The Flying Burrito Brothers are an American country rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1968, best known for their influential 1969 debut album, The Gilded Palace of Sin.

[4] With the original incarnation of the band out of the picture, the "West Coast" Flying Burrito Brothers were founded in 1968 in Los Angeles, California, by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman.

[5] Bassist/keyboardist Chris Ethridge (who had played alongside Parsons in the International Submarine Band), pedal steel guitarist "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow and session drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh rounded out the lineup.

Parsons had refused to join his Byrds bandmates for a tour of South Africa, citing his disapproval of the apartheid policy of that nation's government.

Hillman doubted the sincerity of Parsons' gesture, believing instead that the singer merely wanted to remain in England with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, whom he had recently befriended.

[6] The Flying Burrito Brothers recorded their debut album, The Gilded Palace of Sin (containing originals by Parsons, Hillman, and Ethridge alongside covers of two songs by the venerable Southern soul songwriting duo of Dan Penn and Chips Moman), without a regular drummer.

Hoh proved to be unable to perform adequately due to a substance abuse problem and was dismissed after recording two songs, leading the group to employ a variety of session players, including former International Submarine Band drummer Jon Corneal (who briefly joined the group as an official member, appearing on a plurality of the tracks) and Popeye Phillips of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show.

Despite widespread critical acclaim upon its release in February 1969 (as exemplified by Stanley Booth's laudatory review in Rolling Stone and positive press remarks by Bob Dylan) for its pioneering amalgamation of country, soul music, and psychedelic rock, The Gilded Palace of Sin stalled at No.

[7] Although the band declined an invitation to perform at Woodstock, a comprehensive train tour of the United States (necessitated by Parsons' fear of flying) ultimately ended in disaster due to drug and alcohol use.

[8] Dissatisfied by the band's lack of success and unable to fully reconcile his predilection for R&B with the more conservative tastes of Parsons and Hillman, Ethridge departed the group in the autumn of 1969.

To this end, manager Jim Dickson instigated a loose session where the band recorded several traditional country staples from their live act (including songs by Merle Haggard and Buck Owens), contemporary pop covers in a countrified vein ("To Love Somebody", "Lodi", "I Shall Be Released", "Honky Tonk Women"), and Williams's rock and roll classic "Bony Moronie."

Several of the tracks from the abandoned sessions would eventually see the light of day in 1976 on Sleepless Nights, which also featured outtakes from Parsons's post-Burritos solo career.

Released in April 1970, Burrito Deluxe juxtaposed the band's inability to develop compelling new material (partially exacerbated by Parsons' hedonistic streak; his "Lazy Days" dated from 1967) with prominent covers of the Rolling Stones's hitherto unreleased "Wild Horses," Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" and the Southern gospel standard "Farther Along."

According to Hillman, this incident was merely the final straw; Parsons' desire to hang out with the Rolling Stones rather than focus on his own band's career was also a significant factor, mirroring his 1968 dismissal from The Byrds.

Roberts assumed corporate ownership of the band from Hillman in October 1972 and assembled a makeshift lineup to fulfill contractual commitments for some 1973 European live shows.

Augmented by songwriter and session luminary Spooner Oldham from the Dan Penn/FAME Studios axis, the band released Flying Again on Columbia Records later that year.

In 1980, they had the first of several minor country hits with a version of Merle Haggard's "White Line Fever" from their album Live in Tokyo, released the previous year.

The Burrito Brothers continued to work with the top session players in Nashville and Los Angeles, logging an impressive list of singles for Curb Records.

Also in the early 1980s, the Burrito Brothers were responsible for a campaign that finally saw Lefty Frizzell inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 1984, Beland and Guilbeau retired the Burritos and afforded Kleinow the chance to re-form essentially the late 1970s lineup with Skip Battin and Greg Harris, which continued to tour and release live albums for the rest of the 1980s.

In 1991 a lineup consisting of Beland, Guilbeau, Ethridge, Kleinow, and Australian singer Brian Cadd began work on a new album, Eye of a Hurricane.

Hatter has previous history with Chris James in Mr. Hyde (with Boomer Castleman) and The Lost Sideshow (with Rick Lonow and Michael Webb).

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of “The Gilded Palace of Sin”, The Burrito Brothers headline Will James' 12th annual Nashville Tribute to Gram Parsons playing the classic LP in its entirety, something no other incarnation of the band had ever done.

Guests include: Ronnie Guilbeau, Walter Egan, Michael Curtis, Noah Bellamy, Larry Patton, Pamela Des Barres.

2022: Ready to get back into creative work, James, Paoletta and Young enlist the brilliant guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Steve Allen to complete recording the unfinished album.