Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2: It's a It's a Steve show. This is a Steam show.
Speaker 3: Brot just I.
Speaker 2: Believe our best episodes are when we don't know the guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, everybody calm down because I can't carry that.
Speaker 2: I'm just I go through.
Speaker 4: I know, you know, five to one when I start
Speaker 4: talking to take over.
Speaker 5: I know that whole valcuum, like a whole valculum.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, light my fire.
Speaker 3: Of course I went the samples. Did anyone sample the doors?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 6: They were.
Speaker 3: Okay, here's a drummer too.
Speaker 2: By the way, I know, right, I think that we
Speaker 2: have a whole thing about it. We kind of tick
Speaker 2: you like we're going to take the sim test today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, I'm at all right, I'm with you.
Speaker 2: All right, here we go, Oh.
Speaker 3: Already, let's go.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Hey man, I'm good, good, good to
Speaker 2: be here with you.
Speaker 7: I don't know. I don't know if you can see
Speaker 7: this my wardrobe.
Speaker 5: I.
Speaker 2: Said, thank you.
Speaker 3: He sat in with us.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 7: Is it because of COVID that that the roots are
Speaker 7: pared down?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's because of COVID.
Speaker 8: We can't state loss says that only uh six people
Speaker 8: out of eleven.
Speaker 2: Uh, our information, So that's how it is.
Speaker 7: I got Okay, well, I used to love that the
Speaker 7: tuba duplicating the baselines that sent me right to New Orleans.
Speaker 8: Nice the lower Yeah, that's cool crap since we already
Speaker 8: talking when we start the introduction, Uh, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 8: this is quest Love Supreme. My name is quest Love.
Speaker 8: We have Teams Supreme with us. We gotta fine take
Speaker 8: a low. Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
Speaker 8: This is also the time that I'm not pluralizing the
Speaker 8: word year.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 8: I always say happy New Years, and I've been corrected
Speaker 8: one too many times.
Speaker 2: Sugar Steve, Hello.
Speaker 3: Hello, how you doing everybody?
Speaker 5: Hi?
Speaker 3: John?
Speaker 4: It's kind of weird for me to say hello to
Speaker 4: you because I see you every day.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm pretty sick of you too.
Speaker 8: Let's move on, okay, Yeah, happy.
Speaker 4: Run off and the Sugar Steve really is a live episode.
Speaker 2: Ye paid Bill, ye's with us as well. How you
Speaker 2: doing good? Hen run off? Day good? Yeah?
Speaker 8: Happy yeah, yeah happy whatever you said day layah just
Speaker 8: as well.
Speaker 2: That's right. Happy fiftieth month, my friend.
Speaker 4: Oh you're right with me, there's okay, you're still nineteen yeah.
Speaker 5: No, I mean, I'm not Yes, I'm right with you
Speaker 5: as far as our birthdays on the same day, but
Speaker 5: it's but you.
Speaker 8: Know what I'm yeah anyway, all right, So our guest today, y'all.
Speaker 2: Our guest is huge, Yeah, very huge.
Speaker 8: He's a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of
Speaker 8: Fame and he's literally from one of the most influential
Speaker 8: bands of all time. The Doors have sold over one
Speaker 8: hundred million records. That's nothing to stuff at. Their music
Speaker 8: and their influence still resonates to this day. Yes, I
Speaker 8: don't know if you know that, John.
Speaker 3: Those are actual records too, not.
Speaker 7: I better actually check my royalties.
Speaker 9: Yeah, we're on the verge of an answer, you know,
Speaker 9: back today. It'd be good for Ton.
Speaker 2: Not not to mention.
Speaker 8: Our guest is also an author, actor, playwright, Grammy Lifetime
Speaker 8: Achievement Ward Winner recipient, and we are extremely honored to
Speaker 8: have him talk shop with us today and his illustrious career.
Speaker 8: Please welcome to Course Left Supreme. John Dinsmore, drummer of
Speaker 8: The Doors.
Speaker 7: Hey, Hey, yo, thank you, and I'm not dead, you know.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a good start.
Speaker 7: Yeah, congratulations, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: That's an ad. We're all right. Now where are you
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 7: I'm I'm in my office slash rehearsal room, you.
Speaker 4: Know, Okay, I meant like, in what part of the world.
Speaker 7: Oh, I'm in lak where I was born, my mom
Speaker 7: was My mom was born here in nineteen oh four.
Speaker 7: And but we're not native. The Chumash Indians are the
Speaker 7: first People's got to get that, right, You.
Speaker 5: Better credit, you better get it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So listen, I want to say, I'm really pleased
Speaker 7: to be doing this because, you know, Quest and I
Speaker 7: are in the same tribe, a tribe called drummers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are, you know, And I just.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I love that. You know, you're the leader of
Speaker 7: the roots, and not a lot of drummers their leaders.
Speaker 7: And and it makes me think of you and Lionel
Speaker 7: Hampton or or Art Blakey and the jazz messengers you
Speaker 7: know who I saw many times. Or Chico Hamilton, who
Speaker 7: I stole to ride cymbal bell beat from.
Speaker 3: You know, so wait, how did you pull that time out?
Speaker 3: Please tell tell our audience who Chico Hamilton is, please,
Speaker 3: because nobody ever talks about him.
Speaker 7: He was a wonderful jazz cat in the early sixties
Speaker 7: and I saw him as a teenager. I think Charles
Speaker 7: Lloyd was playing with him, and uh man, you know,
Speaker 7: I heard a real cool thing, and I later I
Speaker 7: put it in the end. You know, you steal from
Speaker 7: the best.
Speaker 3: Right, exactly flattery I was.
Speaker 8: I was going to say, though, you're you told me
Speaker 8: at Fallin that your your weapon of choice wasn't initially
Speaker 8: the drums. You started out, you said as a piano player.
Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah, that's in my new book. Uh my mom
Speaker 7: is the first chapter, because she encouraged me to play piano,
Speaker 7: and I just was crazy for music and I wanted
Speaker 7: to play any instrument. And then I got into junior
Speaker 7: high and there was no piano in the band or
Speaker 7: the orchestra, and I chose clarinet because I thought, you know,
Speaker 7: Benny Goodman's cool whatever. And I had braces on my
Speaker 7: teeth and they said, no, no, no, you can't do that.
Speaker 7: You're trying to push them back and they're going to
Speaker 7: come out with that instrument. So drums. Yeah, so I
Speaker 7: owe my career to the dentist.
Speaker 8: Oh so you're saying that adults encouraged you to play
Speaker 8: the drums, because normally, in my situation, adults drums are
Speaker 8: always the last resort of every drum guitar because their
Speaker 8: parents don't want them to make noise or anything.
Speaker 7: I got you, now, my parents were okay with it,
Speaker 7: but quest did you have one of those black rubber
Speaker 7: pads a drum pad you know us back, but they
Speaker 7: have no sound And that's what you got to do
Speaker 7: when you're too.
Speaker 2: Loud, right exactly?
