Tuesday, 21 July 2015

Legendary Road Manager Phil Kaufman Critically Injured in Motorcycle Wreck

Photo: roadmanglerdeluxe,com - PHIL KAUFMAN
  • PHIL KAUFMAN
  • Photo: roadmanglerdeluxe,com
The Scene has learned that legendary rock ’n’ roll road manager and longtime Nashvillian Phil Kaufman was critically injured in a serious motorcycle accident in Montgomery County over the weekend. According to a source close to Kaufman, who turned 80 years old in April, the former Flying Burrito Brothers manager suffered a right ankle fracture, multiple rib fractures and thoracic spine fracture, injuries for which he received surgery last night at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center trauma unit.

At press time, the source says doctors don't believe Kaufman has suffered any paralysis or a head injury. When contacted by theScene, a Vanderbilt representative confirmed that Kaufman was admitted to the medical center and is currently in the ICU, where his condition is "critical but stable."

Known to many as “The Road Mangler,” and roundly considered the most famous road manager in rock history, Kaufman’s infamous exploits include a late-‘60s stint as The Rolling Stones’ driver and assistant (or “executive nanny,” as Mick Jagger called him) and producing one-time prison chum Charles Manson’s debut LP Lie: Love and the Terror Cult (which Kaufman managed to get released months before the start of the singer-turned-serial-killer’s sensational 1970 murder trial).

But Kaufman is perhaps best known for his wild antics as road manager for The Flying Burrito Brothers, the most fabled being the 1973 incident in which Kaufman and a friend borrowed a hearse, stole the recently deceased Burrito Bros. singer Gram Parsons' body, and attempted to cremate it in the California desert — exploits depicted in the 2003 Johnny Knoxville vehicle Grand Theft Parsons.

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