Quotes from John Densmore

I knew Jim was going down, but was very pleased that somehow, despite his self-destruction, when we rehearsed, wrote songs and recorded, he showed up. He pulled it together.

The whole world is hopefully heading toward democracy.

Wouldn't it be nice if human nature could learn stuff before we get to the brink? It seems we have to experience it first.

I believe in the mystery, and I don't want to take it any further than that. Maybe what I mean by that is love.

When rock loses integrity it's time for renewal.

I'm not against a new band doing commercials to pay the rent.

Pete Townshend keeps fooling us again, selling Who songs to yuppies hungry for SUVs.

A major component of jazz is improvisation, which forces you to stay in the moment because you never know what will be coming up. There's a lot of freedom and space available as you improvise around the chord changes.

We used to build our cities and towns around churches. Now banks are at the centers of our densely populated areas.

The fossil fuel industry has made advocating alternative energy sources a liberal/conservative thing, and an ideological battle, when it should really be about a healthier, less toxic world.

I've been very blessed to make a living in stuff I love and am totally passionate about, music and writing. So I'm eager to see what the day will bring, how I will feed that passion.

Sometimes I'll be in an elevator and I'll hear a corny instrumental version of 'Light My Fire.'

Echo & the Bunnymen just copied 'People Are Strange,' which is cool, we made some money, thanks. But when an artist finds a new interpretation of one of your songs, that's great. It turns your head around.

In the '60s, the Sunset Strip became insane. The sidewalks and the traffic were jammed. It was a renaissance.

I like connecting new synapses. Like Jim Morrison did.

Jim Morrison wrote the words for 'Hello, I Love You' when we were still in a band called Rick & the Ravens.

Jim was Dionysus, but it took three Apollos to balance that Dionysian energy. He was a force.

I still think that if one of Jim's masterpieces were downgraded to sell crap, I would get sick.

As long as there's young people, they can look to Jim to help them cut the umbilical chord.

Jim had a spirit that was incapable of compromise.

In the '50s, West L.A. was like Kansas.

I used to say, if Jim were alive today he'd never be clean and sober but I'm changing that answer because Eminem - angry, creative, just like Jim; a real talent - and Clapton, of course. It's a different time so he would have learned something, I think, but I don't protect what he did.

Jim had melodies as well as words. He didn't know how to play a chord on any instrument, but he had melodies in his head. To remember the lyrics he would think of melodies and then they would stay in his head. He had melodies and lyrics in his head, and he would sing them a cappella, and we would eke out the arrangements.

Being a writer is a very difficult craft. Just like learning an instrument, it takes a long time and I couldn't really say I was a writer even after my first memoir.