WEBVTT - Jim Morrison Episode 12: Who Killed Jim Morrison? 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.520 The twenty seven Club is a production of I Heart 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:07.440 Radio and Double Elvis Media. Jim Morrison died at the 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:12.159 age of and he died under mysterious circumstances. I can 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.440 give you twenty seven reasons why that statement is true. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:17.920 Two would be the number of dealers who would lead 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.960 him down the labyrinthian path of a grungy Parisian rock 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.200 club to an unknown fate. Another one would be the 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:26.520 number of friends that he seemed to lose into thin 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.480 air just when his days were dwindling down to nothing. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:32.600 Twenty more would be the number of minutes, give or take, 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.040 he'd spend in a stall, awake one minute and unconscious 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.600 the next, cycling through the many layers of hell in 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.680 his own mind. Another three would be the number of 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.080 days it would take for anyone from the Door's camp 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.760 to travel across the pond and attempt to figure out 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.840 what in the hell was going on. And one would 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:51.960 be the number of people who claimed to have been 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.960 there for his last moments when the Lizard King shuffled 0:00:55.000 --> 0:01:01.120 off this mortal coil, all totally on this our final 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:06.080 episode of season two, a grungy Parisian nightclub, absent friends, 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:11.280 hell and Jim Morrison lost in fantasy. I'm Jake Brennan 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:54.360 and this is the twenty seven Club. Yeah. It was 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:59.280 well after midnight on Saturday, July three when Jim Morrison 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:01.160 parked himself off at the bar at the Rock and 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.960 Roll Circus and raised his arm at the bartender bombers 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:07.720 who play. He shouted, it didn't matter what kind of 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.560 beer it was or what country it came from, as 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.919 long as it was cold and wet. He wanted it. 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.760 A pike glass on the bar in front of him, 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.080 he turned to his left and gave Jimbo a big, 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.240 welcoming slap on the back. Jimbo was already a few 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.119 beers deep, already a few puffs de, already a few 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.960 snorts of smack deep. Jimbo turned his head slowly to 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.160 face Jim's, his eyes puffy and half closed, his beer 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.920 dirty and prickly, and attempted a smile as he did. 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.560 His last gulp of stella trickled from the edge of 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:39.639 his lips, and he knocked the ash off of his 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.280 half smoked galois and with the other hand crushed the 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.480 empty blue box of smokes. It had been a long 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.120 night already. It was around one am, and the day 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.600 it was catching up the Jim. The first swig of 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.679 draft beer was a welcome salve at that moment. He 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.000 had gone to eat that sweet and sour chicken that 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.480 had given a bit of golf afterwards, and then to 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.840 see the Robert Mitchen movie. Pamela stayed at home. She 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.560 was even more tired than he was. No matter, they said, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:07.280 the best way to see a movie in a darkened 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.720 theater was all by yourself alone, and the jury was 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.440 still out on that one. Afterward, Jim found his way 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.240 back to the rock and roll circus, another late night 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.160 deep dive into the deepest of late night skies joints. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.840 Maybe he'd run into a rolling stone or a beetle, 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:27.440 or maybe Jimmie Hendrix. Shit, no, wait, he thought, and 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:32.080 shook his head violently. Jimmy was fucking dead. He looked 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.040 up from his bar stool at the mural on the 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.320 wall of Jimmy reimagined as a clown. Jim shook his 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.680 head again, like if he shook it hard enough, he 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.000 would clear out whatever was still in there that was 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.640 messing him up. His eyes were close shut, his head 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.000 still shaking back and forth, and the stella rattling around 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.520 in his brain. When he heard the bartender show they 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.000 called nep see, Jim opened his eyes. He looked at 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.800 the bartender and pointed a finger straight at his own chest. