September 16, 2025 • 24 mins
Legendary drummer John Densmore of The Doors is joining host Tom Needham on The Sounds of Film for a special conversation about his role in the acclaimed documentary “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary.”
A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Densmore is celebrated not only as the founding—and sole—drummer of The Doors, but also as a respected songwriter, actor, and author. With the band, he helped create timeless hits like “Light My Fire,” “Break on Through,” “Touch Me,” “People Are Strange,” and “L.A. Woman.” Beyond his music career, Densmore has written two bestselling books, “Riders on the Storm” and “The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison’s Legacy Goes Up on Trial,” and is currently at work on a new memoir, “Meetings with Remarkable Musicians.”
Densmore appears prominently in John Scheinfeld’s film “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary,” which highlights the genius of jazz icon John Coltrane. The documentary features insights from figures such as President Bill Clinton, Carlos Santana, and Cornel West, while Denzel Washington provides narration. A central focus of the film is Coltrane’s masterpiece “A Love Supreme,” composed in his home in Dix Hills, Long Island.
The Sounds of Film is the nation’s longest-running program dedicated to the intersection of film and music. For over three decades, it has presented an engaging mix of in-depth interviews and cinematic music to audiences across Long Island, Connecticut, and online. Notable past guests include Cornel West, Billy Joel, Jimmy Webb, Chuck D., Michael Moore, Carter Burwell, Jim Messina, and members of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble. The Sounds of Film is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
For more information, visit soundsoffilm.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, this is Tom Needham and you are listening to The Sounds of
Film and I am so excited to havehim on the phone with us.
A true legend. I'm talking about John Densmore.
He's a musician, songwriter, author and actor best known for
being the drummer for The Doors.He's the best selling author of
the book about the Doors, Riderson the Storm.
He's also currently in a very popular documentary called
(00:23):
Chasing Coltrane. John, thank you so much for
joining us here on The Sounds ofFilm.
Thank you, Tom. Nice to meet you.
I'm not dead. I guess I could be a a living
legend. OK.
Yeah, absolutely. I also have written a book
called The Doors Unhinged yeah which I self published.
(00:43):
Yeah, I I did want to speak to you about that too.
And I understand you're you're also working on your latest book
meetings with remarkable musicians as well.
Correct, Tom, Thank you. Yeah.
So, so we have a lot to talk about.
You're, you're one of these people.
I, I, I really love because you've done so much in music,
(01:04):
but you've also done acting and you're interested in politics.
So you're always doing somethinginteresting.
But let's go way back. You've been playing the drums
and other instruments since you were a kid, and I understand
that when you were in your teensyou started to have a
fascination with Coltrane. Can you tell us a little bit
about that? Sure.
(01:26):
Well I, I, first I played piano as an 8 year old then I, I was
going to play any instrument in junior high because I love music
so much and I, I chose clarinet and I had braces and the dentist
said no no, no, that'll ruin that.
Both drums became my thing. And actually in this new book, I
(01:48):
have a chapter on Elvin Jones, Coltrane's drummer.
And so yeah, I was kind of like a jazz snob who was aware of
Elvis and the early rock and rollers, but really was way into
jazz and. And I had fake ID and went to
jazz clubs and saw Coltrane manytimes.
(02:10):
And, I mean, I didn't know he was going to be the giant icon
that he has become, but I sensedsome magic there.
I don't know, just in the air. And so yeah, I was just a
teenage drummer going home everynight trying to copy everything
I heard. Well, what was it exactly about
(02:32):
Coltrane and also Elvin Jones that that made them stand out in
your mind compared to other stuff that was happening?
Well, I mean, that's the theme of this book, and it can't be
answered really. But maybe they're chasing train.
He has a song called Chasing theTrain.
(02:52):
I guess that's where they got the title for the documentary.
But they're chasing Infinity. They're trying to reach
something beyond time with really good time.
You got to have good time if you're a drummer, and then you
can get into timelessness. In other words, the trance state
(03:15):
where you get high for music andyou don't need the drugs or
whatever. I mean, you know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah, like break on through.
Yeah. As you probably know, or I
assume you, you've heard that John Coltrane, for part of his
life, he lived here on Long Island, which is where the
sounds of film takes place. And he had a house here, and
(03:38):
they're turning it into a Museumof sorts.
