Hickory Wind - The Biography of Gram Parsons by Ben Fong-Torres

Hickory Wind - The Biography of Gram Parsons by Ben Fong-Torres

This compelling portrait of Gram Parsons superbly evokes the tumultuous musical era that he worked in, his personal mystique and, above all, the magic of his music - and is the only Gram biography to adequately explain why the legend lives on. This is a new edition - including a new epilogue from the author - of a work that is rightly regarded as a classic of its kind.

Blessed with fabulous riches, charisma, good looks, a wealth of music business contacts and a unique songwriting gift, Gram Parsons still somehow ended his life overdosing in a motel, his charred remains scattered in the desert and his music virtually unknown. However, nearly 50 years on from his untimely demise, the man, the myth and the music endure. Ben Fong-Torres's Hickory Wind is the landmark biography of perhaps the greatest enigma in American music, combining meticulous research, perceptive criticism and key testimony from Gram's contemporaries - including Chris Hillman, Emmylou Harris and Keith Richards.

Ben Fong-Torres was born in California. He became a writer and Senior Editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where he wrote 37 cover stories and hundreds of articles, and won the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974. He had major interviews with many of the most important acts of the 1970s, including Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Linda Ronstadt. He has since written for Esquire, GQ, Parade, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Harper's Bazaar, American Film, Travel & Leisure and People, and has also worked as a radio DJ, TV presenter.