Von Rabbit and Rutherford first met in the summer of 2000 when invited to Joshua Tree by a mutual friend to start a band . The two musicians did not find the band proceedings to work for them , and each night they went to their rooms to work on their own material . While the two were in the legendary Room 8 of the Joshua Tree Inn ( site of Gram Parsons death ) , Von Rabbit and Rutherford decided to work together and perform at Gram Fest , an annual festival honoring Gram Parsons at Joshua Tree in October . They intended to perform a set consisting exclusively of Gram Parsons covers , and named their side project Gram Rabbit as a combination of a nod to Gram Parsons and referencing Jesika von Rabbit 's nom de plume . Although they failed to qualify for the festival due to their application being too late , they found that the worked well together . Rutherford played a demo he was working on , which eventually evolved into " Cowboys & Aliens " , and they realized that their sounds worked well , a cosmic connection between the two . The two immediately quit that band that had brought them to Joshua Tree in order to pursue Gram Rabbit full-time . The two were too broke to buy instruments needed for a band , so they headed back to Rutherford 's hometown to live in a trailer across the street from Rutherford 's grandparents horse and cattle ranch while working on new material until they returned to Joshua Tree two years later with a collection of new songs and a vision for the group 's sound , philosophy and look . During this time , they were joined by bass player Travis Cline , a high-school friend of Rutherfords . The original band when complete consisted of singer/keyboardist/guitarist Jesika von Rabbit , guitarist/singer Todd Rutherford and bassist/sampler Travis Cline and moved back to Joshua Tree ready to play in 2003 , playing shows in Silverlake and elsewhere under the name of the Gram Rabbit Experience . After performing various shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco , a band that they opened for , Singapore Sling , liked them enough to recommend them to their record label , Stinky Records . The label producers listened to them the next show , and signed Gram Rabbit . Gram Rabbit 's shows frequently use desert scenes , and their songs and shows often use rabbit themes , helping to develop a fan-base that call themselves " The Royal Order of the Rabbits . " The band sold rabbit ears and tossed some off the stage , so that fans could wear them . They even have fans who dress in full bunny costumes
Gram Parsons death
Death of Gram Parsons
Gram Rabbit