Sam Quinn's Posthumous Visit With Gram Parsons by Carole Perkins 2008

Sam Quinn and his band, the everybodyfields, recently stayed at The Joshua Tree Inn where legendary singer/songwriter Gram Parsons died from a drug and alcohol overdose in 1973 at the age of 26.

Quinn, Jill Andrews, Josh Oliver, and Tom Pryor, comprise the everybodyfields whose music has been described as, "a fresh set of fingerprints in the archives of bluegrass, country, and folk music." The band was touring the west coast when Quinn discovered the band was booked to stay at The Joshua Tree Inn.

The Joshua Tree Inn is a simple but mythical motel in California, about 140 miles east of Los Angeles. It was popular in the fifties for Hollywood rabble rousers and trendy in the seventies for rockers and celebrities. These days, the main attraction is the room Parsons passed away in, room Number Eight, where thousands of fans pilgrimage every year to pay homage to Parsons.

Quinn says he's been a fan of Parsons since he was eighteen but never dreamed he'd be sharing a wall with Parson's old motel room one day.

"It was really far out to find out we would be staying in the Joshua Tree Inn. I had just woken up in our van that was parked about a mile away. I knew we'd be in the vicinity of where Gram died but sharing a wall with Gram, no, not a chance," he says.

"So we walk into the lobby and the lady at the front desk gives me a key to room Number Seven, the room right next to the one Gram died in. There was a concrete slab in front room Number Eight with beer and liquor bottles, an old busted-up guitar, and Mexican candles on it."

"It was like a shrine to Gram and it had some CD's and a log book where people could write notes about Gram. There was also a painted sign that read, Safe at Home. ( Safe at Home was the title of Parson's one-album novelty with his former band, The International Submarine Band.)

The Joshua Tree Inn is said to be the final resting place of Parson's spirit. Global travelers leave tales in the eulogy book describing "feeling" Parson's spirit in room Number Eight or experiencing odd incidences. One guest recorded, "Richard asked Gram to give us a sign and the radio came blaring at us with country music at 2:39 am."

Possibly the most moving entry is that of Parsons only child, daughter Polly, whom he saw little of during the seven years as her father. She who wrote, "I know your beautiful angel wings must reach far across the desert when you soar...for here you will always truly be safe at home."

Quinn says his experience of being in room Number Eight was kind of creepy. "I closed my eyes and thought about all of the things that led up to his death and thought, man, there's been some abuse in this room. It was kind of creepy being in a room where someone has died."

Quinn says he didn't place any tokens on Parson's shrine but went back to room Number Seven and drank lots of beer.

"I figured Gram would want me not to waste beer," he says.

Gram Parson cosmic American music was a blend of country and rock that inspired musical giants like The Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Dwight Yoakum to name a few. Parson's influence still ripples through space and time influencing bands like the JayHawks, Wilco, Caleb Caudle, and the everybodyfields.

Parsons was born Ingram Cecil Connor III, in Waycross, Ga. on November 5, 1946. His family was wealthy but seemingly cursed by tragedy. Suicide, depression, and alcoholism ran like threads on the underside of a tapestry through his family weaving generations of dysfunction

As a boy, Parsons adored Elvis Presley, the Journeymen as a teenager, and Merle Haggard and Buck Owens as a young man.

He was a physically striking man with inordinate intelligence, dangerous charisma, and a passion for music. The girls loved him.

Parsons made a single record with The Birds, two albums with The Flying Burrito Brothers, and two solo albums, GP and Grievous Angel. All sold poorly during his life but gained notoriety after his death.

Parson's posthumous fame was partly due to the media attention of his "partial cremation" in the Joshua Tree National Park where Parson's road manager Phil Kauffman stole Parson's casket, took it to the park and ignited it with kerosene to fulfill a pact made between the two men.

Quinn says he and his band mate Tom Pryor were bewitched by the Joshua Tree National Park.

"Spending time out in that desert was some of the most amazing times I've ever spent," Quinn says."It ups the ante for being out there with the terrain and atmosphere trying to take the moisture out of you."

In the biography of Parson's life, Twenty Thousand Roads, author David N.Meyers describes the desert as "like no other."

"Joshua Trees are large, slow-growing yuccas that are remarkably humanoid in shape and evocation. Dotting the Park are enormous piles of softly rounded boulders that, like the Joshua Trees, seem somehow animated. They form phantasmagorical shapes against the Park's infinite blue sky and deep silences. Joshua Tree Park feels like the end of the world, but a benign one."

Quinn says he and Pryor went out for two days in a row on adventures in the Park. "We went hiking and sitting on rocks so high that the trees in the desert looked like nipples. Every now and then we'd run into a purple cactus," he says. "It was so magical. We were both completely floored. It was beautiful with so much light. Everything wanted to stick, poke or bite you."

Quinn describes their experience as a re-start button on life in a laid- back artists community.

"We could hear crows out there and you could hear the wind off their wings," he says.

Quinn says when they left , they got back in the van and rode for ten hours.

"I took a lot of notes and got some tunes together. It was the right place and right time for everything to gel. I could clean out the cobwebs instead of getting marred down in the things that don't matter," he says.

Parsons often visited the desert to fuel his creativity and find solace from the many demons that tormented him. Suicide, depression, and alcoholism ran like threads on the underside of a tapestry through his family weaving generations of dysfunction.

Quinn says he has a soft spot in his heart for Parsons, citing GP and Grievous Angel as his favorite CD.

"The song, "We'll Sweep Out The Ashes," was a big one," he says. "The more I listened the more I found to listen to. At the time, I was coming to grips from growing up in Eastern Tennessee. I was trying to shake that off, getting out of "Po-Dunk" town. It hit me around the time I left there that I was ashamed of being from there. It was a rite of passage."

Parsons made country music cool in a time when some people considered country singers on the same level as white trash red necks.

"Gram was a piss and vinegar kind of guy, a show-boat who had a lot of issues, but when he opened his mouth he really showed up," Quinn says." He was such a good singer. Her wrote some amazing chord changes. The song, "She" was such a vocal showcase for Gram. His performance of this song is insanely good."

"One time somebody came up to me after a show we did. I was standing next to Jill, who's usually the one who people say her song really touched them, " Quinn says. "This guy comes up to me and said, "Yeah, that song really touched me. You've become everything to be country music singer. It was one of the best compliments I've ever had," he says.

Quinn turned 28 years old in 2008, just two years older than Parsons was when he died. Still, the bond Quinn experienced with Parsons in The Joshua Tree Inn and National Park will live on forever.

"It's the soul that comes out in Gram's songs, not the notes or timbre. That what Gram had. It resonates with me. Those twangy songs spoke to me on a primordial level. They got under my skin. He is so cool and always will be, " Quinn says. The Joshua Tree Inn is for sale for two million dollars.