BLENDER MAGAZINE

March 2006   (cover:  Black Eyed Peas)    page 64

"The 50 Most Awesomely Dead Rock Stars"

#11     This Isn't The End    JIM MORRISON

           1943 - 1971    Doors singer;  Lizard King

Cause of Death:  Suspected heroin overdose

Wallow in the Mire:  Morrison's memory has sustained considerable abuse since his interment in Paris's Père Lachaise cemetery.  Nonetheless, Doors drummer John Densmore has refused multimillion-dollar offers for use of Doors music in ads - against protests from keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, who enlisted ex-Cult singer Ian Astbury to fill Morrison's leather trousers in a 2002 tour as Doors of the 21st Century.  A suit from Densmore and Morrison's estate (the parents of Morrison and of his late wife Pamela Courson) forced a name change - to "D21C."

Touch Me, Jay-Z:    The Doors didn't become massive until 1979, when "The End" was featured in Apocalypse Now.  After 1980, Morrison bio No One Here Gets Out Alive became a bestseller, and a greatest-hits album sold 2 million copies.  Interest remained steady until spiking at Oliver Stone's Val Kilmer-starring The Doors, which dealt a near-lethal blow to Morrison's dark aura by co-starring Meg Ryan.  Redemption came in 2001, when Jay-Z's "Takeover" built its ominous momentum on a sample of the Doors' "Five To One."

#1 on the list of 50 was Johnny Cash   1932 - 2003  

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