From Interaction With Other Bands
Jim Morrison backstage at Winterland 11/18/67
In 1967 I spent a lot of my time walking along Haight Street, hanging out in the various hippie shops. I became familiar with some of the people who worked behind the counters. One day one of the guys I knew who worked in a clothing shop said to me, “Hey, I noticed you’ll be playing at the Fillmore soon with The Doors. Would you like to meet Jim?” I remembered he had offhandedly mentioned Jim Morrison was a close friend of his, but that seemed unlikely. He said, “While Procol Harum is playing I can take you over to the dressing room to meet Jim”. He told me he made Jim’s leather pants, that they travel together a lot, and added some stories about wild rides the two of them had recently taken across some suburban front lawns. (Years later I found out he was Morrison’s traveling partner January Jansen).
When we finished our first set on the final night at Winterland and Procul Harum was starting to play, Jan showed up at our dressing room and asked if I wanted to meet Jim. He walked me over to the Doors dressing room and dropped me off in a big empty room alone sitting next to Jim Morrison. I’m very fuzzy about what happened in that room. Forty-nine years later all I remember is asking some very inane question about when he writes songs which comes first, the words or the music. He said the words. What I do remember vividly is walking back to my dressing room down the long concrete hallways (Winterland was originally an ice skating rink and sports venue). Turning a corner I saw Morrison walking toward me at the other end of a very long hallway. I immediately flashed on his line from “The End”: “The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on. He took a face from the ancient gallery, and he WALKED ON DOWN THE HALL”. As we got closer, Morrison suddenly let out a blood curdling roar, dropped to the ground in a crumpled heap, immediately jumped back up to his feet, and screamed at me, “YOU MADE ME DO THAT!!”. Then we both continued to our separate destinations. It was the most intensely bizarre moment I experienced in my rock drumming career.
Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival 6/11/67
I posted this as a comment to the piece from Rolling Stone about the event.
My band, Mount Rushmore, played at 8 am. After our set, the announcer told us, “You guys are really cool. It’s a shame so few people got to see you. I want you to come back mid-day and play after the Doors and before Dionne Warwick”, which we did. [Climbing onto that stage after the Doors played “Light My Fire” was] one of the most incredible experiences ever for this Haight Ashbury neighborhood garage band drummer. If anybody has any stills, videos or memories of us that day it would thrill my little 70-year old heart. (Comment sent 6/17/14).