The Doors' co-founding guitarist Robby Krieger looked back on the band's late-frontman Jim Morrison 50 years after his death. Krieger has been busy publicizing his autobiography Set The Night On Fire: Living, Dying And Playing Guitar With The Doors as well as the 50th anniversary edition of the Doors' final album with Morrison — the classic, L.A. Woman.
Krieger, along with drummer John Densmore, remain the sole survivors of the band following the 2013 death of keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Krieger spoke about how Jim Morrison stood out from the bunch, telling, The Guardian, “Most people, when they take acid, get self-conscious and quiet. With Jim, it was the opposite. He would really go for it. I think Jim believed that life could be boring and that a lot of people were just going through the motions, so he would try to freak them out. He would do anything to add to the craziness.”
He spoke about how Morrison handled a bout of syphilis: “Most people would be scared if they contracted a potentially lethal STD, but Jim was excited to feel close to all those disease-ridden nineteenth century poets and painters he idealized. He wanted to let it go untreated so he could experience what it was really like to go insane.”
Krieger went on to reveal, “I think Jim had some real mental issues — manic depression, or whatever the press would ask about his family, he would say that they were dead. His mom was weird. She was very bossy. But he was fixated on her.”
With the band's final classic tune reaching the 50-year-mark in 2021, we asked Robby Krieger if the Doors realized how timeless “L.A. Woman” was when they laid it down: “Oh God, I don't. . . not really. I don't think so. I mean, y'know, we knew it wasn't bad, but I don't think we realized how good it was, no. I mean, it still amazes me how good that song is.”
