Gram Parsons celebrated in song by Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello on eve
of his Rock Hall induction
[November 12, 2026]
By ANDREW DALTON
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Joy and sorrow were in harmony at a
musical tribute to Gram Parsons, the country-rocker who on Saturday will
enter the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 53 years after his death at age 26.
At the legendary Los Angeles-area Troubadour club, Parsons’ songs as a
member of the Byrds, as a founder of the Flying Burrito Brothers and as
a solo artist essential to rock's early 1970s turn toward country were
performed Wednesday night by Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, the Black
Crowes and, most important by far, Emmylou Harris.
In a partnership that lasted less than two years, Parsons and Harris
combined to create some of the most heartaching harmonies ever recorded.
Then he died from an overdose in 1973.
Before she sang a song many consider the pinnacle of that partnership,
“Love Hurts,” with Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,
Harris said, “Gram taught me this one. We did it a lot of times.” Then
she added, quietly as if to herself, “But not enough.”
Harris, who had been an unknown folk singer when Parsons met her at a
club in Washington, D.C., had thought she'd spend a lifetime singing
with him. She instead went on to her own stellar country career, and
lent the harmonies she'd once given him to Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt,
Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Neil Young.
Her career was part of Parsons' legacy, and Wednesday night's show was
as much a tribute to her as it was to him. Now 71, she sang his songs
with three rock Hall-of-Famers: Costello, Crow, and Campbell, and with
many others in a rotation of musicians that at times felt like a happy
hootenanny as much as a memorial.
Parsons will enter the Hall of Fame, fittingly, as a recipient of the
Early Influence Award. He never had a hit record, but he was like a pied
piper of country music for rockers. Everyone he touched came away a
little more honky-tonk, from his fellow members of the Byrds, who went
all-in on country after he joined, to his friends the Rolling Stones,
who let him and his Flying Burrito Brothers record their “Wild Horses”
before they did. He'd become a gateway drug into country for subsequent
generations of musicians and fans.
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Emmylou Harris, left, and Mike Campbell perform during A Song For
Gram, a Gram Parsons tribute concert, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026,
at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Richard
Shotwell/Invision/AP)
 “Though his time with us was too too
short, his influence remains immeasurable,” his daughter Polly
Parsons, who helped organize the tribute, said from the stage.
“Without Gram, the entire landscape of alternative country and
Americana would not exist in the way that we know it today. He
showed us, and he showed the world, that country music could be
cool, poetic and cosmic.”
Costello, for many decades a big Parsons booster, said that one of
the songs he performed Wednesday night, “Big Mouth Blues,” he hadn't
done on stage since he was 19, and another, “Hot Burrito #1,” he
hadn't played since he was 18.
Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes proudly said that, like Parsons,
they were from “the blue state of Georgia” before he and his brother
Rich sang a rollicking version of Parsons' “Lazy Days,” backed by
longtime California country rockers Beachwood Sparks, who served as
the house band for the night.
Singers Jim Lauderdale, Margo Price, Grace Potter, Madison
Cunningham, Harper Simon, Graheme Lesh and Jesse Walsh also sang
Parsons' songs in various combinations.
All the artists squeezed onto the tiny stage at the end to perform
“Wild Horses” and a song Harris wrote with Parsons, “In My Hour of
Darkness.” She sang her verse of the song surrounded by his family.
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