Post by darkstar on Jan 2, 2005 0:22:33 GMT
ROBBY KRIEGER: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
By Jesse Nash
High Times – March 1991
Although Jim Morrison was the face and voice of The Doors, the group’s guitarist Robby Krieger wrote many of their songs. In this interview, Krieger reminisces about the good old days with The Doors.
HIGH TIMES: What’s the wildest Doors story you’ve never told an interviewer?
ROBBY KRIEGER: Hmmm….There was the time I got this call at around two or three in the morning from Jim and his girlfriend. They were on acid, Jim said, “We’re dying over here. You’ve got to come and save us. Please, man!” So I went over there and they’re freaking out. Finally, I got them together enough to take them over to the River Park to cool them out. I said, “Hang out here until you fee like you can handle it and oh, yeah, we’re recording today, don’t forget.” It was six in the morning by this point. Hours passed and it came time for us to go to the studio. Jim hardly ever missed a (recording) date, especially when he was suppose to sing. But he didn’t show up, so we did the track without him. When he finally showed up later, he did the song in one take. The entire song in one take. And it went perfectly.
HIGH TIMES: What was the song?
ROBBY KRIEGER: Light My Fire.
HT: Most people don’t know that you wrote Light My Fire.
RK: It’s true. Light My Fire is the first song I ever wrote. One day Jim said, “Everybody go home and write some songs – we don’t have enough songs.” Jim’s songs were very heavy. They had to be about earth, air, fire or water. I tried so many different combinations – things like ‘come on baby breathe my air – come on baby share my earth.’ It was pretty embarrassing until I finally came up with ‘come on baby light my fire.’ That knocked Jim out.
HT: Does it bother you when people overlook your song writing accomplishments like, Light My Fire and Hello I Love You?
RK” Yeah, it’s a little depressing sometimes. I don’t care if people think that Jim wrote all the songs, but if they think that Jose Feliciano wrote them, that really gets me pissed off. (Ed. Note Feliciano did a hit cover version of Light My Fire)
**(transcriptionist note: I typed Hello I Love You as it appeared in the article. No mistake.)
People write songs in so many different ways. Jim wrote most of his songs when he lived with a guy named Dennis Jacobs. Dennis had great pot. When Jim smoked pot with Dennis, the songs just popped into his head. Most of Jim’s songs made it to the album as first drafts! It’s like the songs were already written and just waiting for someone to use them. It was weird.
HT: Would you say that much of The Doors music was influenced by LSD?
RK: Yeah. Especially the songs written by or involving Jim. He was taking a lot of LSD – that’s a fact. I had taken LSD before the group was together, but by the time the Doors got together I had taking acid.
HT: Why did you stop?
RK: Mainly because everything was so crazy. And I thought that if I continued taking LSD, I would go crazy. The rest of the band had to be super straight in order to balance off Jim. If we were messed up, then who would take care of Jim? I’ll admit that LSD did influence our music quite a lot. Acid makes you think a lot more – it makes you think of heavy things and not just stupid love songs. It really stimulates the thought process.
HT: How did you communicate with Jim musically? Can you describe the working relationship?
RK: It was great working on songs with him. That was probably the only time he was normal. Jim and I worked out a lot of songs together. We wrote most of the stuff, and usually when we were writing he’d come and stay at my house. Those were by far some of the best times I ever had with Jim.
HT: There are many stories that have circulated over the years about how Jim died. Can you put all these so called ‘theories’ to rest and tell us what really happened?
RK: I wish I knew myself, but I don’t. Jim was in Paris and we weren’t.
HT” Do you think he was murdered?
RK: I doubt it. Why would anyone what to murder Jim? He wasn’t threatening anybody at the time. If they were going to murder him, they would have done that a lot earlier.
HT: Did he drink himself to death?
RK: That’s certainly possible. He was pretty sick when he went to Paris. I remember Jim was coughing up blood and stuff before he left. I think that happened from being run down too much and never really sleeping. One too many bad trips. We’ll never really know the truth. I suspect. I am sure it wasn’t suicide, because that just wasn’t Jim’s nature. I talked to him about a week before he died. I told him L.A. Woman was doing real good and that we were ready to do another one (album) right away. He was in good spirits and just as excited as I was.
