Phil ‘Road Mangler’ Kaufman is critical but stable following a motorbike accident close to his Nashville home.
The 80-year-old road manager who’s had stints with artists including the Rolling Stones, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Joe Cocker and Frank Zappa, suffered fractures to his thoracic spine, right ankle and ribs in Montgomery Country last weekend.
According to the Nashville Scene, Kaufman isn’t believed to have suffered paralysis or a head injury in the smash.
Kaufman worked with Mick Jagger and co in the late 60s and was instrumental in releasing Charles Manson’s Lie: The Love And Terror Cult record in 1970 after befriending the infamous criminal behind bars at Terminal Island Prison.
And, following the death of Flying Burrito Brothers’ mainman Gram Parsons in 1973, Kaufman and a friend borrowed a hearse, took the singer’s body and tried to cremate it at the Joshua Tree National Park, California. He said he’d made a pact with Parsons, who died after a drug overdose.
The incident was chronicled in the 2003 film Grand Theft Parsons starring Johnny Knoxville. He released his autobiography entitled Road Mangler Deluxe in 1993.
Further details on Kaufman’s condition will be issued in due course.
