Doors John Densmore and Robby Krieger on the band’s 60th anniversary

Before John Densmore leaving a conversation of 2025’s celebration of doors60th anniversary with living and crowding guitarist Robby KriegerThe drummer is joking about another six decades old ensemble. “Maybe Robby and I should go with Paul and Ringo,” says Densmore. “It would be something. The two Fab Four guys make good new music like Robby and I. Who knows? “

Rhino/Elektra started in 2025 by revealing the doors’ iconic light midnight archive recordings at DSP’s (rare concerts that were previously on vinyl with limited edition). Genesis Publishing prepares its colorful, archive chapter table Tome “Night Divides The Day: The Doors Anthology”, for May release. Krieger and Densmore realize each of the 60-year-old heritage from the doors-the-innovative, influential partnerships with Lizard King Poet Jim Morrison (who died in 1971) and organist pianist Ray Manzarek (who passed in 2013)-and the continued sale of their rhino catalog, including new Rarity emissions, is the heading for this story. But Densmore is quick to note, “We’re not dead yet. Heritage is strange to discuss when you are still working. I’m proud of the doors, and I like to look forward to. ”

Densmore and Krieger, such as McCartney and Starr, make new music a priority, even when it means joining the door’s music through the lens of fresh material.

“I play doors things live – I’m the only one who makes it ongoing – With my own new compositions, says Krieger, who will start a monthly residence at West Hollywood’s whiskey a go go in March and set different door discs with each gig. The guitarist has released Jazzy Psychedelic Solo album since 1977 and debuted Robby Krieger and The Soul Savages (with his singing son Waylon “captured Jim’s soul”) and its named album last year. Densmore is due to an electro-acoustic jazz album with Miles Davis Keyboardist Adam Holzman (“Son of Jac, who signed us to Elektra”), and his self-equipped “alt-hip-hop” project with public enemy’s chuck d, dope (“chucks graphics has a Door logo’s little “de” and “PE” in capital letters “) entitled” No Country for Old Men. ”

When I think back to first playing in Manzarek’s parent’s garage on Manhattan Beach with Morrison’s presence (“Jim was so damn shy, he would not sing”), Densmore takes his past into his present by remembering the emerging doors debut jam . “I asked Ray if he knew miles’ ‘all blues’, which he did, so we played it. Now, the electra’s CEO’s son – who idolized Ray – and I play’ all blues’ on our New album. Pretty cool. “

Again, the past is the now on the fresh fans and new listeners.

“People constantly ask me why teens and millennials are interested in our dinosaur band. Maybe it’s the drums, says Densmore, who imitates an edge-shot-and-cymbal-smash. “My roots are playing jazz, so that’s the swing. The doors had a brilliant songwriter who always improvised – he was not a musician, so to remember the words he had to invent incredible melodies – and I knew how to improvise behind him. I respond to melodies intuitively. I think listeners respond to immediacy. And the songs. I can remember that Jim sang “Crystal Ship” for us. “Densmore starts singing the haunting first phrase before he laughs and stops.” It’s a complex melody to go with complicated poetry like it. And he just thought all that in place. “

With the discovery of the influence of Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones, Densmore reminds one of Morrison’s improvised riffs under “When the Music’s Over” (“What have they done to the earth / what have they done to our fair sister”) and the freedom that was And one inspired in the other. “And Ray and I were so connected. He was a miracle as a keyboardist, with being really lucky he had that left hand on the base – it was the rhythmic mattress for Robby and Jim to do their things. Without a bassist, the doors were free. ”

Krieger is reminiscent of meeting Manzarek at a meditation center in Los Angeles at the time of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s arrival in the United States, a spiritual leader whose words inspired Morrison to write “Take it as comes” for the first Doors album. “The meditation and the Indian classical music that often came with which was a great substitution for acid,” says Krieger, suffocating a laugh. “The first time I took acid, the real sandoz acid from Europe, was fantasticThe coolest trip ever. After that everything went down. You chased the tension in the first experience and it never really happened. However, the meditation worked, and I convinced Densmore to accompany me. “Densmore was already part of Morrison and Manzarek’s doors in 1965, which recorded a six-track demo in September 1965 at LA’s World Pacific Studios. Not long after these sessions, Krieger joined the band. “Jim really liked my bottleneck guitar sound, especially since they had never heard anyone make the electrical image. Only Mike Bloomfield made that slider in front of me – strangely, the Bloomfield soundtrack was to the first acid. “

When it came to Krieger’s relationship with writing music with Morrison, the guitarist reminds to write songs like “Light My Fire” while living at home with his parents in Pacific Palisades. “Jim stayed when my people went on vacation and we wrote a lot of things, including” The End “, which was much more popular at first. The strange things didn’t happen until we played on whiskey and Jim put to words and I took into the Indian classic chords. “Here Krieger notes that his parents’ house was one of the many who burned during the January fire.

“Instead of writing” lighting my fire “, I should have written” not light my fire, “he says.

It is nice to hear that Krieger has not lost his humor, dark as it is.

