GRAM PARSONS Joshua Tree Death Hotel Room & Cremation Spot

[Music] well today our vlogs about the man who invented cosmic American music Gram Parsons next stop the Joshua Tree Inn and this is where a story starts today when a Gram Parsons favorite hangouts in a place that he used to bring Keith Richards to come watch for UFOs Joshua Tree National Park well today our story takes place here well at least it starts here now originally the vlog was meant to have a little bit of a twist to it and I'll tell you as we go along what that twist was now in 1973 September Gram Parsons one of his buddies and two girlfriends came out here much like he always did he loved to get on his motorcycle and come up here and spend the night go up to Joshua Tree and explore the park but he always loved to stay here at the Joshua Tree Inn now September 19th he was here in 1973 him and his friends decided to go out and get something to drink Taiwan on and they went with the husband of the innkeeper here at the time they came back later that night and not too long after their return the woman in Graham's room started shouting that Graham was not responding gram parsons died here the Joshua Tree Inn in room eight a room that he stayed in many many times in his life so the Joshua Tree Inn now has turned itself into a memorial place for Graham spirit inside this building there's a beautiful tribute to Graham that we'll see here very shortly now it would have been great to stay in that room room number 8 because Graham died there I've stayed there before and I thought it was such a great idea I figured why not do it today so tonight we spend the night in Graham's room room number 8 now if you're not familiar with who grant Parsons was Gram Parsons was this amazing country rock artist in the late 60s and 70s a lot of people credit him as being the person that helped bridge country into rock and roll a lot of people say that when the Rolling Stones and Gram Parsons started hanging out their music dovetailed into a more country sound than it ever had been before in fact the Rolling Stones when they wrote wild horses they gave that song to Graham and Graham recorded at first it wasn't until for whatever reason the radio decided not to play in heavy rotation that the Rolling Stones decided to redo the song and re-release it the Graham was best friends with Keith Richards he had made music his entire life from the time that Graham was young his parents were very wealthy his father died in prison a drunk and unfortunately but Graham's mother's side was extremely wealthy and they basically pampered Graham's every wish throughout the rest of his life they bought him a music venue that he could perform out when he was in high school after he saw Elvis Presley he started performing loved it so much that he as soon as he graduated he took off to New York formed a band he actually went to Harvard and thought he'd studied theology at one before moving out to Hollywood and trying his hand at making music now Graham became fast friends with the Rolling Stones and it wasn't too long before he would meet Chris Hillman of the birds and the birds would invite Graham to join the band as soon as Graham joined the band the sound as you guessed took a definitively country sound to it you can hear some great country influences in that record and Graham met a band member named Clarence white now when Clarence white died just about six seven months before Graham did Graham went to his funeral with his best friend Phil Kaufman who was also Gram Parsons solo and the Byrds their tour director so basically Phil's job was always to make sure that anything Graham was a part of videos made it there on time there was a performance that he was able to perform and while they were in this funeral Graham and Phil looked at each other looking at this lavish funeral that they knew Clarence would not have wanted and Graham said to Phil if I ever die I don't want a funeral like this I just want you to take my body and take me out to Joshua Tree and burn me up and Phil said you know what the same goes for me if you die before me take my body out to Joshua Tree and set it on fire and let my soul free so when Gram Parsons died Phil wasn't here and immediately regrets that in that Phil somehow felt that he should have been here that he was partially responsible for a 26 year old rock star death and so Phil and his girlfriend were sitting around the house talking and he said you know I promised him I would take him out to Joshua Tree and said his soul free and she said well what are you doing what are you sitting around for go do it they've kept his room very similar to the way it was before and even before Graham was ever staying here this had been a hot spot for celebrities even before Graham's era John Barrymore used to stay here John Wayne used to stay here and then when the rock and roll era came Gram Parsons Keith Richards Emmylou Harris Donovan they all stayed here in fact one of the times that I stayed here as I was checking in I - no the innkeeper here pretty well and she was telling me that I had just missed Robert Plant and that he had been here so that night I went up to Pappy and Harriet's where we were at yesterday and they weren't open was eating dinner Robert Plant went up on stage and started performing a couple of songs with the band now we're gonna go inside and see the room and then I'm gonna tell you how this story continues on now today I'm wearing a special pair of my sunglasses and these are for Steve Wilson Steve Wilson contacted me a while ago and it's actually thanks to him that we're doing this vlog he contacted me and said did you know that Gram Parsons manager his road manager Phil Kaufman is still alive and every once in a while does a tour out in Joshua Tree telling his story I had heard this years before but I didn't know he was still doing it so we contacted Phil and we had scheduled to meet up out here and we were gonna do this vlog now unfortunately Phil is having some health difficulties and was advised by his doctor not to fly from Nashville so he ended up having to cancel but since I had already booked this room I still wanted