Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. A solo artist as well as a member of both The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, he is best known for a series of recordings which anticipate the so-called country rock of the 1970s and the alt-country movement that began around 1990. Parsons described his records as "Cosmic American Music". He died of a drug overdose at the age of 26. Purportedly of morphine and tequila. In a story that has taken on legendary stature, Parsons' body disappeared from the Los Angeles International Airport, where it was being readied to be shipped to Louisiana for burial. His former road manager, Phil Kaufman, claimed that Gram had remarked after Clarence White's funeral in July of that year that he (Gram) did not want to be buried when he died, but instead would rather be taken out to Joshua Tree and cremated. Kaufman and a friend managed to steal Parson's body from the airport and, in a borrowed hearse, drove Parsons' body to Joshua Tree where they cremated it. The site of the cremation is today marked by a small concrete slab and is presided over by a large rock flake known to rock climbers as 'The Gram Parsons memorial hand traverse'. The two were arrested several days later and fined $700 for burning the coffin, since stealing a body was not a crime. The burned remains were eventually returned to Parsons' stepfather and interred in New Orleans. A version of these events is depicted in the 2003 film Grand Theft Parsons; they are discussed at length by several people, including Kaufman, in the documentary Fallen Angel.