And, you know, the people who are trying to do this have been
doing a lot of interviews, and they just did a screening with
your movie that you're in. And they're all trying to make
the point that like Coltrane hasbecome, like you said, an icon,
you know, and they, and they even said that, you know, like
(03:59):
he, he couldn't even end up being, it's hard to predict
these things like someone like aBeethoven or a Mozart.
I mean, different genre, but butone of these giants that people
will be talking about hundreds of years from now.
And I was wondering like why today is he considered such a a
major artist and so appreciated by other musicians like
(04:19):
yourself? Well, are they the house they're
trying to preserve on Long Island?
Is that where he wrote The Love Supreme?
It is, yeah. Fantastic.
Well, as I say in the film, you know, he got kind of avant-garde
for some folks and it was, you know, difficult to listen to.
(04:41):
And the reason I ate it all up is because I followed him from
Bebop and then he got into MilesDavis Quartet Quintet, you know,
did the cool period. Then he went out on his own and
then he got way out. And so it's like Jackson Pollock
(05:01):
was a paint figuratively. He didn't just discover dripping
paint. So when an artist goes the whole
route, they've laid a really strong foundation and and you
respect them for going through all all those stages and
inventing new stages. And so that's the ingredients
(05:22):
for a giant artist that'll last.Well, I one has to wonder, you
know, you got caught up in this whole scene and it was, it
seems, one of your major interests.
And then you didn't end up initially going into like a jazz
band or something like that. You ended up becoming one of the
(05:42):
original, the original drummer for the, for The Doors, the only
drummer for the Doors. And you help form this group and
create a sound that people are still fascinated with today.
And I was wondering, you know, what about this music that you
were listening to in terms of jazz eventually influenced you
(06:03):
in terms of producing the music that you did with the with The
Doors? Well, jazz has a large
improvisational component. And the Doors, you know, we were
a rock band, but we were influenced by jazz.
(06:24):
Actually, the the chord changes in Light My Fire in the solos,
there's just two chords we go back and forth on.
There are a couple chords that are in my favorite things that
Coltrane made famous by reinterpreting that sort of
corny Broadway tune. And you know, the solos Light My
(06:44):
Fire, the song is 6 minutes. There's a long, long solo.
So it's it's jazz oriented. And then Jim had all these
poems, so we would play a kind of a vamp and he would improvise
poems. So it all came out of all the
the beatniks and the jazz. And we, you know, we had it in a
(07:05):
rock genre, but we were definitely influenced by it.
Maybe there shouldn't be any labels, you know.
Yeah. I mean, I'm this new book I'm
writing, I, I have a chapter on this, the new conductor of the
LA Philharmonic, Gustavo Dunamelfrom Venezuela, who's a, who is
(07:26):
the Leonard Bernstein of the 21st century.
And, you know, I make this parallel between him and Bob
Marley because you watch them perform and you're seeing every
fiber of their body sort of reflect the sound you're
(07:47):
hearing. So it's all connected.
The sound is the connection. It doesn't matter if it's
classical or jazz or what. Are there any songs in in the
Doors catalog that besides some of the famous ones that you
already just mentioned that whenyou look back, you're you
(08:09):
yourself, you're impressed. Like, wow, we, we, we did
something special here musically.
I. Don't know, you know, I mean,
the first few albums technicallywere not that good and there was
limited by technology, only a few tracks.
(08:30):
And but there's magic on there, you know, LA Woman, I like a
lot, which is our last album, which was, you know, well, I had
said to Ray, you know, Miles live at Carnegie Hall, there's a
the intro of the song. So what there's a big trumpet
(08:54):
error. And they said to Miles, we, you
know, we, we can take this out. And he said, no, I like the
feeling. And I said that to Ray about the
making of LA Woman, where we kind of, we just went for the
feeling. We just did a couple takes on
everything because a couple albums before that, Soft Parade
(09:18):
or Waiting for the Sun, we had, you know, we did hundreds of
takes. It was ridiculous.
Yeah. So that that was something I
said. Yeah.
Well, influence. I was wondering, can you give us
a little bit of an insight in terms of when you and Jim
(09:39):
Morrison and the other guys got together to to record music,
what exactly was the process? Well, that's good.
All right. We meet Ray's garage, his
parents garage, and they get to know each other.
We start jamming on Blues, you know, just Muddy Waters, John
(10:00):
Lee Hooker. Ray was from Chicago.
He loved Muddy. And and then what?
You know, we jazzed maybe on some jazz things, Cannonball
Adderly or whatever, just to feel each other out, and then
that evolved into writing our own material.
