Does his gravesite in New Orleans still exist or did it get washed away when Hurricane Katrina hit?
It’s still there. In March 2005 the family put a new rectangular ledger on the grave. It has an image of Gram on it made from bronze or copper. That was a pretty nice thing to happen. It’s interesting that early in the film, he writes a letter to Avis declaring that they will never become as “sick and haunted” as their parents, but he ultimately experienced those same feelings. Bitterly ironic if you see what happens after that. That’s one of the toughest realities of the movie — to see that it’s really hard to overcome your childhood. You don’t have to be Freudian to see that. And as much as he wanted to overcome his childhood, he just couldn’t. His sister Avis was probably better at that. From what I understand she was a happy person when she died. She didn’t die of alcoholism, or suicide, or drug abuse. She died in an accident. How did you first discover Gram’s music? When I was about 20, a girlfriend of mine made me a west coast mix tape, and it had “Hot Burrito #1” on it from the
