This 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee spent his childhood in Georgia

Singer-songwriter Gram Parsons, who spent his formative years in Waycross, will be inducted posthumously into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this year.

Parsons, who died in 1973 at 26, will be honored in the early influence category, along with Fela Kuti, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte and Celia Cruz.

Parsons, who was born in Florida but moved to Georgia as a young child, only spent about 12 years in Waycross, but the city still claims him as theirs.

For nearly 30 years, Waycross has been home to the Gram Parsons Guitar Pull festival, wherein local musicians perform to pay tribute to their (almost) native son.

The publication of the book “Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons” by former Rolling Stones staffer Ben Fong-Torres reignited interest in Parsons.

The city formally recognized him for the first time in 1991, the year the book came out, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

“I didn’t know who Gram Parsons was until this book came out,” Waycross resident Jean Counce told the AJC at the time. “I’m sorry I didn’t know him. He obviously was a very brilliant man.”

The same article stated that while Parsons usually did not speak well of Waycross, in a 1960 letter to a friend he said he missed the town and had been “on cloud nine” there.

Parsons played in the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers before making two albums with Emmylou Harris. He discovered Harris in a club outside Washington, D.C., and she has called him the greatest musical influence in her life, as well as a close friend.

This year’s other inductees include Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan in the performer category.

In addition, Linda Creed, Arif Mardin, Jimmy Miller and Rick Rubin will be inducted in the musical excellence category, while Ed Sullivan will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

Georgia band the Black Crowes, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee for the second year, did not make the final list.