to do this vlog today I'm gonna explain to you and show you just the room and then I'm gonna tell you Phil's story and continue it on into the park all right well I got the keys to my room are you guys ready to go in and see where Graham used to spend a lot of his time in Joshua Tree let's go you can see how those lights going along the top check this out very rustic here but that's you know that's this whole area and that's what I come here for now this is the same pool that was here when he was here if he stay here they even have a barbecue you can use and I did bring my swim trunks so I might go swimming tonight what a beautiful view huh all right let me show you around a little bit more now as soon as you enter here you probably notice this the two-headed snakes there's one right there and then there's one right down in here now they wholeheartedly embrace Graham's passing here they memorialize it and the entire place is decorated in Graham inside this room is what we're gonna have breakfast tomorrow I'll walk us in there the entire check-in room and the breakfast room and everything is all gram dal so I'm gonna walk us through here and just show you the show you some of the grounds show you the flowers and stuff and then I'll walk you over to to my room no fishing now every time I come out here they have always had a memorial to Graham always they've never not had one however every single time I come here it changes and it's changed this time from the last time I was here for the better check this out an old bicycle spoke all right I'm going to take us through here and then we're going to head into Graham's room which is my room this is the room where Graham died and this is what they have sitting right outside the door first off you have this almost royal like chair that's been out here for years and then they always have this this little safe at home that's that was one of Graham's songs and they've always had all these little memorial things here people can leave pretty much anything that they want compelled to celebrate Graham's life but the new addition that I had never seen look at all the you can see right here on the shoes people have put GP and put the cross the grievious angel so here you see all these little things that people have left for Graham the key and the boots and all that stuff but this is what's new they now put this gigantic I mean gigantic guitar here taller than me so it's I would say this has to be 7-foot tall and it says his name in it I don't know why they had to paint it black but it says grand Parsons on it and then all the way around it has the kind of things that were on his nudie suits you can see the cactus and Joshua tree right there and the birth and death date at the bottom kind of like the ultimate honor for him and then right at the very top it has the the cross that he would always have on his stuff and then it says you can probably see here it says safe at home going down the headstock and then they always have a bench out here where you can sit and reflect and pay your respects all right you guys ready to look at the back even all right are you guys ready to go see Graham's death room let's go there he is hard to believe he died at the age of 26 almost seemed like he lived a million lifetimes with the life he lived now like I said it was September 19th grande was officially pronounced dead from this room and Phil like I told you had made a pact he said that if he outlived graham he agreed to take Graham's body set his soul free by burning it in the desert so Phil being back in Los Angeles decided to do just that Phil went and borrowed a hearse that a hippie friend of his had he said she was pretty wealthy and got a good deal on it loaned it to him so he and a friend went to LAX with that hearse they posed as Undertaker's and where Graham's body was supposed to fly to New Orleans for burial they signed it out under the name Jeremy nobody they were given Graham's body they put it in the hearse and they started driving out here to Joshua Tree now one of the great things that this room does is it not only pays honor to Graham's life and the Flying Burrito Brothers did play Altamont they were supposedly the kind of the one moment in the day where it kind of calmed everybody down but what they do here is they have a whole collection of Grahams music that you can play while you're in the room they have articles from Graham's death and Steve Steve Wilson had contacted me telling me that Phil was doing this and he also told me that he takes care of his wife and that he wasn't able to come on this tour himself so he paid for me to come on the tour and then when the tour got cancelled I told him I will continue to do this vlog in Grahams room and so Steve I'm going to give you the sunglasses that we this vlog in and we're going to look at a few more things outside and then we're gonna take this on the road into Joshua Tree National Park where Phil took Graham's body now if you wanted to if you wanted to see the inside of the bathroom not much has changed here there's the shower and then you also get a little outdoor area so you can imagine as many times as Graham must have stayed here how many times he must have hung out right here or even right in front where we were swam in that pool it's been said that this was his favorite most preferred room so to know that Gram Parsons life ended here he passed away in here hits me pretty hard he's one of my favorite musicians of all time if you'd like to hear some of his what I consider to be his best music listen to return to the previous angel thousand dollar wedding Love Hurts dark into the street Flying Burrito or hot burrito number one and hot burrito number two I think you'd enjoy all of them in here on all the tribute items inside the room you can see many musicians have come and paid their respects by leaving guitar picks or even little notes written into the artwork or photos of themself and cap rock or in this room writing songs which I myself have written a song in here maybe I'll include that at the end I love that they put this in here that just seemed so appropriate man who spent more money on his nudie