Speaker 8: Well even that, I'll say, like my first two years
Speaker 8: of taking drum lessons, you know, my teacher had like
Speaker 8: this this shiny Ludwig drum set and also a practice
Speaker 8: pad next to that drum set, and we would just
Speaker 8: walk to the practice pad and I would ask him like, wait,
Speaker 8: when do I get to play the post? And he's like,
Speaker 8: you're not ready yet. So like for two years I
Speaker 8: had to play on that practice pad, almost like it
Speaker 8: was like torture for you know, to sit there in
Speaker 8: front of that drum set and not even touch it
Speaker 8: for the first two years.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, same deal with me. I was told if
Speaker 7: I took private lessons, I'd get better, and so I did,
Speaker 7: and I was surrounded by drum sets on the damn
Speaker 7: practice pad with the teacher.
Speaker 2: So who's your like, who's your north star?
Speaker 8: As far as drumming was concerned, like, you know, because
Speaker 8: I mean you were the rock era, the modern rock era,
Speaker 8: so it wasn't like you have tales of seeing anyone
Speaker 8: that modern musicians see now. So who was your north star?
Speaker 8: As far as like like who would have been your
Speaker 8: beatles on Sullivan Movement? As far as like that's what
Speaker 8: I want to do for a living?
Speaker 7: Elvin Jones, Wow, great. I got my fake ID in
Speaker 7: Tijuana and went to Shelley's man Hall, which the door
Speaker 7: man looked at and said, this is fake, but come
Speaker 7: on in, you know, and I saw Coltrane many times.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I want to say that your fake ID,
Speaker 2: said Elvin Jones on it.
Speaker 8: What was that like to see people that we take
Speaker 8: for granted? I don't think we've ever had a guest
Speaker 8: on the show that.
Speaker 2: I saw Coltrane?
Speaker 8: Yeah, that seem like gods and you knew they were
Speaker 8: gods then? So what was that like for you to see?
Speaker 7: All right? Well you can read all about it in
Speaker 7: my new book. The second or third chapter is on Elvin.
Speaker 7: So you know, I knew there was magic. I mean
Speaker 7: I didn't know that I was seeing iconic that people
Speaker 7: were going to be just legendary, you know, but I
Speaker 7: sensed just I don't know, there was fire and energy,
Speaker 7: Like I couldn't believe the conversation Elvin would have with Coltrane.
Speaker 7: They'd just be you know, he'd keep the groove, but
Speaker 7: he'd be riffing off him all the time. And you know,
Speaker 7: it gave me a little courage now and then to
Speaker 7: riff off Jim Morrison, you know, fuck around with what
Speaker 7: he's saying and you know, keep the groove. But you know, Elvin,
Speaker 7: he's my man. And so after Coltrane died, I saw Elvin. Well,
Speaker 7: let me back up, all right. So my my idols
Speaker 7: are in the dressing room at the As Club, and
Speaker 7: the bathroom is right next to the jazz club, next
Speaker 7: to the uh my brain. It's one of the musicians
Speaker 7: hang out in the greenroom green room, and so I
Speaker 7: went to the bathroom a lot because they were right
Speaker 7: around the corner, you know. And I was afraid to
Speaker 7: say anything. But later, after Coltrane died, I I introduced
Speaker 7: myself to Elvin and then I had I have three
Speaker 7: self centered memoirs, and the first one, Riders on the Storm,
Speaker 7: I gave to Elvin, and I quickly said Hey man,
Speaker 7: I wrote in here you gave me my hands, you know,
Speaker 7: worried that he would be condescending, this jazz giant, and
Speaker 7: he was so warm and friendly, and I saw him
Speaker 7: many more times and I took his symbol bag to
Speaker 7: the car towards the end of his life. So we're
Speaker 7: talking to real mentor you.
Speaker 2: Know, what was it about his playing?
Speaker 10: Because a lot of homies I went to school with
Speaker 10: that were in the jazz department, they all like just
Speaker 10: swore by Elvin Jones. So if you could explain to
Speaker 10: kind of a layperson on what was it about his
Speaker 10: drumming technique that just made him so amazing?
Speaker 7: I think they called it poly rhythms, you know. I
Speaker 7: mean he'd have the pocket. You have to have the pocket,
Speaker 7: of course, but he was continually playing triplets and all
Speaker 7: this shit all going on all the time, like churning
Speaker 7: up an rhythmic egg beater, and it sounded like he
Speaker 7: was going to fall into his kit.
Speaker 3: He was. It was just but he didn't, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 7: I don't know. That's how I describe it, you know.
Speaker 2: That's what's up.
Speaker 3: Can I ask a question, so, with with your clear
Speaker 3: love for jazz, did you ever actually play jazz in
Speaker 3: a in a serious way.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 7: A few years back I had a group called Tribal Jazz,
Speaker 7: which was jazz quartet or quintet with two African drummers,
Speaker 7: which was really fun because you know, I'm trying to
Speaker 7: integrate Senegalese rhythms into a drum kit, you know, so
Speaker 7: it rearranged some brain cells.
Speaker 2: That was good.
Speaker 3: And what about back when you were younger, did you
Speaker 3: play any jazz then?
Speaker 7: Well, as a kid like crazy, and then I stumbled
Speaker 7: into this rock band.
Speaker 10: I say it worked out pretty good.
Speaker 8: Well, let me let me ask because yeah, like was
Speaker 8: there music musical snobbery uh in the in the sixties
Speaker 8: to the level of where you know, like it was
Speaker 8: a big deal for like Leonard Cohen to say, like
Speaker 8: I actually like the Beatles like that.
Speaker 2: Sort of thing.
Speaker 8: Oh, I see, was it was it a struggle back
Speaker 8: then to win respect?
Speaker 4: Like did you care as much or just were you unaware?
Speaker 7: Uh? Back then the whole country was polarized into four
Speaker 7: and against the Vietnam War, kind of like today's kind
Speaker 7: of polarized, you know, and uh, you know rock and
Speaker 7: roll was against the war and any sort of liberal
Speaker 7: bent and so you were either for that or you know,
Speaker 7: I would say that country music kind of represented the
Speaker 7: other side. But the last chapter I got in this
Speaker 7: book is on Willie Nelson, And you know, I'm looking
Speaker 7: for the soul in any genre. You know, I can
Speaker 7: get fed by if you're if you're saying something truthful,
Speaker 7: and if it's in a simplistic form, it doesn't matter. Man.
Speaker 7: In fact, in my old age, I've learned that if
Speaker 7: I put the right symbol crash in the exact right spot,
Speaker 7: it can be as powerful as you know, in my
Speaker 7: twenties when I showed all my shit or when I
Speaker 7: had more chops, you know what I mean?
Speaker 8: What was the what was the modern music scene like
Speaker 8: in Los Angeles in the mid sixties before yeah, before
Speaker 8: you guys really got established, Like was Whiskey a go
Speaker 8: go a thing sort of before you guys came along,
Speaker 8: or like what was Yeah, it was just a modern scene.
