Most musicians can only hope to meet their perfect partner in music one day. Some artists seem to be able to connect so well with each other that they finish each other’s sentences. This doesn’t mean they have to meet personally. Before Keith Richards, John Lennon had Paul McCartney and Robert Plant had Jimmy Page. But Keith Richards saw Gram Parsons as his real rock and roll brother.
That could have been because of where Richards was at the time, though. As the 1960s came to a close, The Stones’ bluesy sound changed into something totally different. They stopped copying The Beatles all the time and started incorporating American music sounds.
Richards gained a healthy respect for country music after coming back from tour. He liked how country music could make people feel in the right way. Richards was a student of country music, but Parsons was the master. He learned every song Richards ever knew. Then, he made music that, if he wasn’t careful, could break a few hearts.
Richards later wrote in the book Life, “When I fell in with Gram Parsons in the summer of 1968, I hit a seam of music that I’m still developing, which widened the range of everything I was playing and writing.” He thought of Parsons as one of his true rock and roll soulmates. Also, it was the start of a friendship that seemed very old the first time we talked. For me, not having a brother, it was like seeing a long-lost brother again.
It’s clear that Richards’s music started to change for the better after 1968. A lot of the music they would make later was more experimental than albums like Beggars Banquet. However, songs like “No Expectations” sound like they couldn’t have been written without Parsons’s help.
A lot of the time while Exile on Main St. was being recorded, Richards would talk to Parsons and even ask him over for jam sessions. Mick Jagger must have been very angry about this, but it’s clear that Richards caught the magic too. On songs like “Wild Horses,” he took the basic idea of what country music was meant to be and made it his own.
People in the public always seemed to forget about Parsons, even though he created the sound of country rock. The Eagles got most of the credit, and Parsons never got as much respect for his work until his mysterious death. It didn’t matter, though, because the effect was already there.
It was important to Richards for the rest of his career to continue the work that Parsons began. Whether he was writing Stones-style rock songs or the odd ballad, Richards learned that he should never make a song that wasn’t from the heart. This included huge emotional hits like “Coming Down Again” and “Far Away Eyes.”
He has also made a name for himself in country music, which has helped artists like Eric Church become successful in the present day. Richards did a lot of things on his own, but he will always be grateful to the cowboy boot hero who changed the course of country and rock and roll.