So that's kind of how it went. And amongst the guys in the
(10:22):
group, like would like, would Jim just have some lyrics or
would someone just play a littleriff?
Like how? How did the songs themselves
develop? The first few albums, Jim had
all these lyrics, but he had melodies as well.
That's the way he remembered thewords he said.
He thought of melodies now. He had no way of playing one
(10:46):
chord on any instrument. This is the guy who, how do you
write songs? He had no idea, but he had all
this in his head, you know it's.Amazing.
Very gifted but not schooled andso we were the ones to OK, now
this is a waltz. OK, wait, stop at F#.
(11:06):
Wait a minute. He'd sing them a Capella and
we'd eke them out together. Sometimes Robbie would bring in
a more completed song with chords and lyrics Jim might add.
Jim added Our love become a funeral pyre and a light my
(11:26):
fire. And and then it would go through
the doors machine the the four of us just tweaking it all.
And since Jim couldn't play any instrument, he said, well, let's
just split all the credits, no lyrics by me, split all the
(11:50):
money. And so it was an incredible
democracy that that everyone gave 200% to that.
That's fantastic. We mentioned earlier that you
have also done some acting and let's talk about one film that
you both acted in and also dealswith your your musical history
(12:13):
and that is Oliver Stone's The Doors.
Looking back at that experience,it's been a while.
Do you think that Oliver Stone had the right vision to tell the
story of your group? He had one of the visions and a
very valid 1. It was the the tortured artist,
(12:33):
which was Jim. I wished it had been a little
more about the 60s. But then we made this
documentary called When You're Strange, which I'm pretty sure
is going to be reissued. Johnny Depp narrated it.
It's got more of the 60s in it. It's more of the time period and
(12:55):
I hope, think in the fall in NewYork, there'll be a little Doris
Film Festival kind of thing withseveral films.
So that one kind of captures what was missing in Oliver's
film. But I like Oliver's movie.
It's just it's a wild sort of impressionistic interpretation
(13:16):
of our career. What do you think he got right
about it other than you said capturing Jim's tortured?
Jim's passion for art, which Oliver is very passionate about.
They're using art to process one's consciousness.
(13:38):
Yeah, you've also done some acting and you've worked with
people like Tim Robbins and SeanPenn and Angelica Houston.
Tell me well in in some capacity.
I worked with Tim Robbins playing music.
I wasn't acting Angelica Houston, where I just met her
(13:59):
recently, actually. What was that?
I think. I worked with her.
I know Sean Penn. He was in acting class with me.
I I think that her name was listed.
In the the theaters at the same time.
Yeah, yeah. But you.
Know I I fell into acting and I thought it was interesting
because I was very nervous doingit and it'd keep me out of
(14:24):
trouble after a big peek like the doors.
But I it evolved into me wantingto write rather than act so.
And you've written a number of books and and and dramatic
pieces as well. What do you like about writing?
Well, it's another Ave. of creativity.
It's not as fun as playing musicin a band, but you can do it in
(14:50):
the middle of the night by yourself.
It took me years to be able to say I was a writer.
I mean it. My first.
I have two self-centered memoirs.
Writers on the Storm was a best seller.
I couldn't say I was a writer. I knew I was a musician.
(15:12):
But many years later after lots of little articles I I felt
confident to say I have another Ave. and creativity.
Well, like you said, you are a best selling writer.
One, one of the things that you're also known for which
you've written about is your battle with some of the other
members of the Doors about your refusal to allow the Doors music
(15:37):
to be used in commercials for commercial purposes.
And I really respect that. And I, I remember a day when it
used to be considered something that was kind of frowned upon.
It doesn't seem to be like that anymore now with people saying
that the music industry has diedand it's one of the only ways to
(15:58):
get paid. People just seem to willingly
put their songs and commercials as vehicles to kind of promote
their music. But you've kind of stuck to this
pretty much so it seems with, with with doors.
Why is that so important to you?Well, in in the second book I
wrote the doors unhinged, I said, if you're a new band
(16:21):
trying to pay the rent, do the commercial.
It's, you know, I get it. It's difficult, but and then I
quote Tom Waits, who says if youif you sell your songs for a a
commercial, then you've turned your lyrics into a Jingle and
(16:42):
maybe you just sold your audience.
You know, they reinterpret breakout through to a new
deodorant. You know, we're established and
Jim was really against light my come on, Buick, light my fire.