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:03.240 Me ema words just all lips still in the shaking 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.520 head days. And the bartender looked past Jim and gesture, 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.000 first throwing a wet bar towel over his shoulder and 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.040 then giving a flick of the wrist into the air 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.320 like he was shooting some cats away from his newly 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:19.080 made tuna ficial sandwich. Then pissy, he repeated, the Count's 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.120 not here man. Jim turned around to see two of 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.719 the Count's dealers standing directly behind him. He met them before, 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.719 met them with Pamela. Pamela was tighter with the Count 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.839 than Jim preferred, but these days, with this growing taste 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.200 for heroin, it was good to have the Count around. 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:37.680 And the Count had the good stuff, this ship that 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.960 was spreading like wildfire in Paris, and the Count's smack 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.440 was rumored to be something like eight six pc pure. 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.520 Once Jim had broken his own no junk rule, it 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:50.240 was all downhill, and the Count's smack was the best 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.840 high Jim could ever hope to feel. And the dealers 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.240 weren't looking for the Count. They were looking for Jim, 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.200 Mr Mojoe Rising, the Lizard King. And they were star 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.279 fuckers just like the Count, haunted places like the Rocket 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.039 Roll Circus, just like the Count, looking just like Jim 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.240 was looking to run into a stone or a beetle. 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:11.839 They'd settled for an expat Doris Singer, and they dismissed 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.360 the bartender and gave him a very precise and simple 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:18.000 look with no words, communicated one thing. Mind your own 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:22.359 goddamn business. Jim didn't know the dealer's real names, but 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.479 he knew what they were called on the street. Was 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.719 the half Asian guy, based on the nickname, assumed Chinese, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:31.440 but maybe that was part of the joke that he 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.279 was actually half Korean or something. And the pet Robert 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.360 was the one with the Napoleon complex. It was all 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.160 nicknames to these guys. The Count nation Le Petit Robert, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.080 they called Jim jimbo. Jim was eager to correct them. 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.960 Jim beamed ear to hear he was happy to see them. 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.440 As a Pavlovian response, he knew what was next, what 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:54.800 was coming, He knew in a few short moments, he 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.080 would follow the Count's street team into the stall with 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.799 the busted lock and the French graffiti and the bowels 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.400 of the rocket roll circus and do a line so 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:07.200 long and so fat, you fucking explode. But first he 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:12.080 had to correct him on this whole nickname thing. Guys, gentlemen, 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.279 great to see, Jim said, standing up and giving the 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:20.320 dealers some appreciative pats on the arm. People don't call 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:28.680 me Jimbo, man, I'm Jim Just Jim. This Jimbo. And 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.240 he turned to introduce Lean la petit Robert to Jimbo. 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:36.600 But Jimbo wasn't there. The barstool next to jim was empty, 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.800 no glass, no sign of any activity, no stubbed out 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:44.159 galo and the glass ashtray, no crushed blue box. That's 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:48.120 fucking weird. Jim I thought Jimbo had just been here, 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.119 half cocked it about ready to fall out of his chair, 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.080 but he was here. He shook his head again. He 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:58.200 was still confused. Obviously, maybe Jimbo bounced, or maybe he 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.120 hit the head, or maybe he was up the skirt 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.480 to some French chick in the back alley somewhere. Jim 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:05.560 slammed back the rest of his Stella, put the pint 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:09.240 glass on the bar. He yelled at the bartender, where 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.960 the did he go? He pointed at Jimbo's empty bar, 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.720 and the bartender furrowed his eyebrows annoyed, Ready to close 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:18.480 up for the night and send all these drunk bar 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.560 flies and junkies out into the street. He threw his 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:25.360 hands up and looked quizzically at jim who Jim threw 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.240 a couple of bucks down on the bar and turned 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:31.360 back to the dealers. Never mind, next time, he'd introduced him. 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.240 Next time, just fucking call him jim though, okay, no 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.440 one called him Jimbo. And just as he had suspected, 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.320 the next thing he knew, he was following less and 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.560 lippety Robert down the hallway to the bathroom. A light 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.760 on the wall flickered, another was out completely. A couple 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.440 necked up against the wall. The place stunk of stale 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.240 cigarettes and spilled pints of stella and other orders that 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.800 you find after midnight, and a half lit, dank slice 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:59.760 of urban cave life underneath the major metropolis in one 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.160 in the bathroom was dark too. When they walked inside, 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.040 it was empty, just Jim and the guys. His vision 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:08.760 was blurry, His head was a tangle of beer and 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.239 msg and dead people and ship. He shook it again hard. 