I love Gram Parsons’ music, so when we visited Joshua Tree I wanted to stay at the Joshua Tree Inn. It was Gram’s favourite place to stay, and he died there in Room 8, aged 26 in 1973. We didn’t stay in Room 8 (it was booked up and I think I was a bit relieved about that). But in the morning when the guests had left, we asked if we could take a look inside. “Sure as long as you guys don’t do anything weird in there,” was the reply.
At the funeral of a friend a few months before Gram died he made a pact with his road manager, Phil Kaufman that if either of them died young, they wanted their body to be taken to the desert at Joshua Tree and burnt.
Gram’s family had arranged a conventional funeral and after being taken from the Joshua Tree Inn, his body was en-route to New Orleans. Remembering the pact, and also Gram’s dislike of his step-father; Kaufman and another friend Michael Martin posed as funeral directors, stole his body from Los Angeles Airport and drove to the desert in a hearse, where they doused him in gasoline and set him alight. You can read the full story here of The Strange Tale of Gram Parsons’ Funeral in Joshua Tree.
Fans often set up makeshift memorials at the spot in the desert, but these are constantly removed by the National Park Service. There was nothing to mark it when we went but I knew it was at Cap Rock, so we went searching for it and found it by the shape of the rocks on the ground.
Another young man safely strummed
IN MY HOUR OF DARKNESS – GRAM PARSONS
His silver string guitar
And he played to people everywhere
Some say he was a star
But he was just a country boy
His simple songs confess
And the music he had in him
So very few possess
In my hour of darkness
In my time of need
Oh Lord, grant me vision
Oh Lord, grant me speed
Rest in peace Gram, and thank you for the music.