And he didn't really write that song that much and he's not with
us. So I I'm going to honor my
(17:02):
ancestor. And in our case, everybody's
different. I mean, The Who?
Pete Townsend says I don't give AF.
If you fell in love with Shirleyto my song, I'll do what I want
with it. Valid.
We're sorry, Mr. Trump. We're priceless.
(17:26):
Not everybody has a price. Oh, I got political.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I was going to
say, you know, your position, I think with your music is
consistent with some of your other stuff that you're very
outspoken about politically so. Let's can we wind back to
Coltrane, You know, like I did this interview for this
documentary. Yeah.
(17:47):
And talk about political. I didn't know that.
I knew the song Alabama Right, which was about the four black
girls who were killed in the church.
Yeah. I didn't know that he had taken
the the text of Martin Luther King's Speech at the memorial
(18:09):
and used it as a template for the song.
My God, that knocked me out. That was very powerful.
And then I didn't know that he went to Nagasaki, Japan.
Unbelievable. You know, they were playing a
jazz tour over there. But, but he specifically went to
that town to lay a wreath on the, you know, victims of the
(18:32):
dropping of the atomic bomb. I mean, this guy was soulful.
It's not a lightweight. This is a deep thinker.
Very impressive. You're, you're absolutely
correct. And, and in the movie you really
get a sense of that towards the end of the documentary.
And it made me kind of wonder, like, why didn't I know all this
stuff about Coltrane before, Youknow, like it, you know, it was
(18:58):
pretty amazing. You're right, he really did.
People know his name, but you know.
But this other stuff like you said about going to Japan and
that was, that was pretty remarkable.
And like Coltrane, you know, I know we just have a little bit
more time. You, You too.
You know you. You do speak up for a number of
(19:19):
different things that you believe in.
You. You caused headlines not too
long ago when you had asked President Obama to apologize to
Native Americans. Caused headlines.
That's good. That was in Rolling Stone.
Yeah, yeah. And and it's obvious that you
know that there are certain issues that do mean a lot to
(19:40):
you. Can you speak about that a
little bit? Why?
Why you? Decided I was writing about
hoping Obama would pardon Leonard Peltier, which is a
Native American who has been in jail for friggin, I don't know,
40 years or more. There was a shootout at Pine
(20:02):
Ridge and no one knows who shot who.
And there was a whole bunch of people shooting in FBI and they
had to pin it on somebody. And, you know, we're having our
struggles with racism, you know?Obviously the last year or two,
God, every few weeks or something terrible under that
(20:22):
whole thing is, Gee, we came over and kind of took out the
native population. Whoa.
And those of them who are still here are waiting for us to mess
things up further so they could take it all back.
But we got to acknowledge that Iwas, you know, if we say, if we
(20:46):
say we're sorry, if we admit thetruth, then then we can really
get down to, you know, working out other racial problems or
that was a soapbox. But.
Yeah, no, well, you know if, if I can ask you one last question.
You know, when you look back at some of the the different issues
(21:08):
that are raised in the Coltrane documentary and and you look
back at, like you said that you wished in the Doors movie, maybe
they included a little bit more about what was going on in the
60s. Did you ever imagine back then
that America would eventually bea country with a, with a Donald
(21:30):
Trump as president? I mean.
No, I, I, I thought, wow, duringthe eight years of Bush and no
one could come along worse than this, but someone has.
But Tom, it's a process. It's not the end of the world.
He's he's amazingly coalesced all the progressive thinkers and
(21:54):
everybody's kind of awake. And you know, like I hate when
people dis the 60s as a failure.The seeds of civil rights, peace
movement, feminism were all planted in the 60s and it did
not fail it. These seeds grow giant trees and
(22:18):
maybe it takes 100 years to fullfruition.
So don't piss on, you know, I mean, get your watering cans
out. You know, we're going to learn a
lot of stuff from Donald Trump and.
And what is the role of artists moving forward?
(22:39):
I mean, you're in this John Coltrane documentary and you
were part of one of the the greatest bands in in rock
history. And you're you're still always
doing new projects, really creative stuff.
But whatever the times bring us,What is the role of the artist?
Art usually reflects its age, but you don't have to reflect it
(23:01):
directly. You know, you might be Emily
Dickinson writing powerful poemsand stick them in a drawer.