HT: Did Jim’s death make you want to drop out of the music scene?
RK: For a while it did, but not really. The first thought that ran through my head when Jim died was, “shit what do I do now?” I mean, what else was I suppose to do? All I’ve ever known is music. I couldn’t fathom the idea of really doing anything else.
HT: You tried to put the Doors together without Jim. Why?
RK: We hoped we could capture something, but it really never felt very good. Like I said, we balanced Jim and without Jim it was very awkward. When Jim was hone, there was no balance any more. We were totally fucked.
HT: For your 1989 solo album No Habla, you covered two Doors songs, Wild Child and You’re Lost Little Girl. What prompted you to record these songs as instrumentals?
RK: I was thinking of songs to record that would sound good on the guitar, and over the years I have been performing both, You’re Lost Little Girl and Wild Child s instrumentals, but I had never really recorded them before. I kind of knew they would work on tape form the response I got from when I performed the songs live.
HT: What are the rest of The Doors doing these days?
RK: Various things involving movies, but I don’t really know specifically. Acting, directing, I think, stuff like that.
HT: Is there one lesson that sticks in your mind that you’ve learned from your experiences playing with The Doors and from your involvement in the music industry in general?
RK: Well, you have to make up your mind from the very beginning to be committed to whatever it is that you do with your life. Jim was committed to burning out everything and to blowing out all the candles – he basically said, ‘who cares what the fuck happens?’ But he paid the price. He also had a hell of a lot of fun. I feel that his approach to life was more destructive than it was positive. It’s not necessary. You can be committed to something and still achieve your goals, and take care of yourself at the same time. Plan for the future and make sure you’ve got something left for later on. It’s not necessary to fuck yourself up with drugs and stiff to get your point across. I’m lucky to be alive and still be playing my instrument. Take notice and learn from a guy like Jim Morrison. He’s a legend, but he’s dead and gone. You can make a mark on this life and be around to enjoy it.
By Jesse Nash
High Times – March 1991
Although Jim Morrison was the face and voice of The Doors, the group’s guitarist Robby Krieger wrote many of their songs. In this interview, Krieger reminisces about the good old days with The Doors.
HIGH TIMES: What’s the wildest Doors story you’ve never told an interviewer?
ROBBY KRIEGER: Hmmm….There was the time I got this call at around two or three in the morning from Jim and his girlfriend. They were on acid, Jim said, “We’re dying over here. You’ve got to come and save us. Please, man!” So I went over there and they’re freaking out. Finally, I got them together enough to take them over to the River Park to cool them out. I said, “Hang out here until you fee like you can handle it and oh, yeah, we’re recording today, don’t forget.” It was six in the morning by this point. Hours passed and it came time for us to go to the studio. Jim hardly ever missed a (recording) date, especially when he was suppose to sing. But he didn’t show up, so we did the track without him. When he finally showed up later, he did the song in one take. The entire song in one take. And it went perfectly.
HIGH TIMES: What was the song?
ROBBY KRIEGER: Light My Fire.
HT: Most people don’t know that you wrote Light My Fire.
RK: It’s true. Light My Fire is the first song I ever wrote. One day Jim said, “Everybody go home and write some songs – we don’t have enough songs.” Jim’s songs were very heavy. They had to be about earth, air, fire or water. I tried so many different combinations – things like ‘come on baby breathe my air – come on baby share my earth.’ It was pretty embarrassing until I finally came up with ‘come on baby light my fire.’ That knocked Jim out.
HT: Does it bother you when people overlook your song writing accomplishments like, Light My Fire and Hello I Love You?
RK” Yeah, it’s a little depressing sometimes. I don’t care if people think that Jim wrote all the songs, but if they think that Jose Feliciano wrote them, that really gets me pissed off. (Ed. Note Feliciano did a hit cover version of Light My Fire)
**(transcriptionist note: I typed Hello I Love You as it appeared in the article. No mistake.)
People write songs in so many different ways. Jim wrote most of his songs when he lived with a guy named Dennis Jacobs. Dennis had great pot. When Jim smoked pot with Dennis, the songs just popped into his head. Most of Jim’s songs made it to the album as first drafts! It’s like the songs were already written and just waiting for someone to use them. It was weird.
