![\"Issue38-robby-krieger\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Issue38-robby-krieger.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nDirector Oliver Stone\u2019s 1991 biopic The Doors<\/i> offered many insights into the legendary group\u2019s music. Now, with the release of the Doors\u2019 self-produced 1968 film documentary Feast of Friends<\/i>, fans have access to a more realistic depiction of band members\u2019 lives and their creative process. At its center is Robby Krieger, whose dazzling guitar work helped spark magic with singer Jim Morrison\u2014who died in 1971\u2014keyboardist Ray Manzarek and drummer John Densmore. \u201cSomehow we gelled perfectly,\u201d says Krieger, 68, who wrote many of the band\u2019s hits, including \u201cLight My Fire.\u201d \u201cIf any one of us hadn\u2019t been there, it wouldn\u2019t have worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whose idea was it to make this?<\/b><\/p>\n
Jim, Ray and I were students at UCLA\u2014but they were in the film department and were big film nuts. On our first tour we decided to get some of our UCLA buddies to follow us around with a camera. We didn\u2019t know what it was going to be. Jim liked to say, \u201cLet the film make itself.\u201d We wanted it to be feature-length, but we ended up with only 45 minutes we were happy with. Eventually we thought, \u201cLet\u2019s just put it out the way it was supposed to be, even though it isn\u2019t complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrison seems like an average guy.<\/b><\/p>\n
That\u2019s the cool thing about it. The Oliver Stone movie gave the impression that Jim was a total weirdo, 24\/7. People find it hard to believe Jim could be a normal person\u2014a good friend and a great guy. As he started drinking too much that became less apparent, but deep down he was always that same guy.<\/p>\n
You originally wrote \u201cLight My Fire\u201d as a folk song?<\/b><\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. I was listening to artists like the Byrds and the Leaves. I came up with folk-rock chords, but fortunately John put that Latin beat to it. I really don\u2019t know what kind of music you would call \u201cLight My Fire.\u201d There\u2019s a folk-rock and East Indian influence\u2014and John Coltrane chords in the solo.<\/p>\n
Did you and Morrison find the time\u00a0<\/b>to write together?<\/b><\/p>\n
We did quite a bit. Sometimes he would have lyrics, and either Ray or I would put music to it. Other times I would have some chords and he would put words to them. It happened in all sorts of ways. Later I would write some music and then we would look through Jim\u2019s poetry books to find ideas for lyrics. Jim was really good at finding the right words for the music.<\/p>\n
Any happy accidents?<\/b><\/p>\n
The solo in \u201cWhen the Music\u2019s Over\u201d is actually two solos playing at once. [Producer] Paul Rothchild had modified the input of the mixing board to give the guitar a violin sound. That made it easy for me to play what I was trying to play, which was basically Coltrane. I did one solo I kind of liked, and Paul said, \u201cLet\u2019s do another.\u201d We ended up doing three or four\u2014and by accident our engineer played two at once as we were listening to the playback. It worked perfectly\u2014one of those magic moments.<\/p>\n
How\u2019d you feel about the Stone film?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
There are some good things. I actually worked as an advisor for the musical parts. I wanted to make sure they were as true to life as possible. And I thought Val Kilmer was amazing, but that the script was kind of bad\u2014it only showed the crazy side of Jim. Much of the time, as the Feast of Friends<\/i> documentary shows, Jim was a normal guy. I hope people will see this film and weigh it against the Oliver Stone depiction.<\/p>\n
\u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROBBY KRIEGER The innovative Doors guitarist wants fans to know the band\u2019s real story Director Oliver Stone\u2019s 1991 biopic The Doors offered many insights into the legendary group\u2019s music. Now, with the release of the Doors\u2019 self-produced 1968 film documentary Feast of Friends, fans have access to a more realistic depiction of band members\u2019 lives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7665,7670],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14726,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14724\/revisions\/14726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}