Speaker 7: Like exactly, No, the Whiskey was mecca and we were
Speaker 7: playing in a little club a block down from the
Speaker 7: Whiskey the night we were fired because there was a fight,
Speaker 7: which we did not cause, but they blamed it on
Speaker 7: the band. The booker from the Whiskey dropped in and
Speaker 7: saw us, and she hired us as the house band
Speaker 7: at the Whiskey, and it was heaven. I mean every
Speaker 7: night the streets were packed with hippies and music freaks
Speaker 7: and every band that came in, I don't know, let's
Speaker 7: see Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Van Morrison, et cetera, et cetera,
Speaker 7: the Birds all. You know, they had to deal with
Speaker 7: the opening act. Wow, I don't mean to well that
Speaker 7: sounds a little self serving, but we were we were different.
Speaker 7: We you know, we were the undeclared Vietnam War. We
Speaker 7: were not singing about peace and love. We were singing
Speaker 7: about this is the end, beautiful friend man. Things are
Speaker 7: there's a lot of lying going on, and so you know,
Speaker 7: we played light my Fire and everybody dance and that
Speaker 7: was really cool. And then we play the end and
Speaker 7: it got very quiet and then people had to follow that,
Speaker 7: the other bands, which I mean, we were friends with
Speaker 7: them all. But it was a really cool scene.
Speaker 8: Were what were your thoughts on like the postmod kind
Speaker 8: of movement of music, like people that weren't that political,
Speaker 8: more poppy, like I guess I still want to know,
Speaker 8: like where they're different tribes or different clicks of did
Speaker 8: you guys mess together at all?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 7: The British invasion was kind of poppy, you know, but
Speaker 7: then then we all started experimenting with then legal psychedelics
Speaker 7: and the Beatles' music got a little darker like ours.
Speaker 8: Yeah, did you appreciate it at the time, Well, appreciate
Speaker 8: their contribution at the time.
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's from from a person from my generation.
Speaker 8: We'll be quick to lump like anyone that came from
Speaker 8: the mid to late sixties in the same bowl, you know,
Speaker 8: whereas I'm certain that three four decades from now, you know,
Speaker 8: somebody will look at my band or Fonte's band and
Speaker 8: you know just think like, oh, okay, well you know,
Speaker 8: Kanye West outcast, you guys are all the same where
Speaker 8: we've talked much shit about each other and that sort
Speaker 8: of thing.
Speaker 4: So like, you know, were you.
Speaker 8: Your thoughts on your contemporaries at the time, like Zones, Yeah,
Speaker 8: the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks.
Speaker 7: Let me break it down. You know, in the beginning,
Speaker 7: I I was a jazz snob, but I was certainly
Speaker 7: aware of the roots of rock and roll. Chuck Berry
Speaker 7: and Little Richard and all and and Elvis and whatever.
Speaker 7: Then I saw these four mop tops on Ed Sullivan
Speaker 7: and I thought, wow, man, what are they gay?
Speaker 2: What is this?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 7: And uh then I noticed I noticed their melodies. I thought, wow,
Speaker 7: you know, because melodies, man, are they key? I don't
Speaker 7: I don't care if it's heavy metal or country. If
Speaker 7: you got a beautif for melody with a with a
Speaker 7: cool lyric, they gotta be wetted together. Wow, you got
Speaker 7: great songs. So you know, I knew the Beatles had
Speaker 7: great songs.
Speaker 6: And we.
Speaker 7: Looked up to the Stones and like that van.
Speaker 8: Were they of an older generation to you? Because even
Speaker 8: in my world, like someone that came out four or
Speaker 8: five years ago, I'll see that as in hip hop terms,
Speaker 8: like someone that made their debut in two thousand and
Speaker 8: ten even is kind of old. Even even though they're
Speaker 8: not old school, they're considered old school. So, you know,
Speaker 8: because of the of the years between you guys them
Speaker 8: starting in sixty one sixty two, was it still the
Speaker 8: same fraternity or were they seeing as older statesmen? Not
Speaker 8: older statesmen, but that's what I'm assing.
Speaker 7: No, they were just a few years old, so they
Speaker 7: weren't an entirely different genre, you know, you know, and
Speaker 7: then as you go along, can you keep making records
Speaker 7: that are important? And a lot of folks followed by
Speaker 7: the wayside, and we managed to do okay, even though Jim,
Speaker 7: you know, he started drinking so much that it got
Speaker 7: quite difficult, you know, Like I got a chapter in
Speaker 7: this new book on Jim, and one on janis two
Speaker 7: cautionary Janice Choplin two cautionary tales. You know, self destruction
Speaker 7: and creativity coming the same package with them, but not
Speaker 7: with everybody.
Speaker 4: We're we're really good friends with Shep Gordon.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, told us a lot about the scene in
Speaker 8: La especially at the hotel.
Speaker 2: I forget the hotel and sunset where yeah.
Speaker 8: Every yeah, everyone yeah, well yeah, everyone just hungt and whatnot.
Speaker 8: Like the book of the group love and and all
Speaker 8: those things. Were you directly like a part of that scene,
Speaker 8: like off stage where you guys sort.
Speaker 7: Of not quite that scene. I'm trying to think of
Speaker 7: the hotel too. But but but once you played the whiskey,
Speaker 7: Mario the door guy let anybody in, so we would
Speaker 7: all go see each other when we were not playing,
Speaker 7: and so was it fraternity, you know? And we love
Speaker 7: for example, man, they were really like them a lot.
Speaker 7: They were so different. Forever Changes is it masterpiece of
Speaker 7: that album?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Forever Change, Forever Changes is masterpiece. It's you know,
Speaker 3: the that's from the Summer I love too. I mean
Speaker 3: there was there's just like there's a few there's a
Speaker 3: few albums from from that era that are just Yeah.
Speaker 7: I want to get on the soapbox for a second.
Speaker 7: Get pissed off when people dissed the sixties as a failure.
Speaker 2: Wait, who.
Speaker 7: Good?
Speaker 8: Okay, life based on everything from the sixties.
Speaker 5: There's a progress without the sixties.
Speaker 7: I never mind what I was going to say.
Speaker 2: I want to hear it.
Speaker 5: It's feeling that way, so glad I talks about it.
Speaker 8: Well, there there is a perception that like post sixty nine,
Speaker 8: that there was not not diminished returns per se, but
Speaker 8: everything was over and everything that that was fought for
Speaker 8: and built.
Speaker 4: Was sort of just washed away. So well, what were
Speaker 4: you were saying?
Speaker 7: Well, yeah, the seeds of civil rights, the peace movement,
Speaker 7: feminism all were planted in the sixties, and maybe these
Speaker 7: seeds like a long time fifty hundred years for full fruition.
Speaker 7: So don't dis you know, we're on the shoulders of
Speaker 7: all folks before and so you know, yeah, progress is
Speaker 7: not as fast as we wanted, you know, like uh,
Speaker 7: ge Obama got elected, so there's no more racism. Yeah
Speaker 7: right right, you know so. But anyway, and speaking of which,
Speaker 7: I was hoping, uh, sometime during this podcast, I could
Speaker 7: do a five minute poem for Stacy Abrams. Oh, because
Speaker 7: because I've been thinking about Jesus all right now I'm
Speaker 7: going to approve it. I'm going to approve I'm the drummer,
Speaker 7: not the singer. I've been thinking about Jojo Jojia, no
Speaker 7: piece f fun.
