Robby Krieger interview: The Doors Are Open
20th Century Guitar Magazine -- February 2006
Between the years 1967 and 1971, The Doors could be counted on to record some of the most innovative and thrilling rock music ever made. Although the band's fabled lead singer Jim Morrison died 35 years ago this year, the band's legacy seems brighter and more significant than ever. Minus founding Doors drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek have been carrying on the spirit of The Doors with a new touring band fittingly called Riders On The Storm. Over the years Krieger in particular has recorded some outstanding solo albums with his latest, Cinematix released a few years back. Various releases -- including an inspiring live DVD on Image Entertainment called The Doors Of The 21st Century and a series of archive releases on Rhino -- is just the stuff to keep the band's name on the cutting edge of today's music. On December 21st, 2005 founding Doors guitarist Robby Krieger spoke with Robert Silverstein and 20th Century Guitar about the Doors legend and just what he's been up to these days.
TCG: Can you say something about the tour you just finished and something about your new band, Riders On The Storm?
RK: Yeah, it was fantastic actually. We didn't quite know what the response would be from changing the name which we had to do because of the law suit. But it was incredible. Five shows were sold out. People waiting in line, scalpers selling tickets for five hundred bucks and stuff, so it was quite thrilling.
TCG: Who's in the band, you and Ray Manzarek and who else?
RK: It's the same band that we've had for the last three years. Ian Astbury on vocals, Ty Dennis playing drums and Phil Chen on bass.
TCG: So you and Ray are the keepers of the Doors legend.
RK: Right, right. The fans want to see John play with us but he doesn't seem to want to so ... that's too bad because I know the fans would love to see all three of us playing together.
TCG: So it's the same lineup that appeared on the The Doors of the 21st Century DVD on Image Entertainment?
RK: Right, exactly.
TCG: So are you playing any new music these days or mainly the classics?
RK: We're doing mostly the classics but we've got some new ones too. We did a couple of new ones last night as a matter of fact, in Vancouver.
TCG: Are you planning to record any of the new stuff?
RK: Yeah, that's the idea. We did do some sessions about three months ago with Ken Scott, who's a great producer. He did George Harrison and stuff. And so we've got four or five things that we've been working on and we're gonna just keep recording till we get what we like.
TCG: I was really impressed with the Image DVD. What did you think of that?
RK: Oh, gee where was that, in Houston or something?
TCG: I'm impressed with Ian, those are some pretty big shoes to fill.
RK: Yeah, yeah for sure but he's just amazing. He just stepped up to the plate. He got a lot of shit from some of the press and stuff but everybody that comes to the show loves what he does.
TCG: The legend of The Doors just continues to grow year after year. Why do you think people are still so intrigued with The Doors music and legacy?
RK: I think it really is mostly the music. I mean that's what it is after all and kids hear it on the radio and they like it you know? And that's the bottom line. I think all the movies and the press and all that stuff you can ram down their throats but if they don't like the music, they're not going to be interested. And I think they hear it on the radio or whatever and they like it and it still seems to work today for some reason.
TCG: The Doors melodies and arrangements were always so brilliant.
RK: Yeah, another thing is on those albums you'd be really hard pressed to find a bad song or even a mediocre song where as most groups have maybe one or two good songs on their albums and then that's about it. Not to be egotistical or anything but those albums are pretty deep.
TCG: Looking back, The Doors were one of the first rock groups with overt jazz influences, but there's no denying the blues edge as well. Can you recall some of the early influences that went into forming that highly original Doors sound?
RK: I more or less came from the folk music and flamenco guitar kind of stuff. I like blues also, and jazz. John was more of a jazz guy. He used to take me to go see Miles Davis and stuff like that ... Coltrane, when they would come through L.A. And Ray came from Chicago and he grew up hearing the blues, the real stuff. He came up in the 40's and 50's listening to Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, you know the real stuff. So it was kind of a mix you know. And Jim liked all kinds of music.
TCG: I can remember when Elektra Records was just starting with the first Doors LP. Elektra was a real ground breaking place for the Doors to be back then.
RK: Well they were. They were a small company. They had never really broken a nationwide record before but they had done The Paul Butterfield Band which was one of our favorites. One of my favorites anyway. And they had Judy Collins, Theodore Bikel. They were mainly folk music at the time but they did do a group called Love. Arthur Lee & Love who were out of L.A. and they were kind of our hero. We would go see those guys before The Doors were formed and they were like the coolest band in L.A. And they got signed by Elektra. So we said, 'wow shit, if those guys went with Elektra I guess it's okay,' and to tell you the truth, we had no other options anyway. (laughter) So, we did sign with Columbia for a while but they dropped us.
TCG: Can you say something about the new double CD on Rhino The Doors Live in Philadelphia '70 -- that was from the last tour The Doors did?
RK: Well I don't know if it was the last tour. It was the tour where we were recording everything in order to make a live album, but it was one of the last shows. And it was a great show. It was at the Philadelphia Spectrum I believe. It was like a big old hockey rink kind of place. Or basketball court. It was like in the round. So in order to get through the crowd we had to have these guards take us out and it was kind of scary you know?
TCG: It was a wild show. The CD starts off with the fire marshall warning the crowd to sit down.
RK: (laughter) The kids were just kind of unruly and trying to sneak up to the front as much as they could. Finally they did get under control. And so we hired these guys, called The Sullivan Brothers. They were like private detective kind of guys. These big black guys right? And so three of those guys encircled each one of us and brought us out on stage. (laughter) They were keeping anybody from trying to jump out at us.
TCG: It's a great CD of the show because you were playing stuff from all the albums and even Morrison Hotel and L. A. Woman.
