David Crosby, the co-founder and co-lead vocalist of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, has clarified the rumors surrounding the controversial death of his old bandmate, Gram Parsons, referring to The Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards.
During his latest Q&A session on Twitter, one of the most active social media users in the rock community, David Crosby, refuted the claims about the reason for The Byrds singer and rhythm guitarist, Gram Parsons’ death, which was believed to be somehow related to his closest friend, Keith Richards.
When a fan, whose name is Ron, asked Crosby if he thinks Richards ruined Gram Parsons or was he just convenient to blame, David Crosby admitted that he believes Gram was already in trouble before he got to Keith.
As you may know, after Parsons left The Byrds in the summer of 1968, he became acquainted with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. Before Parsons’ departure from The Byrds, he had accompanied the two Rolling Stones to Stonehenge in the English county of Wiltshire.
Immediately after leaving the band, Parsons stayed at Richards’ house and the pair developed a close friendship over the next few years, with Parsons reintroducing the guitarist to country music.
In the late 1960s, Parsons became enamored of and began to vacation at Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California, where he frequently partook in psychedelics and reportedly experienced several UFO sightings.
Upon his death, due to his extreme drug usage in this period, Gram Parsons’ close friend, Keith Richards was blamed. Yet, Richards stated in the 2004 documentary film ‘Fallen Angel’ that Parsons understood the danger of combining opiates and alcohol and should have known better.
According to Fisher in the 2005 biography ‘Grievous Angel: An Intimate Biography of Gram Parsons,’ the amount of morphine consumed by Parsons would be lethal to three regular users; thus, he had likely overestimated his tolerance in light of his diminished intake despite his extensive experience with opiates.
Here’s what the follower of Crosby asked him about his old bandmate:
“Do you think Keith Richards ruined Gram Parsons or was he just convenient to blame?”
Crosby responded as:
“I believe Gram was already in trouble before he got to Keith.”
You can see the tweets below.
I believe Gram was already in trouble before he got to Keith https://t.co/UhVREkMkJg
— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) November 10, 2020