Both Krieger and Densmore believe that Door’s debut album from 1967 and their fast, solve the last record with Jim Morrison, 1971’s “La Woman”, was their band’s finest recordings. “The sound of ‘La Woman’ was the direction we were on our way – and Jim would have been back next,” says the guitarist. “Everyone said he hated music and was going to Paris to become a poet, but I knew him. He was ready. ”

Drummer Densmore wonders that “somehow, on a four-track machine, in two we take captured the dynamics and improvisation nature of” The End “and” Light My Fire “on the first album, although they are technically a mess. ‘La Woman’? It was our punk album. they tried to be “sgt. Pepper.'”

Both men have written books on doors. Krieger imprisoned “Put the night in fire: Living, dying and playing guitar with the doors.” Densmore wrote “Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors.” When it comes to May-Publication of “Night Divides The Day” and its part-in-April limited edition with a 7 “off with rare” Hello, I love you “and” Moonlight Drive “demos (check pre-orders on Nightdividestheday.com), Especially Densmore is excited. “My head is filled with helium looking at the book. Reads Maestro Gustavo Dudamel who waxes on how we will remember as Beethoven. Whoa. “

However, none of the men are happy about the world of DSP and the free or vid-pennations the availability of their cherished recorded production.

“It’s a bummer,” says Krieger about the streaming universe. “People can get our tracks and remix them, fuck with them at their whim. I honestly wish that everyone would have left the recordings alone, as they were. For that reason only, I wish we were back in the 1960s. Music had a bigger role then. More fun. “

Densmore grabs almost all aspects of streaming.

“Going from LPS with good art, feed recovery and 30-minute or so programmed stories for less packaged CDs for convenience was one thing,” he says. “Steamy? Holy fuck. You have to go somewhere else to see who was playing on it, but it is really portable and good for the sake of ecology. Ok. Streaming people – Each technology allows company America a new area to play prisoners with royalties and pull their feet to help pay artists. Spotify was tuned by the doors and Santana because we were paid $ 0.0003 per power. Spotify lost. They appealed, lost again and now they will pay us an improvement of 44% on the royalty number, retroactively. I am waiting. Where is the money? This may sound like sour grapes and can get me killed, but the head of Spotify is a trillion and still pays $ 0.0003 per power. “

That said, both Densmore and Krieger have been pleased to see further studio sessions linked to every new door catalog release and that the bright midnight archives with rare, never before released concert recordings are heard by loving fans and beginners.

Densmore mentions that Bruce Botnick, the long -standing engineer and co -producer of the doors at “La Woman”, is the guy who compiles everything and feels every pace. “Robby and I monitor this and try to keep it tasteful,” says the drummer. “At first, I thought like George Harrison, who once said something else that comes out of the Beatles catalog after they share will need a surgeon general. Then I thought of all the Coltrane albums that come with countless withdrawals and how the fans love to hear the process – so, good, we will send out our lingerie. “

All they can hope is that the underwear is clean, according to Densmore.

When it comes to the light midnight archive, the drummer believes that the doors’ live discs are the back door in the band’s real genius. “No base, raw – that it was the skeleton that was,” he says. “I would like to see the Winterland San Francisco show come out next. I know some of the drum tracks are missing. I’m the drummer, Botnick is around. Maybe I can connect these holes. “

Krieger comes on with the mention of Winterland Gig in 1967 and its future live album. “The fun thing about that night was that Chuck Berry opened with Doug Kershaw who followed him. It was immediately after we did the “Ed Sullivan -Show”, and it played on the monitors because our roadmen rigged them when we went on stage, “says the guitarist.” We were especially “on” that night because of it … Releasing things from vaults can be a trial, but it may be worth it when it is material like it. “

With Krieger playing Doors album throughout 2025 on The whiskey, both the guitarist and the drummer say they will come together on the West Hollywood Club’s stage. “I’ll play with Robby,” says Densmore. “I dare say, there is more to come, maybe something with an all-star group along the line? There are iron in the fire is everything.”

Before you log off, it is important to note after the fires that ravaged LA that the doors are the decisive Los Angeles band: The Perveyors of Dionysian Blues, Soft, Sensual Psychedelia and Jim Morrison’s poetry of abandonment. Los Angeles is the fifth member of the doors. What Joni Mitchell is for Laurel Canyon, what Jefferson Airplane is for San Francisco, what the beach boys are for Hawthorne, the doors are for “Fantastic La”, with quotes of Morrison’s words from “Peace Frog.”

“The La woman hurts, but she comes back,” says Densmore. that continues to live near the pales.

Krieger returns to the subject of the fire by recalling the house he grew up in, now away with the fire and doors that made his life unique. “We loved LA; John and I were born here. Ray and Jim ended up there at Ucla with me. Los Angeles was a perfect place to start a rock band like ours. As Jim said, “The west is the best.” You can’t go farther west than LA, unless you count Hawaii. But what would have been the probability of getting four strange guys like us together in Hawaii? “

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