And after you die, people discover it, that it still
affects the culture big time. Or you can be more overt, the
whole gamut. Just, you know, whatever is deep
(23:22):
down in your soul, get it out there.
Absolutely. Well, John, I want to thank you
so much for coming on the soundsof film.
We've been speaking to John Densmore from The Doors.
His latest book is meeting with remarkable musicians.
You can look for it. He's also.
Oh. No, no, it's not out.
It'd be a year or so. Yeah, but look for it and it's
coming out in the in the future.And also check out Chasing
(23:47):
Coltrane if you haven't done so already.
And I'm going to be looking for any sign that that Doors Film
Festival might be happening. So if it does, maybe we can talk
again in the future. OK all.
Right. Thank you very much, John.
It was a pleasure speaking with you.
Thanks. Tom.
Good night. Bye.
Hi, this is Tom Needham and you are listening to The Sounds of
Film and I am so excited to havehim on the phone with us.
A true legend. I'm talking about John Densmore.
He's a musician, songwriter, author and actor best known for
being the drummer for The Doors.He's the best selling author of
the book about the Doors, Riderson the Storm.
He's also currently in a very popular documentary called
(00:23):
Chasing Coltrane. John, thank you so much for
joining us here on The Sounds ofFilm.
Thank you, Tom. Nice to meet you.
I'm not dead. I guess I could be a a living
legend. OK.
Yeah, absolutely. I also have written a book
called The Doors Unhinged yeah which I self published.
(00:43):
Yeah, I I did want to speak to you about that too.
And I understand you're you're also working on your latest book
meetings with remarkable musicians as well.
Correct, Tom, Thank you. Yeah.
So, so we have a lot to talk about.
You're, you're one of these people.
I, I, I really love because you've done so much in music,
(01:04):
but you've also done acting and you're interested in politics.
So you're always doing somethinginteresting.
But let's go way back. You've been playing the drums
and other instruments since you were a kid, and I understand
that when you were in your teensyou started to have a
fascination with Coltrane. Can you tell us a little bit
about that? Sure.
(01:26):
Well I, I, first I played piano as an 8 year old then I, I was
going to play any instrument in junior high because I love music
so much and I, I chose clarinet and I had braces and the dentist
said no no, no, that'll ruin that.
Both drums became my thing. And actually in this new book, I
(01:48):
have a chapter on Elvin Jones, Coltrane's drummer.
And so yeah, I was kind of like a jazz snob who was aware of
Elvis and the early rock and rollers, but really was way into
jazz and. And I had fake ID and went to
jazz clubs and saw Coltrane manytimes.
(02:10):
And, I mean, I didn't know he was going to be the giant icon
that he has become, but I sensedsome magic there.
I don't know, just in the air. And so yeah, I was just a
teenage drummer going home everynight trying to copy everything
I heard. Well, what was it exactly about
(02:32):
Coltrane and also Elvin Jones that that made them stand out in
your mind compared to other stuff that was happening?
Well, I mean, that's the theme of this book, and it can't be
answered really. But maybe they're chasing train.
He has a song called Chasing theTrain.
(02:52):
I guess that's where they got the title for the documentary.
But they're chasing Infinity. They're trying to reach
something beyond time with really good time.
You got to have good time if you're a drummer, and then you
can get into timelessness. In other words, the trance state
(03:15):
where you get high for music andyou don't need the drugs or
whatever. I mean, you know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah, like break on through.
Yeah. As you probably know, or I
assume you, you've heard that John Coltrane, for part of his
life, he lived here on Long Island, which is where the
sounds of film takes place. And he had a house here, and
(03:38):
they're turning it into a Museumof sorts.
And, you know, the people who are trying to do this have been
doing a lot of interviews, and they just did a screening with
your movie that you're in. And they're all trying to make
the point that like Coltrane hasbecome, like you said, an icon,
you know, and they, and they even said that, you know, like
(03:59):
he, he couldn't even end up being, it's hard to predict
these things like someone like aBeethoven or a Mozart.
I mean, different genre, but butone of these giants that people
will be talking about hundreds of years from now.
And I was wondering like why today is he considered such a a
major artist and so appreciated by other musicians like
(04:19):
yourself? Well, are they the house they're
trying to preserve on Long Island?
Is that where he wrote The Love Supreme?
It is, yeah. Fantastic.
Well, as I say in the film, you know, he got kind of avant-garde
for some folks and it was, you know, difficult to listen to.