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.640 This time his head shook it again, thinking that he 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.480 would suddenly glean the location of Jimbo. The dealer stared 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:20.120 at him like he was having a seizure, and they 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.000 were just waiting for it to be over. Jim reached 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:24.840 into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out some 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.920 crumpled up bills. Had no idea how much money it was, 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.760 only that it was enough. Le petit. Robert took his 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.280 money and gave him a baggy of the count's finest smack. 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.280 Jim secluded himself in the first stall in the bathroom, 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.120 the one with the busted lock. It was locked. That 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.079 wasn't the issue, but once it was locked, it was 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.400 near impossible to get it to unlock. Jim closed the 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.880 door behind him and latched the door shut. No one 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.199 was getting inside the stall with him. He heard the 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.200 bathroom door shut as the dealers saw themselves out, and 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.360 Jim dumped the pilot Heroine out on the back of 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.199 the toilet and dragged another damp French bill from his pocket. 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.880 He rolled the up and snorted the majority of howders 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.520 straight off the porcelain. He did it fast, hard, and 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.600 the junk rocketed up as sinuses, past his eye sockets 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.120 and hit his brain. His eyes watered, and he felt 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.240 each part of his brain light up like it had 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.959 been plugged in direct to a wall socket, and each 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.080 region of his head came alive, and the floor started 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.240 to vibrate. He could smell something burning from inside his ears. 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:24.560 He sat down on the toilet and held one hand 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:26.720 against the wall and the other against the stall door. 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.560 He coughed blood he could taste it. Coughed again violently. 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.240 This time he tasted a rubbery, massive blood in his 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.000 mouth and spat it towards the floor. Had he not 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:38.320 seen Jimbo when he came into the circus? Was he 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:43.400 not at the bar waiting for him? Jimbo Wood said 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:45.520 nothing to him tonight. He had said nothing to him 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.640 when he first arrived in Paris and showed up at 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.560 Pamela's door. Come to think of it, Pamela had said 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.480 nothing to Jimbo either, and jim thought it rude at 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:55.960 the time, But it was almost like Jimbo wasn't even there. 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.640 He coughed again more blood, and this time thought about 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.920 the Billy Cook story. The Zodiac, thought about waking up 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.960 on the doorstep of Eleanor Brow's place in l A, 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.520 about snapping Papa tops with the Wizard at the door's 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.960 rehearsal space. He caught more, and the blood came up again. 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.760 So did the memories stealing flowers from the flower children 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.200 at the human being grabbing Janice Joplin's hair at the party. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.800 Right before he passed out, Jim had a distressing feeling, 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.480 a feeling that he had put certain memories and certain 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.800 recesses of his mind, his own personal rock and roll 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:32.560 circus basement labyrinth and his bruize log noggin, and this 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.520 fucking hardcore smack was shaking it all loose. They called 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.240 him Jim, no doubt, But what if they called him 0:10:39.280 --> 0:11:16.880 Jimbo too. Jim was fully under in some seventh level 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.600 of sub circus hell. It was no longer in the 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.360 bathroom stall of some dank, subterranean Paris rock club. He 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.559 was long gone. And the second rip of Les Pete 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.319 Robers junk rocketed straight up his nose, and then he 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.840 rocketed straight downwards hell bent a sudden and sublime shift 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.480 in his consciousness. It got darker, and the noxious odor 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.360 of the Rock and Roll Circus bathroom stall curdled. He 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.840 felt like he was submerged in liquid, thick, soupy liquid. 