suits than he did practicing seems only fitting he have a gold cowboy hat in here now that photo right there is actually on the cover of his GP album and that was taken inside the Chateau Marmont when I looked up here I noticed something that I loved immediately jobless Gram Parsons and I didn't put that there now many people believe that this room is haunted with Graham's spirit and I generally don't ever believe in that kind of stuff and I've spent the night in this room numerous times I will tell you from personal experience I believe story for years I stayed here and there was a white cat named sky s Kye that lived on the premises and sky had one yellow eye in one light blue almost Marilyn Manson looking I and a lot of people believe that sky had Gramm spirit I saw it firsthand myself if you played grams music on a boom box or on a guitar sky would come and start walking around your feet if you played in anyone else's music sky would walk away one of the times I spent the night here was on my birthday and I decided to play Graham's music all night on that boombox sky pushed the door open in this room four times that night if I didn't have the deadbolt locked sky would come in this room now I cannot explain how it happened but if you did not have this door locked you could be laying on that bed and all of a sudden this door would just push itself open now you can tell here as I push it's not opening and yet for some reason I would have come here I would close I would hear the door latch I would lay on the bed and start playing the music and next thing I know I would hear the crack of this door go like that and sky would push the door the rest of the way open and come walking in this room it was unbelievable for all the time that I've been coming here I used to always complain that they never had good merchandise for sale so I ended up having to just go out and buy my own Gram Parsons shirt outside of this place then when I showed up today they actually had a new manager that got some really great merchandise I've been wanting a hoodie recently I've literally just been thinking about the last couple of days so I bought a hoodie here look at what their merchandise is now for the Joshua Tree Inn Graham in his nudie suit so they gave me one of their new business cards and you can see right there in the dead center they have the sacred burning heart with the GP in it that was one of grande Parsons main imagery logos that was something he had on all of his suits something he used a lot of so if you're wondering why I had that same exact part on our new sunglasses that's why that's why I used that heart for our Lion Heart right there alright we're gonna head to the park now all right I think I wanna get something to eat before we head up into the park it looks like Santana's is gone that's the place I usually eat but I'm gonna eat what's at what's there now called Castaneda's all right here's our place well okay it looks like it's still Santana's they just I don't know looks like it's the same business just different names Castaneda's and Santana's I don't know it's great though oh yeah that is a monster steak quesadilla but it's probably the best one you can find I know it sounds strange to say that but even out of any restaurant I've ever went to I still prefer them here than anywhere else chill all right we're heading about 30 minutes out into the middle of the desert headed to a place called cap rock Wow check out that place all right we're in $25 Park entrance fee well this is Caprock this is where Phil and a friend brought the casket out they found that a special spot I'm gonna go show you where that was no they call it cap Rock because that rock up there on top looks like a cap now right over here fill in their friend and as I understand it I could be wrong about this but I believe the friend that came out here with him was the same friend who was out there with him the night he died they brought Grahams casket out here open the lid up Phil said we used to have this game where I would pointed his shirt on his chest and say you got something on your shirt buddy and pop him in the nose he said I did gave him one of those and sent him along poured gasoline over him and lit a match I said see you around pal he said the oxygen inside Graham's body exploded into a big gas ball into the sky and he could see Graham's ashes billowing up into the sky the way he wished setting the soul free now they've documented this spot all the fans have come out here and for a long long time this was black this was from the burning the smoke and everything you can see where somebody's put hot burrito number one and number two GP we miss you 20,000 roads I go down down down some of you may not know that my favorite song is a grant parson song called return of the grievous angel and that's the chorus to the song just an absolutely tearful song every time you come out here this will have changed because different times I've come out here they've had paintings of the Red Cross that Graham always had on his new T suit and various things out here but the park department discourages that so they keep coming out here and sandblasting that off you can see where people have stacked rocks take me down to your dance floor but I can dance oh man all right Pete Graham so Steve I wanted you to feel like you were also here so your sunglasses will be right here where Graham had his last moments and got his wish thanks to Phil now Phil Kaufman was actually arrested a couple of days later at his home in Los Angeles because of being with Graham and them always getting in trouble he had a lawyer and a bail bondsman on retainer had them meet him at the jail they bailed him out before he was ever in and when he went to trial they said that Graham's body had no monetary value and that Phil was ordered to pay the cost of the casket the girl who loaned him the hearse paid for the cost of the casket so he said I got off scot-free granting my buddy's wish and getting a cool story out of it and I'm gonna go ahead and leave my own little note to Graham 26 years old if you're looking for a place to start you can't go wrong with that RINO