(04:41):
And the reason I ate it all up is because I followed him from
Bebop and then he got into MilesDavis Quartet Quintet, you know,
did the cool period. Then he went out on his own and
then he got way out. And so it's like Jackson Pollock
(05:01):
was a paint figuratively. He didn't just discover dripping
paint. So when an artist goes the whole
route, they've laid a really strong foundation and and you
respect them for going through all all those stages and
inventing new stages. And so that's the ingredients
(05:22):
for a giant artist that'll last.Well, I one has to wonder, you
know, you got caught up in this whole scene and it was, it
seems, one of your major interests.
And then you didn't end up initially going into like a jazz
band or something like that. You ended up becoming one of the
(05:42):
original, the original drummer for the, for The Doors, the only
drummer for the Doors. And you help form this group and
create a sound that people are still fascinated with today.
And I was wondering, you know, what about this music that you
were listening to in terms of jazz eventually influenced you
(06:03):
in terms of producing the music that you did with the with The
Doors? Well, jazz has a large
improvisational component. And the Doors, you know, we were
a rock band, but we were influenced by jazz.
(06:24):
Actually, the the chord changes in Light My Fire in the solos,
there's just two chords we go back and forth on.
There are a couple chords that are in my favorite things that
Coltrane made famous by reinterpreting that sort of
corny Broadway tune. And you know, the solos Light My
(06:44):
Fire, the song is 6 minutes. There's a long, long solo.
So it's it's jazz oriented. And then Jim had all these
poems, so we would play a kind of a vamp and he would improvise
poems. So it all came out of all the
the beatniks and the jazz. And we, you know, we had it in a
(07:05):
rock genre, but we were definitely influenced by it.
Maybe there shouldn't be any labels, you know.
Yeah. I mean, I'm this new book I'm
writing, I, I have a chapter on this, the new conductor of the
LA Philharmonic, Gustavo Dunamelfrom Venezuela, who's a, who is
(07:26):
the Leonard Bernstein of the 21st century.
And, you know, I make this parallel between him and Bob
Marley because you watch them perform and you're seeing every
fiber of their body sort of reflect the sound you're
(07:47):
hearing. So it's all connected.
The sound is the connection. It doesn't matter if it's
classical or jazz or what. Are there any songs in in the
Doors catalog that besides some of the famous ones that you
already just mentioned that whenyou look back, you're you
(08:09):
yourself, you're impressed. Like, wow, we, we, we did
something special here musically.
I. Don't know, you know, I mean,
the first few albums technicallywere not that good and there was
limited by technology, only a few tracks.
(08:30):
And but there's magic on there, you know, LA Woman, I like a
lot, which is our last album, which was, you know, well, I had
said to Ray, you know, Miles live at Carnegie Hall, there's a
the intro of the song. So what there's a big trumpet
(08:54):
error. And they said to Miles, we, you
know, we, we can take this out. And he said, no, I like the
feeling. And I said that to Ray about the
making of LA Woman, where we kind of, we just went for the
feeling. We just did a couple takes on
everything because a couple albums before that, Soft Parade
(09:18):
or Waiting for the Sun, we had, you know, we did hundreds of
takes. It was ridiculous.
Yeah. So that that was something I
said. Yeah.
Well, influence. I was wondering, can you give us
a little bit of an insight in terms of when you and Jim
(09:39):
Morrison and the other guys got together to to record music,
what exactly was the process? Well, that's good.
All right. We meet Ray's garage, his
parents garage, and they get to know each other.
We start jamming on Blues, you know, just Muddy Waters, John
(10:00):
Lee Hooker. Ray was from Chicago.
He loved Muddy. And and then what?
You know, we jazzed maybe on some jazz things, Cannonball
Adderly or whatever, just to feel each other out, and then
that evolved into writing our own material.
So that's kind of how it went. And amongst the guys in the
(10:22):
group, like would like, would Jim just have some lyrics or
would someone just play a littleriff?
Like how? How did the songs themselves
develop? The first few albums, Jim had
all these lyrics, but he had melodies as well.
That's the way he remembered thewords he said.
He thought of melodies now. He had no way of playing one
(10:46):
chord on any instrument. This is the guy who, how do you
write songs? He had no idea, but he had all
this in his head, you know it's.Amazing.
Very gifted but not schooled andso we were the ones to OK, now
this is a waltz. OK, wait, stop at F#.
(11:06):
Wait a minute. He'd sing them a Capella and
we'd eke them out together. Sometimes Robbie would bring in
a more completed song with chords and lyrics Jim might add.
