That was 1994, you sure it’s not JFK?
Well you may be right, but that [Natural Born Killers] is the one that resembles The Doors movie. He started off with the idea for Natural Born Killers and turned into The Doors movie. It’s not Jim Morrison, it’s Oliver Stone in leather pants.
What did you think of Val Kilmer’s performance?
He was good. He was just over the top. The film was over the top, everything about it was. It was Natural Born Killers as rock-n-rollers.
Did Oliver, during that making of that movie, ever consult any of you guys?
He talked to me, and he talked to John and Robby, sure. But he didn’t hear what I had to say, he had his own vent. He had his own twisted vent he wanted to make and he did, fine. Now this [When You’re Strange] is the antidote to the poison Oliver Stone spewed out 20 years ago.
Stone’s film shows that Jim used substances and it impacted his career and performances, When You’re Strange shows that too, so is that not the same truth?
What were those substances?
Alcohol and marijuana?
Oh man, think of the period, but to put it right, just alcohol and some pills. The Doors are an LSD pothead band. Earlier, we took acid to open the doors of perception, that’s where the name of the band comes from [taken from Aldous Huxley’s so named book]. But then later, alcohol took over Jim Morrison because he had a genetic predisposition towards alcohol and that’s what happened. Alcohol was poison to him. Alcohol allowed an alternate personality to emerge.
You sound like you really were tight with Jim and have a lot of admiration for him.
I do, he was a great poet and a great friend. We had a lot of great times together. And you don’t see any of that in the Oliver Stone movie at all.
What was is your most fond memory of Jim Morrison?
Walking on the beach and discussing philosophy and jazz. That’s what we did. We’d sit on Venice Beach and watch the sun set and Jim would say, “it’s morning in Asia.” Then he’d cite a Zen haiku.
And the most difficult?
Miami, without a doubt. You can imagine. We all had to go to court. Jim Morrison was on trial in Miami for obscenity. When he went off to Paris, he was still under repeal, so it was still possible that they might put him away in place called Raiford. If he had been found guilty they could have put him away for three and a half years. And when they took his mug shot, the cop pulled on his hair and said, “You wait til we get you in Raiford boy, we’ll see about that long hair.” This was Cool Hand Luke time for real. It really weighed on him.
Would you say that weight had a hand in his downfall?
No doubt.
And what about him having had whipped it out?
During the trial there hundred of photos offered in evidence, but not one photo of Jim Morrison’s ivory shaft. There were loads of people taking pictures. Did all 14,000 of those people gasp as to not take a picture, did time stop, or did it just never happen? There were photos of everything else, the stage collapsing, Jim with the lamb, cops, chaos, riots and everything, but not that.
