The Tapes Archive

Marc Allan: Do you have some time to talk to me now or do you wanna reschedule?

Robby Krieger: I could give you about 10 minutes now, or I could reschedule.

Marc Allan: Let’s see how far we get, okay? Your bio says that you have become the unheralded first to do what later became the standard for guitarists, hyperbole, or can you state some instances?

Robby Krieger: Say that again, what did it say?

Marc Allan: It says, you’ve become the unheralded first to try what later becomes the standard.

Robby Krieger: I think that, they’re talking more about The Doors than me. I think other people, other bands sounding like us, and the type of stuff we write, and although I think guitar-wise, I was one of the first to use the slide, I think quite a few guys copied my style too.

Marc Allan: The slide in rock guitar you mean?

Robby Krieger: Yeah.

Marc Allan: Do you think you’re recognized for what you contributed as a guitarist?

Robby Krieger: Well among guitar players maybe so. I don’t think so because Morisson got most of the limelight from The Doors, and I feel the three guys didn’t really get as much attention as we would have had with him, and you know a more normal group.

Marc Allan: I wanna cover a couple of things before we get into The Doors. Also, “No Speak” records, why did you decide to make a no speak album?

Robby Krieger: That sort of fit in with what I had been doing anyway, I’d been making sort of rock, jazz, kind of instrumental albums, over the past 10 years anyway. Seemed like a logical thing to do, for me, since I didn’t have Jim to write for anymore, I figured I’d just go instrumental.

Marc Allan: And in your new band, you’re playing with your son. Is that good?

Robby Krieger: I’m enjoying it and I wish I had a dad who had a band when I was growing up.

Marc Allan: Did your dad encourage your playing in a band?

Robby Krieger: Not really.

Marc Allan: No? When he saw it?

Robby Krieger: Didn’t discourage it, but you know, he wanted me to become a lawyer or something like that.

Marc Allan: Are there times where you wish you had become a lawyer?

Robby Krieger: No.

Marc Allan: No? Well that’s good. Is this the first band that you’ve got back to playing some Doors tunes with?

Robby Krieger: Not really, I’ve always done some Doors stuff with whatever band I’ve been in. Well, not always, but I’d say in the past 10 years or so anyway.

Marc Allan: Okay. Let’s talk about the movie for a bit, what did you think of it?

Robby Krieger: Well. I think it’s, for what it is, I think it’s real good. You know, I look at it like a real good video.

Marc Allan: Okay.

Robby Krieger: To me there wasn’t really enough there to make a real meaningful Hollywood movie out of. But, I think there was enough stuff there, you know, just visually, and musically to make an interesting movie, so Oliver did a really good job, I thought.

Marc Allan: Well it looks more like a video than a movie, I agree.

Robby Krieger: Yeah.

Marc Allan: You were pretty nice to it compared to at least what I’ve heard Ray Manzarek say it about it, I mean he just scorched the thing.

Robby Krieger: Right, well. He decided not to be involved with it all, and it’s real easy to knock something that you weren’t any part of. You know, in a way, it’s like sour grapes I guess.

Marc Allan: Have you talked to him?

Robby Krieger: I say that, because I decided to go ahead and be involved with it, and try to make it, help it become as good as possible, whereas Ray just went the other way and said no, I’m not going to have anything to do with it it’s fucked, which was pretty weird because Ray has been the one that always wanted to do this movie and I never wanted to do it, and finally we got all of our stuff, and I said shit let’s go ahead and make it as good as they can. Ray bailed out.

Marc Allan: Have you talked to Ray about it?

Robby Krieger: Not much.

Marc Allan: No reason to, yeah. In the movie, you guys are pretty much always shown looking at Morisson and scowling, is that what you did?

Robby Krieger: Sometimes.

Marc Allan: I kind of get the impression watching this movie that it should have been called Jim Morisson’s wretched excesses, you know instead of The Doors, because even though you guys were a big part of the band, obviously, basically they just had you looking at the guy.

Robby Krieger: Right, yeah, well that was, I’m sure, Ray’s main complaint with the movie, and we knew that was how it was gonna be because that’s what the major attraction of a Hollywood movie is, is hey there’s this crazy guy we can portray whereas The Doors fans would love to see the other guys and how the songs were made and the studio and all that. Well they figure, well the people, they love to see this crazy asshole. You know, that’s why I never wanted to make the movie, but I figured that if people can get some idea of what it was like to be at a Doors show, and they can hear the songs and have some nice visuals to put to ’em, then that’s better than nothing, you know and somebody was gonna make this move anyway one way or the other, without us or with us.

Marc Allan: Did they have to have your permission?

Robby Krieger: Well, to use the songs they did. The thing is they could have done something like The Rose, where they take some of the songs that we didn’t write that we did, like “Back Door Man”, they can do those, and they can take and have some guys write some songs that sort of sound like some Doors songs. And yeah, that would be ridiculous, but they would do it.

Marc Allan: What’s the truth about The Doors? You were there and you know it as well as anybody, what’s the attraction? Why are The Doors still popular 20 years later? And what’s the truth, what really happened? I know that can be a very long answer.

Robby Krieger: Well I think part of it is that we really were not part of the 60’s band trip. You know, the flower power and all that. We weren’t into it. We were either ahead of our time or behind our time or something, but I think that’s why people relate to us now, because we were sort of different. More psychological. More universal in the way we wrote songs. Our sound was different. Our sound, even, was more like today’s sound, in that, because Ray had to play the bass at the same time as the organ he ended up playing these very hypnotic things that were easy for him to play, and it’s sort like today’s sequence stuff, very hypnotic, maybe not danceable like your dance music of today, but I think it had the same effect on people. And it was mainly the words. They really came from deep within, rather than being about local subjects or trivial subjects.

