As a founding member of LA band The Doors, John Densmore is probably known best for his jazz-influenced drumming that kept the band going, but he’s also a best-selling author. His latest book, The Doors: Unhinged Jim Morrison’s Legacy Goes on Trial, is an inside look at the “courtroom thriller” that was his battle against bandmates over the rights to use of the name “The Doors.”
In true Angeleno fashion, he notes the exorbitant price of parking at the downtown courthouse where he spent months battling it out, and at his bandmates Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger’s Century City lawyer’s office. But the real story happens as he makes the decision to take it to court in the first place.
“After Jim passed, Ray and Robbie wanted to play and call themselves The Doors, and I said, ‘founding members of,’ ‘former members of.’ … And they refused,” notes Densmore of the difficult decision that led him to the lawsuit. “And I felt, whoa, The Doors without Jim Morrison? The Police without Sting? The [Rolling] Stones without Mick? No, please, stop. They wouldn't. And I took this really difficult step of suing my musical brothers.”
The well-documented agreement between the original four members of The Doors went on trial. Morrison had proposed in their early days that they split everything equally and give veto power to every member, a system that held until the early aughts, well after Morisson’s death, when big money commercial offers started coming in. Densmore says honoring Morrison’s original wishes was always top of mind for him.
“The bottom line is that [Morrison] was really upset with us considering ‘Come on Buick light my fire,’” he says of a dispute over a commercial that almost imploded the band. “He said, ‘Yeah, let's do it. And I'll smash the car on TV with a sledge hammer.’ Okay, that's a ‘no.’ He's now my ancestor. I don't want to forget that.”
After many months, many parking fees, and many character assassination attempts on both Morrison and Densmore, he prevailed. Krieger and Manzarek could no longer tour using The Doors’ name. Before Manzarek died, Densmore says fences were mended, and he’s since played with Krieger again, noting “Death trumps everything.”
John Desnmore will be reading at Diesel: A bookstore on November 14th.