Gene Parsons was born on September 4, 1944 on his family\'s farm in Morongo Valley in the Mojave Desert, California. His professional musical career began when he joined up with guitarist and Fiddle player Gib Guilbeau in the duo Guilbeau & Parsons. Later the duo was joined by Clarence White, former guitarist with the Kentucky Colonels, and bassist Wayne Moore to form the band Nashville West, named after a club where the band often performed.\n', '

After the dissolution of Nashville West, Parsons was brought in to the Byrds by White (who had recently become the band\'s guitarist), to replace drummer Kevin Kelley. Parsons remained with the band for four years, principally as a drummer, but he also contributed guitar, banjo, harmonica and a number of his own songs to the albums Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, Ballad of Easy Rider, (Untitled), Byrdmaniax and Farther Along.\n', '

His first solo album, Kindling, was released in 1973 on Warner Bros. Records, after the Byrds broke up. Although Kindling received positive reviews in music publications such as Rolling Stone, it failed to reach the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart. Following this, Parsons joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, like other ex-Byrds Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons (no relation) and Michael Clarke had done before him. While he was a member of Burrito Brothers, with Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Chris Ethridge, Skip Battin, Joel Scott Hill and Gib Gilbeau, Parsons contributed a number of songs to the band\'s Flying Again and Airborne albums, including "Wind and Rain", "Sweet Desert Childhood", and "Out of Control".\n', '

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