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.240 He could still breathe just fine. If he was told 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.400 that he even flushed down the stall's toilet, he wouldn't 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.079 have doubted it for a moment. His cough continued, and 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.360 although the taste of blood in his throat was an 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.760 irritating constant, it reassured him that his lungs weren't filling 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.520 with that strange soupy water. He held on to the 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.480 faintest memory of Jimbo, pieces he had just gotten a 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.360 glimpse of while he snorted enthusiastically, the so called person 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:10.760 who always appeared when jim was at his best and 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.880 hung around until he was at his worst. Well, he 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.720 could no longer picture Jimbo's face in his mind's eye, 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.640 what he sounded like, what he smelled like, the sorts 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.320 of things he would say. The rocket hit a heroine 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.760 had blown the whole concept of Jimbo straight out of 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.760 Jim's ears. The bartender had looked at him moldly tonight 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.000 when he was talking to Jimbo at the bar, almost 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:32.960 as if he had been talking to an empty stool. 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.480 And then he flipped back further in his mind, which 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:37.439 was soggy from the smack, and thought of all the 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.880 times he went on a rocket spender and made a scene, 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:44.199 made a fool of himself. Was him, only him, always him, 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:49.439 always Jim, just Jim. Jimbo had no story. He was 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:53.280 from nowhere. He lived somewhere but where. Jimbo was a crutch, 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.520 something to hide bad behavior behind a mask of prickish entitlement. 0:12:57.559 --> 0:12:59.800 When Jim felt like being a prick, he knew that 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.720 he'd always known that Jimbo was nobody. Jim Morrison was somebody. 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.000 Jimbo's weird obsession with Billy Cook and the Zodiac and 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:12.800 the Wizard. Those were Jim's obsessions, deep seated obsessions of dark, twisted, 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.760 fucked up America. He so wanted to put himself in 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.720 a dark, twisted, fucked up storyline of his own. Repressed 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:23.000 as a child conservative household Florida bullshit, he rose above, 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.479 tossed it off, left it behind, saw his repressed conservative 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.360 upbringing in the face of an American public confused with 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.600 who they were supposed to be, Craving instruction, direction, craving 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.920 chaos to turn their little, insignificant worlds upside down. It 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.400 was simple. Jim repeated the moment he rebelled against his norm, 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.400 against what was expected. His audience could do it too. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.199 He did it again and again. Instead of teaching the 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.959 kids dance moves, he teached them the steps to move 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:56.840 towards internal self diagnosed revolution. On stage at the Singer Bowl, Chicago, Phoenix, Miami, 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.040 The Sullivan Show, he did it again and again and 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.320 again and again and again. Killed the father, fucked the mother. 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.360 He wasn't a killer, he was a liberator, an upset her. 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:13.199 Suddenly there was a loud knocking sound, massive vibrations. The 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:18.040 seventh level of sub circus hell shook with wild, abandoned, violent, insistent. 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:23.320 The commotion was all around him, shaking, kicking, knocking, French voices, yelling, 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:28.720 Etsiel Morton. The busted door was ripped open, and Jim 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.960 was back in the bathroom stall still slumped on the toilet, 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.680 he coughed again, this time a fit that grobbed hold 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.400 of him and wouldn't let go. He coughed louder, struggled, 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.040 to get to his feet, and there were men outside 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.560 the stall door, and they reached in for Jim, helped 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.960 him out. They thought he was a gonner in their ship. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.280 He'd been in there for twenty minutes. The dealers who 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.360 had let him inside had fled the scene long ago, 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:51.360 and the men were glad to see that Jim was 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.520 all right. But more importantly, the rock and roll circus 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.120 was closing for the night. Jim did not have to 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:02.160 go home, but I couldn't stay here. Jim wasn't sure 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.640 how he got back to the flat with Pamela that morning, 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.080 or how long it took him to get there. He 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.120 remembered the men in the bathroom and more men ushering 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.280 him outside. The late night early morning air was still 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:16.680 humid from the day before. He puked on a sidewalk, 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.280 reached in his pocket for a cigarette, but realized he 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.240 had left him at the bar somewhere at the flat. