God's Own Singer

Gram Parsons sang like an angel and dressed like a country star. Sadly he was neither, at least not in his lifetime. But before his tragically early death he played a decisive role in bringing together the worlds of rock and country music. He started out playing folk with the Shilos, founded the International Submarine Band while at Harvard, then headed to Los Angeles, where he joined-and transformed- the Byrds, but soon quit to form the Flying Burrito Brothers. Later he recorded two magnificent, haunting solo albums that helped launch bandmate Emmylou Harris towards her subsequent fame. Yet none of Gram's musical ventures captured the imagination of the record-buying public at the time, and his dreams of stardom were repeatedly frustrated. He nevertheless lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle to the full; by the time his masterpiece, Grievous Angel, was released in September 1973, he was dead at 26 years old. The rich legacy of what Parsons called his "Cosmic American Music" paved the way for '70s country-rock acts like the Eagles and the later alternative-country movement exemplified by Wilco. But regrettably, Parsons's musical output and his lasting influence are often not what he is most known for. He has become an almost mythological figure, remembered less for his prodigious talents than for his prodigious drug intake, his friendship with the Rolling Stones, his premature death, and, most titillating of all, for the manner in which his corpse was cremated in the California desert by two drunken friends bent on honoring a promise. An accomplished musician himself, Jason Walker places the focus squarely on Parsons's music. He spent seven years interviewing Gram's friends, colleagues, and collaborators for this biography, first published in 2002 and reissued here in thoroughly revised form. And for this new edition he turned up an important source no previous researcher had found-Michael Martin, Gram's sometime "valet" and one of only two participants in the abduction and unofficial cremation of Gram Parsons's body, who had quite a story to tell.