reissue Gram Parsons anthology the reason that Phil brought Graham out here in this specific spot at cap rock to set his soul free was because this was Graham's favorite spot in all of Joshua Tree he would ride his motorcycle out here all the time with Keith Richards and stare up at the sky looking for UFOs so he knew this is where he would want to call it an end God rest your soul Gram Parsons the grievious angel now right over there is where they took Graham's body to burn and over here is the street where they were to parked Wow look what I just found core engineers u.s. army surveyor control marker now I want to take this street till it ends and I want to go up to this this overlooked area well we're back here at the end and you might be wondering what was it that finally killed Graham Graham had abused drugs and alcohol his entire adult life and what finally did him in at the age of 26 here was he went out drinking with his friends one night September 18th had six double tequila's and then came back to the inn here ran into a random woman staying in room two kind of crazy that the fountain in here looks like the mouth of truth but the story was that he came in here ran into the woman who was staying in room two she injected him with some sort of liquid nobody really seems to know what it was and Graham started to overdose and what they did this is room three so room two is where the where the innkeeper stays would have been back in here he started to overdose and so the people that were with him instead of walking him around they tried to give him an IceCube enema to resuscitate him when that didn't work they tried give him a cold shower when that didn't work one of the people put him to bed had somebody watch him and then went out to buy coffee his breathing became more and more erratic here in his room roommate and it finally had to call a ambulance and he was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m. September 19th oh what a sad story huh what a sad sad story well this is pretty crazy I just got a knock at my door do you want to introduce yourself tell everybody on my channel who you are because we're in Graham's room we are I am Cece Parsons the sister of Polly Parsons and the daughter of Nancy Parsons I'm here with my friend Carly who's an amazing photographer we came out to shoot some sights and thought we'd come to Joshua Tree in for the first time and visit some investors yeah so grant would basically be your stepdad yeah my mom's life yeah but I mean that's how great I mean what does that feel like to be in here have you ever been in here before I haven't you know I grew up around his legend my whole life you know we'd go to Nashville for music tributes and he was just always a constant part of our life but I respected the fact that you know is my sister's dad and I it was very respectful of that but it was ever-present in my life I feel like I know him and his life and his impact that he's had on so many people through so many generations and of course my mom and sister and just to learn more about it as time goes on and his enduring legacy with all of his fans that travel out here and still have such a warm affection for him is just it's pretty rare that this room is is not booked I mean every time I check it's pretty much a waste book so yeah I was actually out here because I was supposed to meet Phil Kaufman was doing yeah I was supposed to meet Phil and he was too ill to fly from Nashville Oh bummer yeah so it's gonna happen in the fall but yeah that's crazy that you came and people got to see you and meet you know so it's actually it's actually because of cars like it's too late we should I was like we she's not gonna enjoy everything what he's gonna go I'm just editing vlog so this was perfect timing yeah I mean yeah I didn't know what to expect and I had called my sister I was like so can you put I know it's last minute but can you please change it like I'd love to take some photos for you or leave something you know cuz she misses her father all the times she's constantly you know adding memories of him to was she able to get any of his guitars or his clothes or any I just like that yeah very good he was able to it's been kind of a tenuous relationship with Gretchen a little bit right right it was like the whole was writing you know yeah no offense Gretchen but it's it's been good she's had a lot of warm reception from people who were you know lovers of graham and he touched everybody it's such a unique way to live to 26 and have nudies daughter you know for example part of my sister's life and Norah Jones and all the people who played the tribute concert mm-hmm just out of love for Graham came together and did that for her and she still enjoys that kind of will take as much time in here as you'd like I'll turn the camera off now thanks for being on the vlog okay so now the story gets a little bit weirder guys because they just invited me down to their room and they're staying in room two the innkeeper's room the room that they say that Graham had done the injection in his overdose shot so they're gonna let me show the room so this is room two this was this was the room that they said that he came in here with a lady and done this shot and or did the shot and how crazy is that well have a great night everyone thank you for watching and good bye [Music] like statue 4G the ones who fall a [Music] as long as I keep reading all these books above man I'll be happy and the girls that man

Channel: Daze with Jordan the Lion

Views: 79,780

Rating: 4.855814 out of 5

Keywords: Daze With Jordan The Lion, jordan the lion, daily vlog, vlog, vlogger, vlogging, lifestyle, hollywood, los angeles, travel, travel vlogger, daily vlogger, adam the woo, urban explorations, urbex, abandoned, history, tourism, abandoned places, adventures, forgotten, rock and roll, jacob the carpetbagger, Gram parsons, The rolling stones, Keith richards, Country, Cosmic, American, Music, the byrds, joshua tree, the flying burrito brothers, emmylou harris, cremation, last, hotel, haunted, death

Id: Odh84BYSlmY

Length: 35min 23sec (2123 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 26 2018