Daniel Donato tipped his cosmic country cowboy hat to one of the finest to ever do it with a touching tribute to Gram Parsons. The Nashville firebrand guitarist Donato offered up a moving cover of Bob Dylan‘s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” like it was a prayer at the infamous Joshua Tree Inn where singer-songwriter Parsons died of an accidental morphine and alcohol overdose in 1973.
For some people it’s Abbey Road in London, for others it’s 710 Haight Ashbury Street where the Grateful Dead briefly lived in the ’60s. Those who follow music like religion have their shrines, and out in the desert of Joshua Tree lies one for the man who was instrumental in the merging of country and rock, but died in obscurity at age 26.
Of course, Parsons didn’t write “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”. His credits are found on classics by The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, with traces of his spirit found throughout The Rolling Stones‘ 1972 country-rock opus Exile on Main St. But “Heaven’s Door” was as much for Parsons as it was for anyone else, especially at this moment seen in Donato’s new video where he plays outside room number 8 where Parsons took his last breath. There’s no David Lynch existentialism here, we’re looking at the actual door Gram took to the other side. Though he might be a little late, Donato gives Parsons an offering of a guitar pick to give to Charon on his journey across the river Styx.
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But Parson’s story famously didn’t end in room 8. In one of the greatest stories of rock n’ roll hijinks and quite literally burning out before you fade away, Parson’s friend and road manager Phil Kaufman—per Gram’s wishes—took his corpse out to Joshua Tree and burnt it in his casket. This took a bit of doing, as Parson’s body was set to go home to his distant family in Louisana, but it was nothing a fake name and a hearse filled with Jack Daniels couldn’t straighten out, as Kaufman intercepted Parson’s lifeless body at Los Angeles International Airport and drove it out to Joshua Tree for as far as he could see straight. Then at Cap Rock in Joshua Tree National Forest, Kaufman and some of Gram’s close friends set Parson’s body ablaze as sirens wailed in the background coming to arrest them. At that time though, there was no law against stealing a corpse in California so they got off with a slap on the wrist and fines for burning the coffin.
To this day, Cap Rock—much like the Joshua Tree Inn—remains a shrine for fans of the late, great Gram Parsons to come and pay their respects. Today, Parson’s influence is seen everywhere from legacy acts like Eagles to contemporary stadium-filler Chris Stapleton. Those ticket sales and t-shirt sales afford those pupils an easy living while the tokens that are left for the dear departed Parsons are cleared away each and every day by rangers of the Joshua Tree National Park.
Watch Daniel Donato sing “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” for Gram Parsons in Joshua Tree.
Daniel Donato – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan)
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