Kaufman worked with Gram Parsons, The Rolling Stones, Emmylou Harris, Joe Cocker, Frank Zappa, Hank Williams III, Etta James, among others.
Kaufman joined the Air Force in 1952 and served for four years, which included time in the Korean War with the 37th Bomb Squadron.
[3] Kaufman had previously acted in Hollywood, with bit parts in Spartacus, Riot in Juvenile Prison, and Pork Chop Hill, among others, before a felony marijuana smuggling conviction in the mid 1960s.
[3] After getting out of prison (where he befriended fellow inmate Charles Manson), he was offered a job driving for Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, who were in Los Angeles at the time for the mixing of Beggars Banquet.
[2][4][5][6] Kaufman's first musical role was as the driver and assistant to The Rolling Stones during the recording of Beggar's Banquet, referred to by Mick Jagger as his "executive nanny.
It was in July 1973 that Parsons expressed his final wish to Kaufman: to be cremated and buried at Joshua Tree National Monument, where he liked to visit often.
Kaufman poured gallons of gasoline on the casket and threw a lit match, which resulted in partial cremation and a fireball; the remains of Parsons were buried in New Orleans, while Kaufman and Martin were later identified for the theft were thus each given thirty-day suspended jail sentences, fined $300 each for misdemeanor theft and charged $708 for funeral home expenses.
[13][14] Kaufman would later produce and release Manson's album at the height of his notoriety, but found that he could not get anyone to stock Lie: The Love and Terror Cult.