RK: Right, you know my favorite cut on that record is a thing called "The Train." I don't know if you heard that. It might have been on the second disc.
TCG: Is that "Mystery Train"?
RK: I mean "Mystery Train" is in the song but it's one little part of the song. It's like a long, throaty blues kind of thing. It's really cool.
TCG: Aside from your greatest songs like "Break On Through" there's a song on the live CD set called "Universal Mind" that I think never appeared on a Doors record.
RK: Oh, yeah I remember that one. I think that was going to be on Morrison Hotel but we never got around to it. But you're right, that's a cool song. There's a couple hidden in there, that you may have not heard that'll come out some day. There's not very many though.
TCG: So "Universal Mind" was recorded in the studio too?
RK: I think so, yeah.
TCG: You're pretty famous for playing the Gibson SG guitar. How did you get started playing the SG?
RK: I didn't have an electric guitar up until the time when I was maybe 18. I'd just been playing flamenco music and folk music. And then one day I saw Chuck Berry play. This was when he was still great, you know? This was in 1964 I believe. And he just amazed me. I just immediately went out and bought myself a red guitar that looked kind of like the one he had even though it really wasn't like the one he had but it was the only one that I could afford. Two hundred bucks. It was an SG Melody Maker. And that's the guitar I used on the first album. I mean the only reason I bought an SG is 'cause I didn't know any better. I probably would have bought a Les Paul or something. Now, lately I've been going back and playing those SG's on stage and they're really pretty cool. They sound good, they're light. Lighter than a Les Paul and i think they sound just as good.
TCG: Is there a Robby Krieger SG signature model?
RK: No there's not. In fact I was just talking to somebody else about that today. There was supposed to be a couple of times but something always gets monkey wrenched and Gibson always messed it up. But we're going to be doing that this year I think.
TCG: You say you played the SG on the first Doors album. How about the other Doors albums?
RK: Yeah, I think I pretty much used the SG all the way through. I might have used other guitars here and there but that was always my main guitar with The Doors.
TCG: What are you playing these days?
RK: Like I say, I'm back to the SG. For a lot of years I used the 355 and 345's, you know, semi-hollow body and I've used Strats also. But about two years ago, my road manager Marco Moyer (sic) said he saw an SG at a shop. It was a '67, just like the one I used to have. So we picked it up and I've been using it ever since.
TCG: How did you get into playing flamenco guitar when you were young?
RK: Well, my dad had a couple of records, one called Dos Flamencos that had these two guys playing flamenco guitar and myself and my friend -- his name was Bill Wolf -- we were just starting to play folk guitar, you know nylon string and we heard this record, this Dos Flamencos, two guitar players playing together flamenco. So we said, 'shit, we should do that y'know?' and so we started taking lessons. We took flamenco lessons from a guy called Arnold Lessing, who's kind of famous around L.A. and we learned some flamenco. I actually got pretty into flamenco. When I was a kid at UCSB I was actually giving lessons to kids on flamenco.
TCG: You can hear that flamenco influence in The Doors.
RK: Well, other than "Spanish Caravan", which is real flamenco guitar, I guess you could say the fact that I always finger-picked. I used pretty much the flamenco right hand style instead of using a pick.
TCG: Was the Live In Philadelphia '70 show filmed?
RK: I don't think so, no ....
TCG: Which DVDs out there do you think captures the essence of the original Doors?
RK: The best one is something called The Doors Are Open, from England. We played a place called The Roundhouse. It's a b&w thing but it really is pretty good. Unfortunately there just isn't a lot of film on us playing good. (laughter) There's a thing on the Hollywood Bowl, which ... we just played pretty bad that night, although people seem to like it. But if you could find The Doors Are Open, from Granada TV, that's a real good one.
TCG: How about the Doors DVDs on Eagle, like Live In Europe '68.
RK: Yeah, they have some good stuff.
TCG: The last two Doors albums Other Voices and Full Circle, the two made after Jim died, were really cool. I heard they came out as a two-fer CD in Russia. Will they ever be reissued on CD here?
RK: (laughter) Yeah, I just saw a copy of that yesterday in fact. We keep saying we're going to put those out and we never do so that's something to do this year ... for sure.
TCG: I saw The Doors play in Central Park after Full Circle came out.
RK: Oh yeah! I remember that. Yeah, that was a great show. I think ... who else played? Charles Lloyd I think played. The flute player.
TCG: I can't remember him. But The Doors, you, Ray and John were amazing.
RK: Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
TCG: Your interest in instrumental rock music has been pretty well documented. So your last solo album was Cinematix?
RK: Right, Cinematix.
TCG: Are you planning any more guitar instrumental records?
RK: I'm sure I will but, in fact I just played the other night with a couple guys who played on that album and we were talking about it. Since I've been doing the Doors thing with Ray I just haven't had much time to think about doing anything else.
TCG: Okay Robby one last question, which is your favorite Doors album and why?
RK: Well, I think either the first or the last. The first album was great because we'd been playing those songs for maybe a year or two every night so it was just a matter of turning on the tape recorder and capturing what we had. And the last album, L.A. Woman I thought was great because that was the one that we produced by ourselves with our engineer Bruce Botnick. And it was just really loose, you know it was like we recorded it in our rehearsal place. Brought in a tape recorder and stuff to our rehearsal place, so we weren't under the gun with a big budget and all that. And it was just a lot of fun and there's a couple songs that we just threw together that were just quintessential Doors songs like "L.A. Woman" and "Riders On The Storm." It was just, we started playing and Jim came up with some words and out come those songs, you know? Just amazing.
thanks to Robby Krieger @ www.robbykrieger.com and to Wolfson PR @ www.wolfson-pr.com
February 3, 2006
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