Many believe the Stones country period began during the drug-fuelled recording sessions for Exile On Main Street, at Keith Richards’ rented villa/studio in Nellcote, France in 1971. While calling the waterfront Villa at Nellcote a “studio” may be a bit of misnomer – it was more a luxury flophouse, home to a rag tag group of hangers on, various other musicians and, reportedly, local drug dealers – there’s no argument that during that summer Richards and Gram Parsons musical relationship grew substantially. While some maintain they were drawn together more by their prodigious drug use than their respect for artists like Hank Williams and Hank Snow, Parson’s deep knowledge of country music, his influence on Richards and, by osmosis, on the rest of the band, is often credited as a key driver in the development of the Stones unique country blues style.