Speaker 3: You're on my mind.
Speaker 7: Then they're voting.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so everybody, man, I want to do by the
Speaker 8: time this area as we'll have the results that we want.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but we're going to get that poem too, because
Speaker 5: I want to get that old stay.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was.
Speaker 10: Curious to know, man, do you have to give us
Speaker 10: kind of a parallel the band that The Doors and
Speaker 10: kind of what you guys represented, Uh when you guys
Speaker 10: came out, who would you say is probably the closest
Speaker 10: modern day contemporary And by modern day, I mean it
Speaker 10: could be anyone from the last you know, twenty years whatever.
Speaker 10: But uh, that you think kind of embodies the spirit
Speaker 10: of what you guys were about.
Speaker 7: Oh, putting me on the spot here, I.
Speaker 3: Mean Nirvana would be my guess. Really. Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 8: Though I always thought the Doors were doors are really
Speaker 8: kind of I feel like the Doors are hip hop
Speaker 8: as far as they were concerned.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good. Okay, let me
Speaker 7: let me tell you something. Way back, Jay Z asked.
Speaker 4: For five to one.
Speaker 7: Five to one, yeah, you know, and I was just
Speaker 7: coming on board. I didn't know what was happening, and
Speaker 7: I went, wait a minute, you know what, huh, it's
Speaker 7: all bitches and hoes. No, you can't have it.
Speaker 3: And he he.
Speaker 7: Writes me a letter, and he sends me a Team
Speaker 7: Rock jersey, and he breaks it down for me and said, man,
Speaker 7: you know, we're doing what you're doing, fighting the establishment,
Speaker 7: going for truth. And and then I got it, Believe me,
Speaker 7: I got it.
Speaker 2: Along those lines.
Speaker 9: The Doors is one of the only bands that I
Speaker 9: can think of that didn't have a bass player. And
Speaker 9: while Ray played bass in his left hand, it is
Speaker 9: one of the few bands that didn't have like a
Speaker 9: legit bass player. Can you talk about what that was like,
Speaker 9: because yeah, it's not a thing.
Speaker 7: It's not enrmaluh A lot of work. I mean usually
Speaker 7: the bass player and the drummer or the rhythm section,
Speaker 7: you know, holding holding down the groove in the basement.
Speaker 7: And it was me and Ray's left hand, and uh,
Speaker 7: but but but he he he played simplified sort of
Speaker 7: boogie woogie bass lines with his left hand, which turned
Speaker 7: out to be gold like dome, don't, don't do, don't
Speaker 7: just hooky stuff. And so fortunately we felt the same pocket. Actually,
Speaker 7: the first tune we played together ever was All Blues
Speaker 7: by Miles Davis, Yeah, which is in three, you know.
Speaker 7: And then I knew Ray, I knew Ray knew some ship.
Speaker 7: So uh, we played the blues and we were sort
Speaker 7: of laying back on the groove as you do with
Speaker 7: the blues. And then we started writing our own stuff
Speaker 7: and then we kind of found our pocket.
Speaker 10: But so were you and Ray the kind of the beginning,
Speaker 10: the start of the doors, were you to primary songwriters
Speaker 10: or how the well.
Speaker 7: Jim had all these words and melodies and couldn't play
Speaker 7: one chord on any instrument. We're talking gifted here, So
Speaker 7: he would sing a cappella and you know, roadhouse blues,
Speaker 7: which we played with what I played with you guys,
Speaker 7: you know is blues. That's not too difficult. But he
Speaker 7: would sing these complicated before you slip into unconsciousness, I'd
Speaker 7: like to have another kiss, Like, wait a minute, f sharp,
Speaker 7: what the hell? You know? He just had to ship
Speaker 7: in his head so wow.
Speaker 4: You know, So what were those songwriting sessions?
Speaker 8: Like, like he would just would it start with him
Speaker 8: and his words first, you guys, figure out where he's
Speaker 8: going with it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'd figure out the groove. Then we'd
Speaker 7: stop and change chords or say, oh man, we need
Speaker 7: a bridge or a solo here or whatever. So that's
Speaker 7: why he said, Hey, let's credit all the songs written
Speaker 7: by the Doors, not lyrics by me, you know, wow,
Speaker 7: and let's split all the dough really WOWO.
Speaker 5: Can I ask a question because you met, you talked
Speaker 5: about this and you touched on it. But I gotta
Speaker 5: know you said you were kind of like in your
Speaker 5: own snobby sense when you were an early musician, and
Speaker 5: somehow you met him and he convinced you to go
Speaker 5: to this route, because it sounds like you weren't even
Speaker 5: trying to go this rock and roll route, like you
Speaker 5: had this this jazz mind. So what was that moment
Speaker 5: that he convinced you?
Speaker 7: You know, I was passionate for music, but I never
Speaker 7: thought i'd make a living at it, you know what
Speaker 7: I mean?
Speaker 2: What did you do in the club? You know how?
Speaker 7: And then when when the doors got going, Oh god, man,
Speaker 7: you know, if we can pay the rent for a decade,
Speaker 7: wouldn't that be a miracle. Well let's see. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 7: seventy six, and that's wow. Fifty years later, I'm still
Speaker 7: talking about this damn band.
Speaker 5: But you know, was it a conversation that you had
Speaker 5: that that convinced you that I'm gonna ride this ride
Speaker 5: because I know that this is going somewhere or was
Speaker 5: it something that he sang or something?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Yeah, good, good, good good. All right. So after
Speaker 7: we play all blues and I'm noticing this guy in
Speaker 7: the corner, and Ray says, Jim, this is Jim the singer.
Speaker 7: He's never sung before, and he can't play any instrument,
Speaker 7: but look at these lyrics. And he hands me a
Speaker 7: crumpled piece of paper and on the paper it says,
Speaker 7: day destroys, the night, night divides, the day, tried to run,
Speaker 7: tried to hide, break on through to the other side.
Speaker 7: Oh okay, right right away, right rhythmic stuff starts. That's
Speaker 7: that pulled me in immediately, you know.
Speaker 2: So was I always wanted to know?
Speaker 8: Was that song somewhat and influenced from ray Charles?
Speaker 2: Is what I say?
Speaker 7: Oh wow, it's funny, man sat Oh it's good. No,
Speaker 7: you know I used to play that, uh what I say,
Speaker 7: Only I couldn't do it with one hand. I had
Speaker 7: to have both hands on the bell of the ride
Speaker 7: symbol didn't have the chops yet. Anyway, what was going
Speaker 7: on was Bosa Nova was coming up from Brazil big time,
Speaker 7: big time, and so this little U and I'm digging
Speaker 7: the groove. It's real light. Okay, I'm gonna make it
Speaker 7: stiffer and harder and faster. And so I copped the
Speaker 7: whole thing and made it rock and roll, but break
Speaker 7: on through. It's kind of a rock and Bosan Nova
Speaker 7: rock or whatever rock boser rock.