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.120 Pamela didn't seem that surprised to see him. She obviously 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.560 had taken her own fair share of snorts that evening 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.600 and was equally out of it. She opened her eyes 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.000 wide when Jim devolved into another coughing fit. He ran 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.800 into the bathroom and puked to get it was a mess, 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.600 full of John coughing of blood, having the kind of 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.200 revelations one can only have while on a lonely bender 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:47.360 in a foreign country. He needed a bath. A bath 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.040 would do him good, stabilize him, get him back to 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.480 that warm, liquidy, floating feeling he had experienced earlier in 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:58.040 the circus bathroom stall. He turned the bathroom fauceted on, 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:00.520 and the water rushed out in the It was a 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.280 pleasant drone, soothing. He watched the steam rise from the 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.320 water as it slowly filled up the tub, his eyes 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.360 lost in the swirls of heat, the steam easing into 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.760 his chest and calming his cough. He took his clothes off, 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.320 climbed in the tub, shut off the faucet. Then there 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:19.720 was no sound at all, just the sound of his 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.760 own breathing, and that absence of sound, which in turn 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:26.760 makes its own sound a ringing faint. At first, rising, 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.480 he heard sounds in the absence of sound that weren't there, 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:33.920 And then he felt the nausea crash over him, a 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.120 big wave of it. His stomach wretched, and he sat 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.440 up from his reclined position, yelled for Pamela, but nothing, 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.040 and the wave hit him again, gaining intensity now, and 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.120 Jim yelled for Pamela again. She was in the bathroom 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.280 a few moments later. It felt like an eternity to Jim, 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:54.520 half asleep, fully dozed, walking zombie. Jim told her he 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:56.800 was going to be sick again. He needed a bucket, 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:59.360 a pot of pans, something he couldn't moved from the tub. 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.600 Hen did her help now, and Pamela returned with a 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.920 pot from the kitchen and Jim immediately threw up in it. 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:08.240 She rinsed it out, handed it back to him. He 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.160 was sick again again. Pamela rinsed it out and then 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:13.800 he felt better, he had gotten it out of his system. 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.080 He'd stay in the tub a while longer, and Pamela 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.200 went back out to the living room, back to the couch, 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:25.280 back to her own oblivion. She woke up after the 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:30.400 sun had risen that morning, July three. Didn't see Jim, 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.600 who wasn't on the couch with her, wasn't in the bedroom. 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.000 She could hear the rustle of traffic outside the city 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.960 come to life once again after a long, hot summer night. 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.280 The radio had been left on all night She was 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.680 just realizing this now. The Grateful Dead's version of Sonny 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.800 Boy Williamson's Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl was playing, and the 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.119 signal was full of static and hum. I'm gonna leave you, 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.800 baby about the break of day. I count of the 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.480 way you treat me. I gotta stay away. She walked 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.000 back to the bathroom slowly, cautiously. She started to have 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.280 bad thoughts about what she'd find in there. The worst thoughts, 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:08.600 the thoughts that she had from time to time when 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.920 she couldn't find him, when he wasn't where he said 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.000 he'd beat, didn't come home when he said he would, 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.240 The thoughts that would pop up when the band couldn't 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:17.440 find him, when his manager couldn't find him, when it 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:19.920 seemed like Jim just up and left the world without 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:24.280 letting a soul know. Pamela was used to those thoughts, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.080 but that didn't make them any less difficult. It didn't 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.320 make the journey down the hallway to the bathroom any 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.680 less traumatic. She called out his name as she got closer. 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.720 No response. She said his name again, this time louder, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.639 this time closer to the bathroom door, but nothing. She 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.119 stepped into the bathroom and the thoughts were gone, and 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:47.200 she screamed out loud, screamed the thoughts away. Jim's body 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.840 was still on the tub, but Jim, Jim was not. 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.280 Jim was long gone, and he took Jimbo with him. 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:07.880 We'll be right back after this word. We were Bill 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.560 Siddons wanted to see the body. If there was no body, 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.800 it was all just fantasy, make believe. He wanted to 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.160 see Jim Morrison's lifeless body on a slab, on a table, 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.080 on a bed, in a bathtub, anywhere. He just had 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.680 to put his eyes on it, check that box, vet verified. 