HT: Would you say that much of The Doors music was influenced by LSD?
RK: Yeah. Especially the songs written by or involving Jim. He was taking a lot of LSD – that’s a fact. I had taken LSD before the group was together, but by the time the Doors got together I had taking acid.
HT: Why did you stop?
RK: Mainly because everything was so crazy. And I thought that if I continued taking LSD, I would go crazy. The rest of the band had to be super straight in order to balance off Jim. If we were messed up, then who would take care of Jim? I’ll admit that LSD did influence our music quite a lot. Acid makes you think a lot more – it makes you think of heavy things and not just stupid love songs. It really stimulates the thought process.
HT: How did you communicate with Jim musically? Can you describe the working relationship?
RK: It was great working on songs with him. That was probably the only time he was normal. Jim and I worked out a lot of songs together. We wrote most of the stuff, and usually when we were writing he’d come and stay at my house. Those were by far some of the best times I ever had with Jim.
HT: There are many stories that have circulated over the years about how Jim died. Can you put all these so called ‘theories’ to rest and tell us what really happened?
RK: I wish I knew myself, but I don’t. Jim was in Paris and we weren’t.
HT” Do you think he was murdered?
RK: I doubt it. Why would anyone what to murder Jim? He wasn’t threatening anybody at the time. If they were going to murder him, they would have done that a lot earlier.
HT: Did he drink himself to death?
RK: That’s certainly possible. He was pretty sick when he went to Paris. I remember Jim was coughing up blood and stuff before he left. I think that happened from being run down too much and never really sleeping. One too many bad trips. We’ll never really know the truth. I suspect. I am sure it wasn’t suicide, because that just wasn’t Jim’s nature. I talked to him about a week before he died. I told him L.A. Woman was doing real good and that we were ready to do another one (album) right away. He was in good spirits and just as excited as I was.
HT: Did Jim’s death make you want to drop out of the music scene?
RK: For a while it did, but not really. The first thought that ran through my head when Jim died was, “shit what do I do now?” I mean, what else was I suppose to do? All I’ve ever known is music. I couldn’t fathom the idea of really doing anything else.
HT: You tried to put the Doors together without Jim. Why?
RK: We hoped we could capture something, but it really never felt very good. Like I said, we balanced Jim and without Jim it was very awkward. When Jim was hone, there was no balance any more. We were totally fucked.
HT: For your 1989 solo album No Habla, you covered two Doors songs, Wild Child and You’re Lost Little Girl. What prompted you to record these songs as instrumentals?
RK: I was thinking of songs to record that would sound good on the guitar, and over the years I have been performing both, You’re Lost Little Girl and Wild Child s instrumentals, but I had never really recorded them before. I kind of knew they would work on tape form the response I got from when I performed the songs live.
HT: What are the rest of The Doors doing these days?
RK: Various things involving movies, but I don’t really know specifically. Acting, directing, I think, stuff like that.
HT: Is there one lesson that sticks in your mind that you’ve learned from your experiences playing with The Doors and from your involvement in the music industry in general?
RK: Well, you have to make up your mind from the very beginning to be committed to whatever it is that you do with your life. Jim was committed to burning out everything and to blowing out all the candles – he basically said, ‘who cares what the fuck happens?’ But he paid the price. He also had a hell of a lot of fun. I feel that his approach to life was more destructive than it was positive. It’s not necessary. You can be committed to something and still achieve your goals, and take care of yourself at the same time. Plan for the future and make sure you’ve got something left for later on. It’s not necessary to fuck yourself up with drugs and stiff to get your point across. I’m lucky to be alive and still be playing my instrument. Take notice and learn from a guy like Jim Morrison. He’s a legend, but he’s dead and gone. You can make a mark on this life and be around to enjoy it.