Park mulls memorial for Gram Parsons

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) - When country rocker Gram Parsons died of a drug overdose in 1973, friends snatched his body from Los Angeles and burned it in the park he loved. Later, fans illegally placed a marker in his honor. Now, some say it's time for the National Park Service to officially recognize the counterculture musician as a part of park history.

Parsons has been cited as an influence on the Eagles, the Rolling Stones and the modern alternative country music movement. After he died at 26 of a drug overdose in a motel a mile from the park, his road manager and a friend stole the casket and burned it in the park, as Parsons had wanted. Fans continue to make pilgrimages to his makeshift shrine, a concrete slab painted with the title of his "Safe At Home" album on Cap Rock in the remote desert park 120 miles east of Los Angeles.