Speaker 3: And I asked a question getting back to it, what
Speaker 3: Bill asked you about playing with with Raymond's eric and
Speaker 3: him playing the bass with his left hand.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: So that's that's that's the main that's the doors sound basically.
Speaker 3: But on later albums, you did use uh, actual electric
Speaker 3: bass players on certain on certain things.
Speaker 7: Really really good question, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Just I mean my question is, actually, you know, as
Speaker 3: the drummer, from the drummers perspective, what's the difference in being,
Speaker 3: you know, part half of the rhythm section with somebody
Speaker 3: who's playing it on the organ and somebody who's playing
Speaker 3: it with the guitar.
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, when we played live, when Ray
Speaker 7: would take a solo on organ, he'd get excited and
Speaker 7: the bass player would speed up.
Speaker 4: Holy moly, there's no more frustrating that happening.
Speaker 7: I got to pull the reins back. Okay. So this
Speaker 7: was before Moog synthesizers were even invented. So we knew
Speaker 7: that the keyboard bass, he had a Fender Roads keyboard
Speaker 7: basic kind of kind of was mushy, yeh, and it
Speaker 7: needed a little more punch. And so even on the
Speaker 7: first record we had Larry Neckt old studio bass player
Speaker 7: over dub on Fender electric bass Ray's exact bass lines
Speaker 7: to give it the pluck of the string. Gave it
Speaker 7: the punch we needed, you know. And then later we
Speaker 7: did have bass players and you know, God, Harvey Brooks
Speaker 7: was on Soft Parade. Great bass player played with Dylan
Speaker 7: and the Electric Flag and so that was a lot
Speaker 7: of fun for me. You know, Elvis's bass player played
Speaker 7: on La Woman Jerry Chef, and that was cool. He
Speaker 7: even said that he put a little line from the
Speaker 7: La Woman do do Do Do Do Do Do Do
Speaker 7: Do do do? He stuck a little bit of it
Speaker 7: in an Elvis recording session.
Speaker 3: So that's good. So we can just finish up this
Speaker 3: thought that playing play with Ray versus playing with Harvey Brooks,
Speaker 3: you know, from a rhythm section.
Speaker 7: Yes, yeah, well, I mean I could almost play one handed,
Speaker 7: because when there's a separate bass player plucking and concentrating
Speaker 7: on the groove, you know, he's helped, he's your brother helping.
Speaker 7: It's it's easier, you know, and you play off each
Speaker 7: other and whatever. And Ray was playing sort of simplistic lines,
Speaker 7: but it kind of gave space. There was more air
Speaker 7: and openness in the sound, which was quite cool and unique.
Speaker 7: You know, we auditioned bass players way back. We even
Speaker 7: had a girl for a minute there, but we felt
Speaker 7: like we sound like another white blues band, the Rolling
Speaker 7: Stones or something. And then we discovered this keyboard base
Speaker 7: went oh Man and the guy who made all the
Speaker 7: LSD in San Francisco. I can't think of his name.
Speaker 3: He can't think of his name, of course, well I can't.
Speaker 2: What was your.
Speaker 7: He We're playing one of the psychedelic ballrooms. He comes back, Owsley,
Speaker 7: that's his name, Owsley. He comes backstage and says, hey, man,
Speaker 7: you guys, you're great. You got a hole in your sound, though,
Speaker 7: you need a bass player. He leaves, and I turned
Speaker 7: to Ray and I said, Wow, we're making the acid
Speaker 7: King nervous. I think we're on the right track here.
Speaker 2: I have a question of I can't think of another.
Speaker 8: Besides besides the Look of Love, I believe that Light.
Speaker 2: My Fire, the most covered song, is probably No, No, No.
Speaker 8: Even more than that, I feel like Light my Fire
Speaker 8: is probably the only song in which you cannot drop
Speaker 8: the ball as far as covering is concerned, and billions
Speaker 8: of people have covered it. Do you have a preference
Speaker 8: of of of the many covers that good of that
Speaker 8: of that song?
Speaker 7: First of all, quest thanks for putting Light My Fire
Speaker 7: in the same category as the Look of Love.
Speaker 8: Who's saying I never found who never found a bad
Speaker 8: cover of Light My Fire? Never found a back cover
Speaker 8: look of Love, like it's impossible to drop the ball
Speaker 8: in that song?
Speaker 7: Who sang look a Love?
Speaker 2: The original was God? Who was the original?
Speaker 3: Probably know?
Speaker 2: It's bird back.
Speaker 7: Right right, right right? Okay? So what what's cool is
Speaker 7: somebody covers your song and finds a new way to
Speaker 7: interpret it. That's really cool. I mean, it's cool to
Speaker 7: get any song covered, even if they copy your arrangement,
Speaker 7: because you get the writer's share.
Speaker 2: But facts.
Speaker 7: But jose Feliciano takes my fire, it makes it a
Speaker 7: ballad and we all went, oh, that is beautiful.
Speaker 2: What did you think of Al Green's version? Man? I
Speaker 2: think that's probably my favorite one.
Speaker 7: I bet I can't. I didn't hear it? Give it
Speaker 7: to me that really? He did it?
Speaker 2: Were you never version? Can we play? Oh my god?
Speaker 2: This is fair use?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, fair use.
Speaker 5: We talk about charistic yeah, even.
Speaker 2: The spoken part the right right have his version?
Speaker 10: And have you, uh, John, have you ever heard the
Speaker 10: Free Design?
Speaker 2: Have you ever heard their version of Jesus Christ? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Free Design? They they just they like the Mamas and
Speaker 2: napapas on LSD.
Speaker 8: They takes chraumatic like Ninth Harmony chorts to another place.
Speaker 8: I'll say the free Design is probably my go to version,
Speaker 8: even though I love the Al's version. And actually it's
Speaker 8: funny you mentioned Jose, Jose actually doubles down because even
Speaker 8: on many Ripperton's version, Jose shows up and does his
Speaker 8: riffing at the end.
Speaker 3: Light of fire, right right, exactly exactly.
Speaker 8: So okay, I I gotta know this because the one
Speaker 8: thing that I know that you're a big one, which
Speaker 8: you know, it's it's it's weird because even though with
Speaker 8: the rebellion of the first wave of modern rock, not
Speaker 8: modern rock, but you know, the the sixties rock cats
Speaker 8: and hip hop cats, is this rebellious spirit to the system.
Speaker 8: But somehow I will say that in hip hop terms,
Speaker 8: our relationship with capitalism slightly different from the sixties rock generation.
Speaker 2: How is that?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, licensing songs and commercial uses. You know,
Speaker 8: rappers about that all day a commercial whereas you know,
Speaker 8: I often hear the sixties generations sort of like I'm
Speaker 8: not selling out and da da da da d. So
Speaker 8: you're world famous for your thumbs down on which you know,
Speaker 8: I'm like, that must be nice, but.
Speaker 7: Uh, I see it from all sides. I mean, you know,
Speaker 7: Tavis Smiley said to me you're you're you're either really
Speaker 7: great or you're crazy.
