Jordie Lane refuses to be put in a box. After all, there is
something irresistible about keeping your creative options open.
Now in Melbourne, the 27 year-old Australian
singer-songwriter has put his writing life in Los Angeles on hold to
play legendary musician Gram Parsons in Grievous
Angel: The Legend of Gram Parsons.
Playing Parsons is close to Lane’s heart. Describing the
opportunity as “an honour and privilege” Lane has taken inspiration from
Parson’s refusal to let “musical stereotypes get in the way of making good
music”.
Not only is Lane a year older than Gram Parson was when he
overdosed on morphine and tequila, but much of his latest album was written in
Room 8 of the hotel at the edge of the Mojave Desert, where Parsons died.
Gram Parsons’ life and death reads like a Greek
tragedy. His father committed suicide when Gram was 12 years old, and his mother
drank herself to death five years later. His stepfather, Bob Parsons, had
Gram's younger sister, Avis, committed to a mental institution, and she was
later killed in a boat crash. Bob died of cirrhosis of the liver.