Jim added Our love become a funeral pyre and a light my
(11:26):
fire. And and then it would go through
the doors machine the the four of us just tweaking it all.
And since Jim couldn't play any instrument, he said, well, let's
just split all the credits, no lyrics by me, split all the
(11:50):
money. And so it was an incredible
democracy that that everyone gave 200% to that.
That's fantastic. We mentioned earlier that you
have also done some acting and let's talk about one film that
you both acted in and also dealswith your your musical history
(12:13):
and that is Oliver Stone's The Doors.
Looking back at that experience,it's been a while.
Do you think that Oliver Stone had the right vision to tell the
story of your group? He had one of the visions and a
very valid 1. It was the the tortured artist,
(12:33):
which was Jim. I wished it had been a little
more about the 60s. But then we made this
documentary called When You're Strange, which I'm pretty sure
is going to be reissued. Johnny Depp narrated it.
It's got more of the 60s in it. It's more of the time period and
(12:55):
I hope, think in the fall in NewYork, there'll be a little Doris
Film Festival kind of thing withseveral films.
So that one kind of captures what was missing in Oliver's
film. But I like Oliver's movie.
It's just it's a wild sort of impressionistic interpretation
(13:16):
of our career. What do you think he got right
about it other than you said capturing Jim's tortured?
Jim's passion for art, which Oliver is very passionate about.
They're using art to process one's consciousness.
(13:38):
Yeah, you've also done some acting and you've worked with
people like Tim Robbins and SeanPenn and Angelica Houston.
Tell me well in in some capacity.
I worked with Tim Robbins playing music.
I wasn't acting Angelica Houston, where I just met her
(13:59):
recently, actually. What was that?
I think. I worked with her.
I know Sean Penn. He was in acting class with me.
I I think that her name was listed.
In the the theaters at the same time.
Yeah, yeah. But you.
Know I I fell into acting and I thought it was interesting
because I was very nervous doingit and it'd keep me out of
(14:24):
trouble after a big peek like the doors.
But I it evolved into me wantingto write rather than act so.
And you've written a number of books and and and dramatic
pieces as well. What do you like about writing?
Well, it's another Ave. of creativity.
It's not as fun as playing musicin a band, but you can do it in
(14:50):
the middle of the night by yourself.
It took me years to be able to say I was a writer.
I mean it. My first.
I have two self-centered memoirs.
Writers on the Storm was a best seller.
I couldn't say I was a writer. I knew I was a musician.
(15:12):
But many years later after lots of little articles I I felt
confident to say I have another Ave. and creativity.
Well, like you said, you are a best selling writer.
One, one of the things that you're also known for which
you've written about is your battle with some of the other
members of the Doors about your refusal to allow the Doors music
(15:37):
to be used in commercials for commercial purposes.
And I really respect that. And I, I remember a day when it
used to be considered something that was kind of frowned upon.
It doesn't seem to be like that anymore now with people saying
that the music industry has diedand it's one of the only ways to
(15:58):
get paid. People just seem to willingly
put their songs and commercials as vehicles to kind of promote
their music. But you've kind of stuck to this
pretty much so it seems with, with with doors.
Why is that so important to you?Well, in in the second book I
wrote the doors unhinged, I said, if you're a new band
(16:21):
trying to pay the rent, do the commercial.
It's, you know, I get it. It's difficult, but and then I
quote Tom Waits, who says if youif you sell your songs for a a
commercial, then you've turned your lyrics into a Jingle and
(16:42):
maybe you just sold your audience.
You know, they reinterpret breakout through to a new
deodorant. You know, we're established and
Jim was really against light my come on, Buick, light my fire.
And he didn't really write that song that much and he's not with
us. So I I'm going to honor my
(17:02):
ancestor. And in our case, everybody's
different. I mean, The Who?
Pete Townsend says I don't give AF.
If you fell in love with Shirleyto my song, I'll do what I want
with it. Valid.
We're sorry, Mr. Trump. We're priceless.
(17:26):
Not everybody has a price. Oh, I got political.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I was going to
say, you know, your position, I think with your music is
consistent with some of your other stuff that you're very
outspoken about politically so. Let's can we wind back to
Coltrane, You know, like I did this interview for this
documentary. Yeah.
(17:47):
And talk about political. I didn't know that.
I knew the song Alabama Right, which was about the four black
girls who were killed in the church.