Speaker 3: You know about that.
Speaker 7: But you know, what, can I say it? If you're
Speaker 7: trying to pay the rent and you get to do
Speaker 7: it commercial paid, you do it. Man, It's hard enough
Speaker 7: out there. What happened was that we got this offer,
Speaker 7: come on Buick, Light my Fire and no.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know the article that's not on the Google.
Speaker 2: Like if the Google said that, it would be a
Speaker 2: very different things.
Speaker 10: Everyone would understand why you tell Yeah.
Speaker 7: So Jim was out of town. It was a lot
Speaker 7: of dough and we were kind of drooling, and he
Speaker 7: came back and he said, yeah, let's do it. And
Speaker 7: I got a really good idea for a TV ad.
Speaker 7: I'll smash a Buick on television with a sledgehammer. That's idea, okay,
Speaker 7: And that's on fire, that's a no. And so all right,
Speaker 7: Jim wrote one line in Light my Fire. Robbie Krieger
Speaker 7: wrote all the lyrics, and Jim added, our love become
Speaker 7: a funeral Pyre Morrison esque. And so this guy is
Speaker 7: so upset about a song he didn't write. I'm like, wow,
Speaker 7: he cares about the whole catalog, everything we're doing. And
Speaker 7: you know I'm a little hard ass, but he's passed.
Speaker 7: He's my ancestor, so I'm trying to stick to what
Speaker 7: he wanted. But I mean, you know, I get hey,
Speaker 7: you know, I get hip hoppers doing. I get it.
Speaker 7: You know, it's just we're different. And it was back aways,
Speaker 7: and I don't know, set.
Speaker 3: In a modern context, if they might offer you a
Speaker 3: lot more money now for something than you were offered
Speaker 3: for the buick ad and it would be kind of
Speaker 3: a no brainer to take the money.
Speaker 2: I mean, and also too, to be fair, I think
Speaker 2: now it may be. I think now you have people
Speaker 2: in position who understand kind of the spirit of what
Speaker 2: you guys are about, and would do it in a
Speaker 2: very tasteful way as opposed to a cheesy way like
Speaker 2: you know, like my view or whatever the hell you know.
Speaker 2: I think now you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: Actually, I would like to see someone set of going fire.
Speaker 7: All right, let's see break on tudor a new deodorant.
Speaker 8: No, right, But the thing is is that I think
Speaker 8: the common denominator for the average creator is avoiding a rasure.
Speaker 8: And yes, the music of the doors I feel is
Speaker 8: you know that at least the ripple effect and the
Speaker 8: resonance of it all. I have no doubt that the
Speaker 8: songs you know, Writers of the Storm still stand. Every
Speaker 8: time I play it people, you know, oh my god,
Speaker 8: what is that? Like it's brand new or something, so
Speaker 8: you know it's it's timeless. But does it ever do
Speaker 8: you ever have thoughts that you know one day because
Speaker 8: you know, I will say that when songs are placed
Speaker 8: in and this is me as a DJ speaking, when
Speaker 8: songs are placed in a movie or placed on a
Speaker 8: television show or in a commercial, it just extends the
Speaker 8: life of it just a little bit more. So I'm
Speaker 8: one of those guys. And again, as a DJ who
Speaker 8: mainly uses his DJ sets to educate people and stuff,
Speaker 8: it kind of makes my job easier, even though I
Speaker 8: have to you know, correct them, like, no, this isn't
Speaker 8: just the song that you heard in the blah blah
Speaker 8: blah movie, like this is where it comes from. But
Speaker 8: do you ever have thoughts of like if you clutch
Speaker 8: too tight to the pearls, that there's a possibility of erasure.
Speaker 2: I know the Beastie Boys are going.
Speaker 8: Through that right now, like they just recently kind of
Speaker 8: loosen the reins a little bit to allow one of
Speaker 8: their songs to get licensed for a commercial, even though
Speaker 8: they took this.
Speaker 2: Hard stance like we will never ever do that integrity.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I gotcha. I mean, you know, Bob Dylan certainly
Speaker 7: making me nervous.
Speaker 10: Man. Yeah, he sold all his ship while right, yeah.
Speaker 2: Take it with him, so you might as well just
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: Yeah, like, okay, So first of all, I don't we okay, movies,
Speaker 7: TV shows. It's just a specific products selling, which makes
Speaker 7: me twitch a little, I mean, like, and also we
Speaker 7: are pretty established, and there's a lot of people who
Speaker 7: say to us, oh, man, you know I was in Vietnam.
Speaker 7: You guys helped me the first time I made love,
Speaker 7: the first time I had a joint, whatever. And so
Speaker 7: it's sort of like the soundtrack to people's lives, and
Speaker 7: so I kind of well Vietnam. For example, recently, Robbie
Speaker 7: told me, I didn't know this that the lyric loved
Speaker 7: Me two times? He wrote, he goes love me two
Speaker 7: times because I'm going away. He was thinking going away
Speaker 7: to Vietnam. That's not in the lyric. And so how
Speaker 7: about love me two times because I just took viagra.
Speaker 3: It's true some commercials have seriously ruined certain songs forever,
Speaker 3: you know, where they're known more for the commercial than
Speaker 3: from the original album or from.
Speaker 8: Yeah, hot Chocolate's use Sexy Thing is definitely ruined Viagra.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, but.
Speaker 7: You're you're right. You know, I'm going to be erased,
Speaker 7: I don't know in the next twenty years or so anyway,
Speaker 7: So I got to think about this.
Speaker 3: No, stick to your guns. I've vote stick to your guns.
Speaker 2: Yeah, stick to your guns how I want to.
Speaker 10: I was on to know how accurate or what were
Speaker 10: your thoughts on Oliver Stones filmed The Doors.
Speaker 3: Yeah he was in it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, no, yeah, I wasn't it for a second there, No,
Speaker 7: I liked it now it was it was primarily about
Speaker 7: a tortured artist, and Oliver, you know, kind of fits
Speaker 7: that category. Brilliant and kind of out there, and uh,
Speaker 7: I wished it had been a little more about the
Speaker 7: sixties and then the climate of the time. Times. There
Speaker 7: was a documentary called When You're Strange that Johnny Depp narrated,
Speaker 7: and that has that has more of of that, and
Speaker 7: I think the two of them together really represent our
Speaker 7: whole career. But I gotta say, Val Kilmer man, he
Speaker 7: gave me the creeps. I thought Jim was back ya gas.
Speaker 5: He looked just like me, sounded just like it was.
Speaker 5: I mean, I didn't know him like you did, but
Speaker 5: it gave me the creeps watching him play that role.
Speaker 7: These actors are amazing the way they transformed their bodies
Speaker 7: and everything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I got a question.
Speaker 9: Can we uh, can we talk about like drummers from
Speaker 9: your era and and the the African influence, the Ginger
Speaker 9: Bakers and the and like things like that. I feel
Speaker 9: like like I got that bug when I was a kid,
Speaker 9: but I was I'm not the same thing, but like,
Speaker 9: was it the same?