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:25.880 Someone just taken to the goddamn body. So he knew 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:27.920 that it was true, that the rumors were true, the 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.240 Pamela's call was true, and then he'd go into Bill 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.320 Siddons crisis mood. He'd handle it, take care of the ship, 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.320 the media, the authorities, the label of the family, the doors, 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.080 the fans. He Bill Siddons, the ship out of this thing. 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:46.800 But he needed visual identification. Bill hadn't seen Jim in months, 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.119 had hardly heard from him in months. International long distance 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.040 call rates were no joke. The doors had money, sure, 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.320 but Bill was smart, thrifty. Only call if absolutely necessary. 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.680 Jim sent the occasional postcard. In one to his lawyer, 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.080 Max Fink, he wrote the women are great and the 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.320 food is gorgeous, and another to Bob green Is accountant. 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.240 He asked for credit cards for himself and Pamela, and 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:11.800 also for an extra three large for the mounting bills 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.560 that came. Was living a charmed life and giving zero ships. 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.480 Bill knew that Jim was taking some extended r and 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:20.920 R in Paris, and Bill had instructed everyone to keep 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.680 their distance, let him learn some new words, meet some 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:25.880 new people, or you know what, meet no one who cares. 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.080 Just let the guy disappear. Bill and the label would work. 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.600 L a woman on the home front, continue to repair 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.639 the still fragile image of the doors post Miami, and 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:36.560 when Jim was ready to come home, ready to get 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.159 back in the saddle and make music again, they'd be 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:43.600 waiting again. Bill was smart. He knew deep down that 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.080 that would never happen. Jim was never coming home. Jim 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.679 wasn't going to prison, he wasn't making any more records 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.840 of the doors. He was an indefinite hiatus from the world. 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:55.040 He had even used that word when he spoke to 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.760 Bill about his status and Paris indefinitely. He had remade 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.920 himself into an expas he was long gone. Then the 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:07.760 calls came. The phone started ringing. That Saturday, July. Three 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.760 calls came in French. Calls came in English. Calls came 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.920 in English with a French accent. And the calls were frantic, confused, concerned, 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:21.320 heightened panics. Jim Morrison was dead. Bill had taken these 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.080 calls before. It was a weekly game. He played back 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.240 when the doors were at their height. Jim and drank 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:28.680 himself to death over the weekend. Jim drove the Blue 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.199 Lady into a telephone pole. Over the weekend. Jim got 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.399 into a brawl with a Wilson brother. Over the weekend. 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.640 The calls kept coming, the phone kept ringing. They all 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:41.320 repeated the same thing, Jim Morrison is dead. Bill get 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:45.679 he confirmed this for us. Bill felt sick. His stomach 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.240 dropped to somewhere around his knees, Sweat beaded around his collar, 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.520 at his wrists, slid down his temples, and off his chin. 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.280 He took each phone call with a stainless steel bowl 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:55.840 on the desk next to him, in case he had 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.639 to throw up on the fly, and then more calls 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.080 came in that Jim Morris wasn't dead, he was just hospitalized. 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:04.359 He was very tired, he was resting, he had another 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:06.400 bott of that coughing fit where he'd spit up blood 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.720 and would feel woozy. And the news started running conflicting stories. 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:12.359 Jim was in a hospital, Jim was in a sanitarium. 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:16.919 The phone rang again, and this time it rang louder 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:20.320 than all the other times, urgent, insistent, like a pair 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:22.040 of hands was on the other side of the phone 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.400 where it sat on the desk and shook it violently. 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.720 Bill picked up the receiver. It was Pamela. Her voice 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:33.040 was quiet, weak, broken up by the cross atlantic connection. 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.240 She sounded like she had been transported somewhere, somewhere she'd 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.000 never been before, and she was finding her footing. She 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.480 told Bill that the rumors were true. Jim was dead. 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:47.240 Bill needed to be on the next plane to Paris. 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:51.080