Marc Allan: There’s this new book, Jim Morisson Dark Star by Dylan Jones, which is kind of just a picture book more or less, but guy has a phrase I kinda like, I wonder if you think this is accurate, he says Jim Morisson was a pop genius but an amateur human being.

Robby Krieger: I think in a way he was way ahead of anybody else, as being a human being, but in other ways he was a retard. He could be a real asshole. But that wasn’t Jim, that was the other. The crazy guy that came out when Jim got drunk. But Jim wasn’t drunk all the time. He could be the greatest guy you’ve ever met in your life, which, if that was only once a week, that was enough to get you through the other six days.

Marc Allan: Okay, so he could sustain himself on being nice once in a while.

Robby Krieger: Oh yeah.

Marc Allan: The thing that I thought was really flawed in the movie was the, you know, you guys made eight records in about four years, and obviously he couldn’t have been going off and just going nuts all the time, because eight records in four years is a lot of product.

Robby Krieger: Well, now that’s the thing is, when Jim was working he was at his best, and he would never miss a show, even though it seemed like in the movie that he was always, you know late. And many times we were worried that he might not make it but he always did, and the reason for that was because that is what he lived for, and it was, you know, playing was what he loved the best, and that’s when we were at our best. With all the personal shit aside, when we were playing, we were great. At first we got along great, and Jim was great, but as the drinking wore on, you know, it got harder and harder to live with, but when we were playing it was always great.

Marc Allan: Is it true that you guys talked to Iggy Pop about joining the band after Jim died?

Robby Krieger: No.

Marc Allan: No, okay.

Robby Krieger: We considered, you know, getting another guy. But after thinking about it we decided not to.

Marc Allan: Did you find it tough to make records after Jim died, as far as Doors records I mean?

Robby Krieger: Yeah. We did, but, I mean, the first record we made after Jim died was.

Marc Allan: Other Voices?

Robby Krieger: Was “Other Voices”, yeah, and that one, see when Jim had gone to Paris, the three of us kept on writing and rehearsing stuff, and you know, we expected Jim would be back. When he didn’t come back, we just kind of went ahead and well, we don’t wanna waste this stuff, wanted to go ahead and put it out and have The Doors without Jim. See what happened. But what happened was, after Jim had died, the three of us ended up totally not being able to get along and, you know, when Jim was alive, it was like he balanced the three of us perfectly and it’s like everybody seemed to have the perfect balance of personalities, but when Jim was gone, that balance was gone and we just couldn’t get along.

Marc Allan: It’s a really a shame that that’s not reflected at all in the movie.

Robby Krieger: Yeah, that’s true.

Marc Allan: You know, two hours and 15 minutes, you’d think you could get some of that in there. You know maybe cut out one of the drunken binges or something in favor of that. Couple of other things and I’ll let you go. Do you feel like The Doors have come to symbolize the 60’s in any respect?

Robby Krieger: Not really. Like I say, we weren’t really a product of the 60’s. We were more universal than that. When I think of the 60’s, I think of the Mamas and Papas, Buffalo Springfield, stuff like that. The Doors were kind of an anomaly. We didn’t really belong in any time frame I don’t think.

Marc Allan: You seem to cope pretty well with the attention and the fact, that I’m sure you’ve done about a million interviews since this movie came out, does it ever bother you? Do you say jeez, I just wish I could put this aside and, you know be Robby Krieger, guitar player, and head of my own band and forget that.

Robby Krieger: I used to think that way years ago, I realized that The Doors is bigger than any of us, that only happens once in a lifetime and not to many people. So I don’t mind it. I mean, it’s an honor to be one of The Doors.

Marc Allan: Yeah, but I just wonder if when you realize that it’s over, and it’s been over for 20 years now, you know, I just wonder if it’s tough to know that you can’t go back to that and that you can’t achieve that again?

Robby Krieger: No, like I say, it used to bother me, but I don’t expect to do that again, I don’t know if I would want to again.

Marc Allan: Okay. Two other things. Do you think music today is better or worse than when The Doors were around?

Robby Krieger: Worse.

Marc Allan: Why?

Robby Krieger: Well, I hate to blame it on the business but I don’t know where else the blame should fall. I think partly it’s because, the whole rock star thing has gotten out of hand, everybody wants to be a rockstar, and therefore anybody who has the money and the desire can become a rockstar no matter what talent you have and talent has become secondary. Therefore, there’s a lot of lousy music out there, and the record companies don’t know what’s good or bad, therefore how should the public know?

Marc Allan: That’s a pretty good answer to it. And lastly, what should be the real memory that people have of Jim Morisson?

Robby Krieger: I’m afraid it’ll be, this movie will be the way he’s remembered, which might not be that bad. I mean, he could be a lot worse than in the movie too. But then again, he could be a lot nicer. I wish everybody could know him the way I knew him before the drinking, you know. When we were writing the first songs and in the early days and maybe I’ll write a book someday which they’ll make a movie out of.

Marc Allan: Yeah, that would be nice. Did Val Kilmer do a good job portraying him?

Robby Krieger: Yeah, he really did a good job.

Marc Allan: Did you ever look at it and think, Jesus guy, you know, we good get back together again with Val Kilmer singing.

Robby Krieger: Yeah, it was scary sometimes how much he was like Jim.

Marc Allan: Yeah, but people forget that he can imitate him all he wants, but he can’t write the songs or participate in the songs. Anyway, well that’s what I needed and I appreciate your taking the time and I’m glad we had the chance to talk.

Robby Krieger: All right man, good. I’d like to see the article.

Marc Allan: Yeah, I’m gonna drop Linda a copy when it’s done, should be out some time next week.

Robby Krieger: Okay.

Marc Allan: All right, thanks a lot.

Robby Krieger: Great.

Marc Allan: Bye.