JOSHUA TREE, Calif.-January 17-John Wayne slept here. John Belushi dropped acid and snorted cocaine here. In one of rock music’s most legendary tragedies, Gram Parsons overdosed here. The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, the Eagles, the Byrds, Donovan and Emmy-Lou Harris have all dropped in here, as have countless other celebrities. Yet, for all its notoriety, the Joshua Tree Inn remains a low-key haven for all. The hacienda-style bed-and-breakfast is now on the market for $1,750,000. The sellers and others familiar with the Joshua Tree Inn hope that the buyer will preserve its iconic essence.
Among Joshua Tree’s visitors are those drawn by a devotion to Gram Parsons, known as the father of country rock. Parsons died at the Joshua Tree Inn in 1973, at the age of 26. Before his death, Parsons often stayed at the Joshua Tree Inn and spent hours in what is now Joshua Tree National Park with Keith Richards “watching the sky for U.F.O.’s.” Since Parsons’ death, the Joshua Tree Inn has become known as the “resting place of Gram Parsons’ spirit.”
All who have sensed Parsons’ spirit attest to its benevolence. “I’ve felt something in there,” says the inn’s handyman Vincent Zubel, referring to room 8, where Parsons died. “It’s not a ghost; it’s a presence, a positive one.” In the room 8 guest book, a visitor writes, “Love envelopes this room.”
Volumes of room 8 books, filled over the years with scrawled eulogies to Gram Parsons, testify to fans’ abiding adoration. While many guests write of feeling Parsons’ presence, some attribute odd occurrences to Parsons’ spirit. “Richard asked Gram to give us a sign, and the radio came blaring at us with country music at 2:39 a.m.,” reports one guest. “Gram, it was a little trippy when you locked me in here,” writes another.
A number of guest book entries mention Sky, a cat who mysteriously appeared one day and has stayed on at the Joshua Tree Inn ever since. “Gram…was that you in the shape of the big white cat that spent the night with us?” “…She had one blue eye and one golden eye…your spirit is in her.”
Sky the cat and Gram Parsons’ spirit will remain with the Joshua Tree Inn when it sells. For more information on the Joshua Tree Inn, visit http://www.JoshuaTree-RealEstate.com or call Peter Spurr, Broker at (760)861-5895.
