, kept himself sober through the work,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and the result was stunning. The sessions with Elvis's Band
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: produced the masterpiece.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: The record GP, as it would come to.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Be called, was Graham Parson's vision of cosmic American music
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: come to life, a perfect meld of country soul and gospel,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: the Southern Gothic tradition, and irony and inner pain channeled
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: through B bent telecaster strings, R and B chord progressions
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: and honky tonk piano riffs. Graham's heavy, soft spoken, understated
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: singing voice stank of heroin. He sang loose and slack john,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: but his admiration for country singer Conway Twitty lent a
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: measure of directness to the vocals, and the mix of
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: those ingredients manifested an emotional harpooon of vulnerability that cuts
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: straight through to the hearts of listeners. GP is a
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: staggering work of artistry. When the record was completed, Graham
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: was emotionally spent, so he headed out to Joshua Tree
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: to chase UFOs again. But there would be little rest
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: for Graham Parsons and his damaged soul. In nineteen seventy three,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: grief would soon roar back into his life. On July fifteenth,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Graham's friend, infrequent musical collaborator, the great guitarist and one
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: time bird, Clarence White, was struck by a drunk driver
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: while loading gear into his car after a gig. He
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: died instantly. When Graham heard the news, he was besieged
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: by grief. Clarence White's funeral was a staid Catholic affair,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: completely devoid of the soul and compassion Graham knew of
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: his friend At the reception. After the service, Graham drowned
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: his grief and alcohol at a local bar filled with friends.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Among them was as now ubiquitous sidekick Phil Kaufman. It
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: was there that Graham and Phil made a pact with
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: one another that no matter who kicked first, the other
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: would make sure that under no circumstance would the dearly
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: departed among them be sent off in the soul as
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: fashion foisted upon their soulful friend Clarence White. Fuck that
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: straight laced funeral jive, Graham said, take me out to
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the desert in Joshua Tree, burn my body up, and
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: set my soul free. A handshake and two shots of
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: well tequila with cold Schlitz chasers sealed.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Gene.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Hackman was pissed. Learning your lines was hard enough, Getting
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: into your character emotionally was another thing.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Entirely.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: The fucking distractions on a movie set were monumental to
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: begin with, but now with cops busting up a scene
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: to arrest the biker who owned the house they'd arranged
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: to shoot this scene in the entire day would be
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: shot to Shitjeene would never be able to get back
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: into character now. Hackman and director Arthur Penn watched with
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: a mix of incredulity and annoyance. As the owner of
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the house, Phil Kaufman, was led out under the lowering
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: boom and through the film crew in hand cuffs. The
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: whispers started immediately Kaufman burned the body one of the
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: newspapers had been talking about for the past couple of days,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the Body of the Desert, that junkie country singer. The
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: newspapers had it right. Kaufman did burn the body, and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: he didn't care who knew about it, and he'd do
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: it again if he had to, to make sure that
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: his friend Graham Parsons was honored in death the way
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: that he had pledged to do for him in life.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: After Clarence White's funeral, Graham Parsons was focused. When GP
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: failed to set the world on fire, Graham was disappointed,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: but undeterred. He was hell bent on making another great record.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: But first Graham needed some rest. He headed back to
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Joshua Tree for some R and R, and he was happy.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: He had a strong feeling that when this new, yet
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: to be written album was released, the results would be different.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: The world would finally get hip to Graham Parsons and
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: his cosmic American music.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Hell.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: At least the local bar out of Joshua Tree he
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: had one of his songs on the jukebox.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: He made it a point to hang.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Out as much as possible at his new local and
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: to hit the stage whenever the.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: Mood struck him.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: One night, while sitting in with the local band and
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: working their way through Merle Haggard's Oki from Muskoki, Graham
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: took note of how the pedal steel player couldn't keep
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: up with the rest. When they finished the set, Graham
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: found out why the steel player's arms were loaded with
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: track marks from shooting junk and were so badly bruised
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: he could barely move them, never mind play steel. The
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: sight of the track marks wet Graham's whistle. He'd been
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: drinking most of the day and night and taking pills,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: but now he had Heroin on his brain. That familiar
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: junkie jones kicked in subconsciously. He knew that no amount
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: of booze, pills or promise of the future would stave
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: off the pain for too long.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Heroin, though, Heroin.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Took it all away, so Graham and a couple friends
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: he was traveling with split. They knew they could fix
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: back at the hotel. Back at the Joshua Tree In,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: a local Heroin dealer was arranged for Graham. When the
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: dealer arrived, she had her two year old with her.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Graham didn't mind, but he did mind that the dealer
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: didn't come as advertised. She didn't actually have any heroin. Instead,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: she had vials of stolen government grade morphine selfie. At
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: this point, Graham didn't care. He could feel the saliva
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: dripping down the inner walls of his cheeks. He could
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: feel the giddy pitter patter of his heart picking up
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: speed and anticipation of getting high. He needed to feel
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: the rush of opiates blast up his veins and wipe
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: away the coming hurt. Morphine was close enough, and it
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: would have to do. Graham would just have to take
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: twice as much. So he did, and immediately things went souf.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Graham's overdose came quick, his breathing slowed, and then it
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: grew rest His two friends managed to get him up
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and into the tub. With his clothes off. They jammed
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: ice cubes into his asshole, a home remedy almost as
