Tales from the Road, Grand Theft Parsons and more. As a teenager, Gram Parson was one of my favorite musicians. The Flying Burrito Brother were everything I liked in music.Gram mixed classic country music with rock& roll, the blues, motown,... cosmic american music, he called it. Grams family came to America on the same ship as my ancestors in the 1600s.. They settled in Germantown, Pa. He had a hard early life. Ben Fong Torres has written an excellent book called Grevious Angel about Gram Parsons. Gram was also a member of the Byrds for a while. In 1973, before he ever reached his potential, Gram died of a heroin overdose in Joshua Tree National Forest. When my youngest sister got married in southern California, I went out and spent a week with my uncle in the Santa Cruz Mts., and then we headed down to La Jolla, to stay with my cousin before the wedding. My sister got married in Carlsbadt, and has lived there ever since. After the wedding I had 3 days before my flight back east. She lent me her car, and headed to Hawaii for her honeymoon. I determined to see where Gram died. The wedding was on a Saturday, and early Sunday morning I headed east from San Diego. I remember seeing Jack Murphy Stadium, home of the Padres. I headed East, I think it was I- 8 , I had a map and three days. After a while, I got off the Highway and headed north. I saw hawks Id never seen before, and black vultures. I thought maybe Id found heaven. The scenery was unlike anything Id ever seen. I kept heading north and east., just following my nose. At eventide, I found a lake and a place to camp.. I never saw so many stars, or so bright. I awoke long before dawn, and began to drive, I found a little two bit general store where I got breakfast, sort of. Coffee is the universal morning wake up call.. Around 10 am, I stopped out in the middle of nowhere, and took a picture of an old barn. i lay down on the desert floor, and looked closely at some tiny cacti. Soon I fell asleep. I awoke, covered with biting red ants... fire ants. and soon found a pond or lake to dive into. By early afternoon I was in the Joshua Tree National Forest. I may or may not have found the location of the hotel that Gram croaked in. Here was a guy that Keith Richards looked up to... Emmylou Harris was his musical partner. Had he survived, he might have been bigger than Elvis. I tried to picture what went through his mind on the last day of his life... just imagination... he probably just wanted to relax and get his rocks off. I wanted it to be more than that.. I paid my dues, and headed west towards Hemet. The ride blew me away I climbed into the mountains and back down again. In Hemet, I visited my pal Phil Fornier. He owned a car repair place.. It wasnt a garage. Just a fenced in area. It only rains a few days a year in Hemet. Phil closed his repair shop on those days when it rained. No biggie. I left Phils house, and drove through town. I stopped at a cross roads and read my map, and then when finally pulled through the intersection, a cop pulled me over and gave me a ticket for failure to stop at the stop sign. That ticket, which I threw out the window, came back to haunt me years later, but thats another story I got on the highway, and found a rest area to sleep in. Back on the road, I passed through a beautful valley with mountains to my right.. I was awestruck. Farms everywhere, mountains off to the right.. Finally, I got into a more congested area. I headed west on some highway. I knew I was back in civilization. Stores, businesses, exits. I pulled off in Escondito and spent the afternoon with my cousin Pat and his young family. We ate Mexican and drank a few beers. About 9 pm, I deemed it safe to drive, and made a bee line for my cousin Gregs place in LaJolla. Early in the mourning,somebody drove me to the airport, and I took off in a small plane for Los Angeles, where I boarded a larger plane and headed East.... never been back since.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 05:30:41 +0000
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