Speaker 6: Was it?
Speaker 9: My experience was? It's like everything sort of began there.
Speaker 9: So it made sense to figure out that ship and
Speaker 9: how to bring it into your own thing, like what
Speaker 9: was why did you get into it? And how did
Speaker 9: you apply it to the doors or whatever?
Speaker 2: Else? Are you doing.
Speaker 7: Well with the African stuff? I primarily got into later,
Speaker 7: but I will say that we were recording Hello, I
Speaker 7: Love You and we're struggling with the arrangement, and Robbie
Speaker 7: the guitar player, said, why don't you turn the beat
Speaker 7: around like Ginger does in Sunshiny or love you know,
Speaker 7: and so I go, okay, uh hello, I love you.
Speaker 7: So I copped a couple of bars of ginger, and.
Speaker 2: Here we are coping and ginger coping.
Speaker 8: I was going to ask, the recording of that particular
Speaker 8: song has such a distinctive like modern made for FM
Speaker 8: radios sort of recording technique to it. Were you guys
Speaker 8: aware of that as far as like, because there's a
Speaker 8: clear difference sonically between the recording that particular album and
Speaker 8: what came before it.
Speaker 2: So, were you.
Speaker 8: Guys aware of the sort of transforming of AM radio.
Speaker 2: Am radio being the.
Speaker 8: I guess the destination point of most music had been
Speaker 8: slowly morphing into f M radio at the time, because
Speaker 8: there's just such a clarity to it that sounds super modern,
Speaker 8: Like even if you listen to it now, with the
Speaker 8: synth work and even the way that your drums are
Speaker 8: tuned on that song, like a.
Speaker 2: A deeper sound.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you're right about that.
Speaker 2: It could have.
Speaker 8: Like it's almost like the you hear the seeds of
Speaker 8: what talking heads like Devo's second record, even Gary Numan's
Speaker 8: like first record, you hear the seeds of that in there.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, our first single was break on through
Speaker 7: and it was too sophisticated. You know. It got to
Speaker 7: number thirteen or something. That was due to us calling
Speaker 7: up the station saying, hey, this is Fred Schwartz. Will
Speaker 7: you play this and wait break going Through.
Speaker 4: It was not a top ten hit, no.
Speaker 7: But later it became just you know, everybody just as
Speaker 7: crazy for it. So okay, yeah, Light my Fire was
Speaker 7: six minutes, you know, we had that long jam and
Speaker 7: then we cut it to three minutes, and then it
Speaker 7: became a hit. But then FM radio started bragging about
Speaker 7: playing the long version, which was really cool. So you know,
Speaker 7: we had some hits. I guess people are strange. I
Speaker 7: think was the next hit. And then in the studio
Speaker 7: we were struggling and Paul Rothschild, our producer, pressed us
Speaker 7: on hello, I love you. He said, Man, to make
Speaker 7: this a hit. And fuzz tones that just came in
Speaker 7: on guitar, you know, fuzzboxes.
Speaker 6: And we just worked on that and worked on it,
Speaker 6: and frankly, I thought it turned out a little too
Speaker 6: poppy for me, but that's just for me personally.
Speaker 7: But I always was just absolutely crazy for Jim's lyrics.
Speaker 7: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Oh and what about Bruce Bonnik The engineer. What was
Speaker 3: his special sauce? He did all your.
Speaker 7: Albums, Yeah, he did all of them. And he he
Speaker 7: worked at Sunset Sound and all the great studios as
Speaker 7: a teenager with the Supremes and Phil Spector, and he knew,
Speaker 7: he knew what he was doing. And each time, you know,
Speaker 7: CDs streaming, whatever it is, he he keeps us up
Speaker 7: to date sonically. You know, he's on it. Yeah, he's
Speaker 7: the fifth door.
Speaker 8: You know, I see there's you know, a lot has
Speaker 8: been made. Most will say that, of course, you know,
Speaker 8: when you when you think of historic concerts and events,
Speaker 8: everyone of course makes a big deal of woodstock. However,
Speaker 8: I feel like enough has not been made of enough.
Speaker 8: The isle of right, I think is of right. ISLI
Speaker 8: of Whight Festival that you guys did in nineteen seventy,
Speaker 8: Do you have any particular memories of that, you know,
Speaker 8: because the lineup was yeh to me just as crazy
Speaker 8: that that year it was Hendrix, Joni Mitchell.
Speaker 3: Who.
Speaker 8: Moody Blues, Silent, the family Stone ten years after Chicago. Usually,
Speaker 8: you know, I know that for a lot of artists,
Speaker 8: this for a lot of fans, this is always a
Speaker 8: disappointing question because you know, the the festivals are a spectator.
Speaker 2: Thing, and usually artists are.
Speaker 8: Just getting in doing the gig, leaving really not soaking
Speaker 8: in the atmosphere. Were you able to really soak in
Speaker 8: the festival at the time or was it just like
Speaker 8: you showed up and did your thing and left.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I took a hit off of Roger Daltrey's pepperminte
Speaker 7: snaps bottle.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. First, I think.
Speaker 7: The Isle of Wight. We were under a lot of
Speaker 7: stress because Jim was on trial in Miami for supposedly
Speaker 7: exposing himself, which he did not do, but he but
Speaker 7: he was drunk, and he got real political and said
Speaker 7: you're and then shove your faces in the ship of
Speaker 7: the world, wake up. And that didn't go over well.
Speaker 5: So that's crazy how he translated it today.
Speaker 7: Well, I got the climate at the time was this
Speaker 7: polarized country and and we were, you know, the hippies
Speaker 7: and we were the dirty doors, and so Jim was targeted.
Speaker 7: There was a rally for decency at the Orange Bowl.
Speaker 7: Thirty thousand people showed up. Nixon sent a letter and
Speaker 7: then Nita Bryant presided and it was because of us,
Speaker 7: you know. Yeah, Well, back to the Isle of White,
Speaker 7: the Isle of White, so so Jim was kind of
Speaker 7: subdued in his performance. I was trying to make up
Speaker 7: for it playing really strong, but it's pretty good. But
Speaker 7: the whole festival had the feeling of the end of
Speaker 7: the the end of Woodstock. There was some dispute about
Speaker 7: the ticket prices and they busted down the fences and
Speaker 7: people came in, which, you know, it was all right.
Speaker 7: It was just kind of a chaotic festival. It had
Speaker 7: incredible lineup, like you said, but it kind of didn't
Speaker 7: get the attention because it was sort of the crumbling
Speaker 7: of the outdoor hippie festivals being the ultimate you know.
Speaker 5: And just for clarification for nobody people who don't know
Speaker 5: the concert and the cituative venue, this is an island
Speaker 5: right close to London where they exclusively have this big festival.
Speaker 5: They've been doing this for like the last forty fifty years, right.
Speaker 7: Yeah, correct, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah yeah. Are you more of a touring person
Speaker 3: or a studio studio person either one?
Speaker 7: Either one. I mean at first I was frustrated. I
Speaker 7: didn't understand it's kind of cool to muffle the drumheads
Speaker 7: in the studio.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 7: I thought you just play live and make a record, right,
Speaker 7: and so it was a learning curve. I like both.
