Keith Richards on why Gram Parsons never had hits: “Such a sad and unnecessary accident”
The legend of Gram Parsons is one of the most quintessential rock and roll stories in all of music. Born as Ingram Cecil Connor III, Parsons was a dedicated Elvis Presley who attended Harvard University, discovered country music, and promptly dropped out of the prestigious college. It wasn’t long after that he came to the attention of Larry Spector, a Los Angeles business manager who looked after The Byrds. With guitarist David Crosby out of the fold, Parson was recruited as his replacement.
“Being with The Byrds confused me a little. I couldn’t find my place,” Parsons admitted to Melody Maker in 1970. “I didn’t have enough say-so. I really wasn’t one of The Byrds. I was originally hired because they wanted a keyboard player. But I had experience being a frontman and that came out immediately. And [Roger McGuinn] being a very perceptive fellow saw that it would help the act, and he started sticking me out front.”
Parsons wasn’t technically an official member of the band: Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman were the only members signed to the band’s record contract, with Parsons receiving a salary as a sideman. Still, Parsons’ contributions to 1968’s Sweetheart of the Rodeo were extensive. He wrote two original songs and sang on three tracks from the album, but his lack of standing in the band caused him to leave in 1968. Parsons departed under the guise of refusing to perform in South Africa due to his opposition to apartheid.
Just before he left The Byrds, Parson struck up a friendship with The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Upon leaving the band, Parsons stayed at Richards’ house and encouraged him to embrace country music in earnest. Before returning to Los Angeles and forming The Flying Burrito Brothers the following year, Parsons had fundamentally changed Richards’ songwriting, which later came to fruition on songs like ‘Dead Flowers’ and ‘Wild Horses’.
Years later, Richards commented on his brief but meaningful friendship with Parsons. “In actual fact, Gram and I met shortly after we had done those songs. I think we were just leaning in the same direction,” Richards remembered in 2004. “He cut ‘Wild Horses’ as well. It was almost as if it was a sort of magnetic attraction to each other. I miss him sadly and dearly.”
Richards was still in awe of the impact that Parsons had on music without having anything resembling a traditional pop hit. “Quite amazingly, Gram Parsons, who never actually had a hit record of his own ever, has got one of the most solid and faithful followings of any artist that I can think of,” Richards added. “Especially given the fact that he never got to where he was obviously going to go if he’d only kept his mouth shut [laughs]. If only he’d taken a little more care of himself. It can happen all in one night, and it was such a sad and unnecessary accident.”
When Parsons died in 1973, rock and country music was beginning to form a synthesis that would become incredibly popular. Parsons had spent nearly his entire professional life attempting to make country music contemporary, but it was only after his death that the genre truly began to take on a wilder edge that he almost certainly would have fit into.
Listen to Keith Richards discuss Gram Parsons down below.
