FRANCE: Fans and former Doors band members pay their respects to legendary singer Jim Morrison

Record ID: 640540

  • Title: FRANCE: Fans and former Doors band members pay their respects to legendary singer Jim Morrison
  • Date: 8th December 2003
  • Summary: (L!3)PARIS, FRANCE (DECEMBER 10, 2003) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER KEYBOARD PLAYER RAY MANZAREK SAYING: "The motivation is to play the music. Robby wrote 'Light my Fire', I'm the guy who plays the keyboards in The Doors, he's the guitar player, and we haven't played The Doors songs in so long that it was like time to play... Thirty years ago and by... and it was time to play Doors songs again. My fingers were itching, look at them, even now they want to play, see? You will play, later, later, oh, I cant even stop them. And we needed a new singer, so we got Ian Astbery to be our new singer, to sing out the words of The Doors music one more time.'
  • Embargoed: 23rd December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA57K8XIOUW5HX7Y2VUQF2HJVVF
  • Story Text: Never to be forgotten. Hunrdeds of fans turned up at Paris' Pere Lachaise cemetery to pay their respects to the legendary Doors frontman Jim Morrison. It would have been the Lizard King's 60th birthday on Monday (December 8).
    He would have been 60 years old last Monday (December 8) but for many hardcore Doors fans it's hard to picture Jim Morrison as anything other than the young, sleek rockstar he portrayed during his lifetime.
    Morrison was 27 when he died of a drug-induced heart attack in Paris in 1971. His grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery is one of the most visited resting places in the world. Other artistic greats such as Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf also lie there but no one has attracted more tributes and visits than Morrison.
    Morrison's former bandmates Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger attended the tributes, burning candles, a rose and a poem at the grave. They were moved by the crowds of peo ple joining in: 'It was a great honour for Jim to have all those people come to his birthday party. And we were crying and we were laughing and it was good to be with our friend one more time. He burnt some of his poems, and the poems flew into the air and into the flames and into the smoke, out into the ether... We miss him very much. That was a wonderful time at Pere Lachaise.' Morrison may have gone, but the Doors regrouped in his memory. Accompanied by former British band "The Cult"
    singer and Morrison look-alike Ian Astbery, they gave a private concert for 200 people at la Scene on Tuesday (December 9).
    Manzarek ((64) and Krieger (57) now call themselves "The Doors 21st Century" and are on a major world tour.
    It's not the same without Jim, but the show goes on: 'The spirit of Jim Morrison is with us, Ian does not imitate Jim Morrison but Jim Morrison is always there, and the spirit and the energy are always the same, the energy must be the same, that's why we are doing it, we are doing it for the intensity of the energy.' Jon Densmore, former drummer for The Doors, did not attend the Paris birthday celebration. He filed a lawsuit against Manzarek and Krieger in February for breach of contract for touring without him under the new band.
    As for the Lizard King, his songs and music will continue to echo as they have done for the over thirty years since his death.
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