Yeah. I didn't know that he had taken
the the text of Martin Luther King's Speech at the memorial
(18:09):
and used it as a template for the song.
My God, that knocked me out. That was very powerful.
And then I didn't know that he went to Nagasaki, Japan.
Unbelievable. You know, they were playing a
jazz tour over there. But, but he specifically went to
that town to lay a wreath on the, you know, victims of the
(18:32):
dropping of the atomic bomb. I mean, this guy was soulful.
It's not a lightweight. This is a deep thinker.
Very impressive. You're, you're absolutely
correct. And, and in the movie you really
get a sense of that towards the end of the documentary.
And it made me kind of wonder, like, why didn't I know all this
stuff about Coltrane before, Youknow, like it, you know, it was
(18:58):
pretty amazing. You're right, he really did.
People know his name, but you know.
But this other stuff like you said about going to Japan and
that was, that was pretty remarkable.
And like Coltrane, you know, I know we just have a little bit
more time. You, You too.
You know you. You do speak up for a number of
(19:19):
different things that you believe in.
You. You caused headlines not too
long ago when you had asked President Obama to apologize to
Native Americans. Caused headlines.
That's good. That was in Rolling Stone.
Yeah, yeah. And and it's obvious that you
know that there are certain issues that do mean a lot to
(19:40):
you. Can you speak about that a
little bit? Why?
Why you? Decided I was writing about
hoping Obama would pardon Leonard Peltier, which is a
Native American who has been in jail for friggin, I don't know,
40 years or more. There was a shootout at Pine
(20:02):
Ridge and no one knows who shot who.
And there was a whole bunch of people shooting in FBI and they
had to pin it on somebody. And, you know, we're having our
struggles with racism, you know?Obviously the last year or two,
God, every few weeks or something terrible under that
(20:22):
whole thing is, Gee, we came over and kind of took out the
native population. Whoa.
And those of them who are still here are waiting for us to mess
things up further so they could take it all back.
But we got to acknowledge that Iwas, you know, if we say, if we
(20:46):
say we're sorry, if we admit thetruth, then then we can really
get down to, you know, working out other racial problems or
that was a soapbox. But.
Yeah, no, well, you know if, if I can ask you one last question.
You know, when you look back at some of the the different issues
(21:08):
that are raised in the Coltrane documentary and and you look
back at, like you said that you wished in the Doors movie, maybe
they included a little bit more about what was going on in the
60s. Did you ever imagine back then
that America would eventually bea country with a, with a Donald
(21:30):
Trump as president? I mean.
No, I, I, I thought, wow, duringthe eight years of Bush and no
one could come along worse than this, but someone has.
But Tom, it's a process. It's not the end of the world.
He's he's amazingly coalesced all the progressive thinkers and
(21:54):
everybody's kind of awake. And you know, like I hate when
people dis the 60s as a failure.The seeds of civil rights, peace
movement, feminism were all planted in the 60s and it did
not fail it. These seeds grow giant trees and
(22:18):
maybe it takes 100 years to fullfruition.
So don't piss on, you know, I mean, get your watering cans
out. You know, we're going to learn a
lot of stuff from Donald Trump and.
And what is the role of artists moving forward?
(22:39):
I mean, you're in this John Coltrane documentary and you
were part of one of the the greatest bands in in rock
history. And you're you're still always
doing new projects, really creative stuff.
But whatever the times bring us,What is the role of the artist?
Art usually reflects its age, but you don't have to reflect it
(23:01):
directly. You know, you might be Emily
Dickinson writing powerful poemsand stick them in a drawer.
And after you die, people discover it, that it still
affects the culture big time. Or you can be more overt, the
whole gamut. Just, you know, whatever is deep
(23:22):
down in your soul, get it out there.
Absolutely. Well, John, I want to thank you
so much for coming on the soundsof film.
We've been speaking to John Densmore from The Doors.
His latest book is meeting with remarkable musicians.
You can look for it. He's also.
Oh. No, no, it's not out.
It'd be a year or so. Yeah, but look for it and it's
coming out in the in the future.And also check out Chasing
(23:47):
Coltrane if you haven't done so already.
And I'm going to be looking for any sign that that Doors Film
Festival might be happening. So if it does, maybe we can talk
again in the future. OK all.
Right. Thank you very much, John.
It was a pleasure speaking with you.
Thanks. Tom.
Good night. Bye.
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