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: old as ice itself, which shocked his system and revived him.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Graham was mumbling and semi conscious, but within no time
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the morphine once again took control of his faculties. No
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: frozen enemies would be able to help him this time,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and then Graham felt next to nothing, just warm bliss.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: His body went slack, his mind went black, no pain,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: no more grief. Then nothing. Graham Parsons overdosed and died
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: in room eight of the Joshua Tree Inn on September nineteenth,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. When Phil Kaufman heard the news, he
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: was back in LA and he was pissed. Pissed that
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Graham had been so careless, pissed at Graham's traveling friends
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: hadn't known how to keep him alive, and pissed that
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: he wasn't there to take care of his friend himself.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't let that happen again. The friend in Joshua
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Tree who'd called Kaufman to give him the news, mentioned
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: that a thought were taking his body away, so Phil
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: moved fast. He made it to the Joshua Tree Inn
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: from LA in three hours. Kaufman immediately cleaned out Graham's room,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: wiping away any trace of an illicit drug party. He
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: then rounded up Graham's two friends and got them out
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: of Joshua Tree back to LA where they would be
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: beyond the reach of the local police and therefore unable
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: to be questioned. Kaufman knew how to clean up a
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: rock and roll mess, but the job wasn't done. Once
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: back in LA, Kaufman called the Joshua Tree Morgue to
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: inquire about his friend's body. Graham's surviving family, upon hearing
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: of Graham's death and the press, had made arrangements for
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: it to be flown back home to the South. The
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: body was chilling in an airport hangar at Lax, waiting
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: to be retrieved by Graham's stepfather for what would no
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: doubt be a stale, religious, conservative Southern funeral service, in
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: other words, the exact opposite of what Graham would want. Kaufman, ever,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the fixer had a friend who owned a hearse he borrowed,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: grabbed some other friends a motley crew of leather clad,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: greasy haired rock and roll biker types who Kaufman knew
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: could serve as impromptu illicit pallbearers, and then headed.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Out to Lax.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: On the way, they pounded bottles of Mickey's wide mouthed
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: grenades and shared pints of bean Quervo, and Jack Kaufman
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: wheeled the hearse to the off ramp toward Lax and
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: straight toward the shipping hangar. He and his band of
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: rock and roll pallbearers bounded out of the car and
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: headed into the office area the square behind the desk
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: was either scared, stupid, or both because he bought the
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: long line of crap Kaufman fed him. They were off
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: duty funeral homeworkers there to move the body by a
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: private plane. Unbelievably, Kaufman was given clearance to grab the coffin,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: so he did, and he and his cohorts began wheeling
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: it out of the hangar to their waiting hearse. Just then,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: a cop in a black and white on patrol pulled
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: up to see what in the hell was going on
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: with what must have looked to him like a drunken
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: gang of biker body snatchers. Kaufman was quick with the
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: bullshit officer, you're just in time, man short, not sure
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: how we're going to get the coffin into the back
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: of our hearse, Can you give us a hand. Remarkably
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: and without question, the officer did just that. Graham Parson's
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: body was snatched. Next stop Joshua Tree. But first they
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: need to gas. So once out of La and well
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: on their way to the desert, they stopped off at
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: a gas station and filled five gallons.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: Not for the car, mind you.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Coffin and his men drank the entire ride out and
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: they were wasted by the time they made it out
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to Joshua Tree National Park, the area of the desert
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: that Graham loved so much, the part of the world
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: that allowed him to run free of his pain, to
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: chase UFOs, and to leave all the grief behind. At
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: around one am, the hearse made it out to the
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: part of the desert known as Cap Rock and stopped.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: The stars were electric. It was a beautiful night, and
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Coffin unfolded his drunken, greasy jean clad legs to the
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: desert floor, walked round back with his crew. He pulled
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Graham's wooden casket from the back of the hearse and
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: dropped it unceremoniously onto the desert floor. Kaufman popped open
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: the lid and there was Graham, naked, dead and bloated,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: surgical tape covering the autopsy wounds. Kaufman wasted no time.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: He grabbed the gallons of gasoline and poured them all
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: over Graham's body. He lit a match, dropped it in
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Graham's body, ignited into a fireball. His soul exploded into
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: eternity and an overstated blast. It was so unlike him exploding.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons was subtle. He was marked by deep emotional
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: pain and engaged in a quiet but constant race to
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: outrun his grief. Regardless of the manner in which Graham
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Parsons's body left this world, there was no mistaking it.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: He was now free. Phil Kaufman's friend, Graham Parsons was
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: at last separated from his pain, and Phil's other friend,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Charlie Manson, was behind bars while his former bosses, the
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stones, had become the quote unquote world's greatest rock
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: and roll band, and Phil Kaufman was sitting in his car.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Now I'm an old man, a mangled shell of himself
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: from back in those hazy days of lawless rock and roll.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Graham was on his mind lately, because Graham was on
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the minds of lots of people lately. Graham Parsons, in
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: the myth that Kaufman helped create, was going through a
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: resurgence of popularity among a new generation of snap buttoned,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: ponytailed country rock and rollers. Sure they added the prefixed
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: alt to country, but still, if it walks like an
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: eagle and it sings like an eagle, it's probably a
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: second rate version of an eagle. And that means it's
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: a third rate version of Graham Parsons the blatant mimicry
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: bordering on disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: if not, you can become a member right now by
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership. Members can listen
• 39:37
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• 39:41
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• 39:50
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• 39:58
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• 40:01
  Speaker 3: com slash at disgracelamdpod rock a Rolla, He's
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: A badbad man.