Jim Morrison and related artists > Backstage > Rolling Stone Magazine

Hell-bent on Hell, at least that's how some of his peers, friends and righteously-horrified foes might describe Jim Morrison's 27-year journey that commenced in Florida and ended mysteriously in Paris on July 3, 1971. The founding member of The Doors...more

Hell-bent on Hell, at least that's how some of his peers, friends and righteously-horrified foes might describe Jim Morrison's 27-year journey that commenced in Florida and ended mysteriously in Paris on July 3, 1971. The founding member of The Doors, whose stage presence and lyrics were Geiger counter-maximum, made excess look puny and dragged willing audiences on musical spelunking trips that left everyone crazed and some arrested. A navy brat with few close ties and a rebel streak perhaps born of youth-on-a-short-leash, Morrison was a natural to take to the no-boundaries '60s and was a fan of any event, act or substance that could take him to a new high or low [in the eyes of the law]. The Lizard King pushed dark lyrics, sex and obscenity from the stage that resulted in sex, obscenity and occasional riots from the audience. When Morrison left The Doors after 'L.A. Woman' and headed to Paris with companion high-flyer Pam Courson for what he resolved to be a poetry-writing interlude, no one expected his next act to be death-in-a-bathtub. But, then again, few expected Jim Morrison to be around to join the AARP, either....less