The Grand Theft of Gram Parsons’ Body

This is one of my all-time favorite stories in rock and roll history. Gram Parsons was a rowdy young trust fund kid with a penchant for Nudie suits. He was notable for his work with The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers before his untimely demise at the age on 26 in 1973. Parsons had a close relationship with his road manager, Phil Kaufman, and both been enchanted with the Joshua Tree area and had spent many psychedelic days and nights there. They would often stay at the Joshua Tree Inn, where many other notable musicians like Donavan and Emmylou Harris also frequented.

Both Parsons and Kaufman were disillusioned with the grandeur of death after attending the funeral of former The Byrds guitarist, Clarence White. The service was held in a Catholic church, with a traditional religious ceremony. It was after this that Parsons and Kaufman made a pact – they would ensure a funeral like that would never happen for whoever passed first. “If I die, I want somebody to have a few beers, take me out to the desert and burn my body,” Parsons said. He then agreed to do the same for Kaufman.

Months later, Parsons went to Joshua Tree to celebrate the completion of his new album Grievous Angel. However, he succumbed to his many addictions and died in Room #8 at the Joshua Tree Inn, where many, including myself, have stayed. Kaufman cleaned out the room (as he had done hiding Parsons’ many stashes throughout their time together) and got those who had been at the scene of the death out to LA to avoid police interviews. After staying at his house in LA for a few days, he knew what he had to do. Kaufman called the Joshua Tree mortuary and discovered Parsons’ body was on route to LAX to be shipped back to his stepfather in New Orleans. As luck would have it, a friend let Kaufman borrow their Cadillac hearse and he drove off to LAX with a few accomplices.

Once there, the group found a holding area in a hangar at the airport used for moving bodies for shipment where they waited overnight. Before the casket was loaded onto the plane, Kaufman and another approached a coroner and notified him that the family had decided to ship the body from the Van Nuys airport instead. After getting the okay, the two loaded the body into the hearse with the help of a nearby police officer.

In a drunken stupor, Kaufman and his accomplice grabbed about 5 gallons of gas and took the hearse, with Parsons in the back, deep into Joshua Tree National Park. They got about as far as Cap Rock, known for a large baseball cap-shaped boulder teetering on rocks above, and decided not to go any further due the extent of their inebriation. While pulling the casket from hearse, it almost fell to the ground. At this point, Kaufman decided he needed to say goodbye to Parsons properly.

“I opened up the casket. And the hinges obviously hadn’t been oiled, so it creaked really loud. Then there he was, laying naked, with surgical tape covering where they had done the autopsy. We used to do this thing, you know, when you’re a kid, where you point to someone’s chest, they look down and you go ‘zip’ up to their nose? Well, that was the last thing I did to Gram.”

After dousing the coffin in gasoline, Kaufman lit a match and threw it, engulfing Parsons’ body in flames. Headlights began to approach in the night, and the two split. Once the news hit, it didn’t take long for the police to figure out Kaufman was behind the heist. When everyone involved went to court, the only thing the crew could be charged with was stealing the casket. There was no law broken by stealing the body because it had no intrinsic, monetary value. Parsons stepfather had purchased a cheap coffin, so the fine was only $1,300 and everyone was released.

Gram Parsons remains were shipped to New Orleans by his stepfather, where he is buried at The Garden of Memories. These events between the pioneer of psychedelic country rock and one of the most profound road managers still in business go down in history as a true act of friendship and loyalty. Kaufman still provides tours of Joshua Tree, particularly Cap Rock and The Joshua Tree Inn, to continue Parsons’ story.