Wait, Gram Parsons Was Once Cast in a Sci-Fi Film?

Gram Parsons (whose birthday is November 5th) is set to be personally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously on November 14th, 2026 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Unlike the Country Hall of Fame, the Rock Hall has seen it fit to preserve the legacy of this very influential figure in American music. And unlike country fans, rock fans will get to see this year’s induction ceremony since its available for streaming on Hulu and Disney+ the next day, and will be made into a television special to be aired on ABC on December 8th.

Ahead of the induction, a missing part of the Gram Parsons legacy is finally being revealed, and one that will include many revelations about the life of Gram beyond the music.

Enter Saturation 70, which is a lost 1970 dystopian sci-fi film that was meant to star Gram Parsons, legendary country music clothier Nudie Cohn (who also deserves to be in the Country Music Hall of Fame), singer/actor Michelle Phillips that’s best known as the iconic soprano of The Mamas & The Papas, as well as the 5-year-old Julian Jones who happened to be the son of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones.

The special effects coordinator of the film was Douglas Trumbull who worked on iconic films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner. It was shot around Los Angeles and in Joshua Tree around a UFO convention. But the reason you might have never heard of Saturation 70 before is due to the film never being finished. After the stock market crash of 1970, filming was halted as funding dried up about halfway through the film, and all the footage from the film was lost.

Who knows exactly how well Saturation 70 would have done if it was completed, or where it could have taken the legacy of Gram Parsons beyond his brief, but influential time in music. But a new book written by Chris Campion and Anthony Foutz looks to explore the legacy of this “counterculture Wizard of Oz” film, while also delving into a different side of the Gram Parson’s legacy while doing it. Campion was the publisher behind the new Gary Stewart biography I Am From The Honky Tonks, and Foutz was the director of the original film.

Called Saturation 70: A Vision Past of the Future Foretold, the book includes over 200 unpublished photos along with fragments of the script of the film, and photos of Gram and the rest of the film’s cast at the 1969 Giant Rock Space Convention.

“Gram’s death has long overshadowed his life,” author Chris Campion tells Saving Country Music. “Our book makes a compelling case for exactly the opposite, by focusing on a pivotal period of his life that coincided with the making of Saturation 70 (1969/1970) – namely, his break from the Flying Burrito Brothers and decision to go solo, and a devastating bike crash that was a premonition of things to come.”

Campion continues, “Part of the reason I wrote the book is that Anthony was able to tell a completely different story about Gram than the popular myth that has developed. He introduced me to a whole group of Gram’s other close friends, none of whom have spoken about him before. Through them, I was able to piece together a fresh take on his life at the prime of his career. The book also tells the origin story, for the very first time, of Gram’s association with Joshua Tree.”

The “Kosmic Kiddie” Deluxe Limited Edition version of the book is now available for pre-order through publisher Wolf and Salmon, and the regular edition is now available for pre-order through Amazon.

Saturation 70: A Vision Past of the Future Foretold will be released on March 22nd, 2027.