The Byrds Made This Important Appearance Change Before Their Grand Ole Opry Debut, but It Didn’t Help Much

As any heavily tattooed individual with conservative family members can attest, sometimes it’s easier to wear long sleeves to the function than deal with the hubbub around your appearance. When The Byrds made their Grand Ole Opry debut on the Ides of March in 1968, they were sporting their version of a hoodie-slash-tattoo cover-up. It still didn’t help them much, though.

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This was, after all, the late 1960s, which meant the conservative country crowd and rock folks like The Byrds were generally at odds. The Byrds didn’t feel like they belonged at the Opry, and frankly, many of the patrons and organizers seemed to feel the same way.

Nevertheless, since the band was in the middle of recording and promoting their latest album in Nashville—a country-rock fusion called Sweetheart Of The Rodeo—the Opry was the place to be.

Roger McGuinn Claimed The Byrds’ Opry Debut Wasn’t Too Bad

The Byrds had a short two-song feature on the Grand Ole Opry program that fateful night. They started with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”, which opened their then-forthcoming album. Then they played “Hickory Wind”, which Gram Parsons (the band’s country music catalyst) dedicated to his grandmother, with whom he used to listen to the iconic country music radio show. This song opened the album’s B-side. 

The Byrds tried to appeal to the country music crowd by cutting their hair shorter than usual, though it was still pretty long by the standards of those who preferred men in a high-and-tight cut. Plenty of people in the audience still heckled the band over their hair. Most accounts consider the performance a failure. Others are more forgiving, suggesting it was an important milestone in the history of country subgenres like alt-country and country rock.

As Roger McGuinn recalled to Nashville Scene in 2010, “There were indeed some folks attending…who didn’t seem to appreciate how sincere we were doing country music. It was during the Vietnam War, and we were perceived as hippies. But backstage was different. Skeeter Davis took us under her wing, and she was very kind” (via Rolling Stone).

Gram Parsons’ Biography Suggests Backstage Wasn’t All That Great

According to Ben Fong-Torres’ Hickory Wind: The Life And Times Of Gram Parsons, Skeeter Davis was the exception to the rule when it came to backstage dynamics at the Grand Ole Opry. Unbeknownst to the audience, when Parsons dedicated “Hickory Wind” to his grandmother for the band’s second song, he was throwing the cast members for a loop.

The original plan was for The Byrds to perform a Merle Haggard standard in an attempt to appease the Opry crowd. Tompall Glaser, who introduced the band, even brought up the Haggard tune as a performative segue. When Parsons switched things up mid-show, the program’s stars grew irate in the wings. “The Glaser brothers just flipped out,” Parsons later said. “They were yelling at us from off stage and stomping up and down. Roy Acuff was having fits.”

Tompall confronted Chris [Hillman] as the band went offstage, yelling, “You made me look like a fool on the radio!” As for Skeeter Davis’ warm welcome? Parsons later mused, “She was so happy that somebody had finally blown those guys off.”

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images