Speaker 2: Where was your weapon of choice?
Speaker 8: Uh in in the early part of your career, What
Speaker 8: what drums were you using?
Speaker 7: Oh? My first set was Gretch and then I Ludwick.
Speaker 7: I went crazy for Ludwig and Ludwig silver snare drum
Speaker 7: and yeah, I always kept kept a little kit. I
Speaker 7: I had rivets in my symbol. I saw Oscar Peterson's
Speaker 7: drummer ed thigpen. He had a lot of rivets, and
Speaker 7: I went, oh, man, I'm that's good. You can hear
Speaker 7: that on riders. There's kind of rivet sound in the right.
Speaker 2: It rings forever.
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 8: Do you have you kept a majority of your drum
Speaker 8: sets or like the sort of iconic.
Speaker 2: Your career.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'll be taking them over, thank you.
Speaker 7: Some not enough, damn it? Like like like the floor Tom. Uh,
Speaker 7: it's the floor Tom that's barking back in the Hello
Speaker 7: I Love you, but it a bow boom boom bum boom.
Speaker 7: I like it when the heads are tired and rancid,
Speaker 7: and then when they break, I have to get a
Speaker 7: new one, and I hate it because I like the
Speaker 7: personality of it talking back.
Speaker 2: You know, I see you still have that time time.
Speaker 8: No, oh, okay, that's what I was asking.
Speaker 2: Ye collection, you have a collection too.
Speaker 5: Is this a dumb drummer question? Y'all can tell me
Speaker 5: if not, if it is or not. But my father's
Speaker 5: a drummer. He always used to say that he likes
Speaker 5: he prefers playing with brushes. Is that a thing where
Speaker 5: you have a certain kind of stick that you prefer,
Speaker 5: like mallet versus just regular stick versus brushes versus whatever
Speaker 5: else is around these days? Because I haven't been checking
Speaker 5: in the latest.
Speaker 2: Not a dumb question.
Speaker 7: No, that's a really good question.
Speaker 2: You want don't play with brushes. That's a true statu
Speaker 2: you know what, you know what, you know.
Speaker 4: It's weird.
Speaker 8: So when I was working on uh Welcome to Detroit
Speaker 8: up in uh uh in Studio A where Dilla was,
Speaker 8: he only played with mallets, And at the time I thought,
Speaker 8: all right.
Speaker 2: That's dumb.
Speaker 8: Like not that's dumb, because by then anything he did
Speaker 8: I declared like this, I'm sorry, it's it's my my my.
Speaker 2: Elvin Jones is a producer from Detroit. His name is
Speaker 2: Jay Diller.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, I just can't. I just
Speaker 7: can't hear at my age, you know, Okay.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: J Diller is a actually to bring it back to
Speaker 8: five to one the Okay, I won't say that I
Speaker 8: know the original producer, but he would. I'd ask him like,
Speaker 8: why are you using mallets instead of traditional traditional drumsticks?
Speaker 8: And he just wanted a different texture than that of
Speaker 8: what when sticks hit the skins? So I think at
Speaker 8: the time I scoffed like that's whatever, and then I
Speaker 8: caught myself doing it a lot, so I actually like
Speaker 8: the texture of it.
Speaker 7: I'm curious, what what size sticks do you use here?
Speaker 2: It is I'm a seven eight guy.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah.
Speaker 8: However, however, my sticks are a little bit unusual because.
Speaker 2: I learned through well Steve.
Speaker 8: Steve is like one of my longtime music engineers, so
Speaker 8: I had to I learned about twenty years ago that
Speaker 8: the softer, at least for my purposes, the softer that
Speaker 8: you play, the better the mixing options are. Because I
Speaker 8: use a lot of old ribbon mics. So I used
Speaker 8: to like power play, like in my mind, you think
Speaker 8: like take like like Bonzo, like John Bonham from Zeppelin,
Speaker 8: like you know, everyone thinks that they have to play
Speaker 8: like Animal from the Muppets, and you know, and that
Speaker 8: really destroys the sound because the compression and the microphones
Speaker 8: like it just it just crutches. It's not good. So
Speaker 8: I learned the softer you play, the better it is.
Speaker 8: So I when I got my deal with Vic Firth,
Speaker 8: I told them to make me seven eight drumsticks, but
Speaker 8: I made.
Speaker 2: Mine two inches longer.
Speaker 8: Oh, so that way I could put my wrists on
Speaker 8: my legs and not move my hands at all like
Speaker 8: a traditional seven A you'd have to, like, you know,
Speaker 8: most non drummers look at.
Speaker 3: Uh, what is what of your arms at all?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah, move your.
Speaker 8: Arms, yes, yes, like most most most non drummers would
Speaker 8: look at uh uh what's the name of Foo Fighters. Yeah,
Speaker 8: they'll look at David grol and like smells like teen
Speaker 8: Spirit and think like that's how I should be German
Speaker 8: like like modern Animal. And for me, I get the
Speaker 8: best results when I when I do the least, just beautiful.
Speaker 2: The quietest.
Speaker 8: So yeah, drumsticks two inches longer so that I don't
Speaker 8: have to move my arms at all.
Speaker 7: That's what I was saying about, Uh, playing the right
Speaker 7: beat in the right spot is as much power as
Speaker 7: all that animal ship. But you know what's so beautiful
Speaker 7: about your playing is what you sit. You know, you
Speaker 7: don't slump over the kit, and you see relaxed. You know,
Speaker 7: it's just beautiful.
Speaker 2: A little too relax time.
Speaker 5: You didn't answer that question for yourself.
Speaker 7: Yes, no, it's no seven A seven A. They're they're thin.
Speaker 7: They're thin sticks, so I can play faster, but they
Speaker 7: break all the time if you're playing a big concert,
Speaker 7: you know, so you know you just throw them in
Speaker 7: the audience and grab some more.
Speaker 8: You know, speaking of the audience, you think that's speaking Yeah,
Speaker 8: speaking of throwing them in the audience, what did this
Speaker 8: mean you to watch Keith Moon destroy a kit occasionally?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 2: Is that blasphemous to you?
Speaker 7: It was over the top. I understood the anger because
Speaker 7: you know, we were pissed off about the establishment and
Speaker 7: everything's going on. I get it.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 7: He was bizarre. He was the most unusual drummer I've
Speaker 7: ever seen. I watched him on stage right at the
Speaker 7: isle of White, stood next to him. You know, he
Speaker 7: the way he hit the sticks, he's like conducting or something.
Speaker 7: I don't know what it is. Yeah, But speaking of brushes.
Speaker 7: This is what this is what I'm gonna accompany myself
Speaker 7: with on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what I would want to ask you is not
Speaker 3: not which Doors album is your favorite or not which
Speaker 3: one you think is the best, but which one do
Speaker 3: you think you're playing the best on? Oh, that's a
Speaker 3: good question, all of them. That's why you gotta start
Speaker 3: with your head, because you know, I'm just trying to
Speaker 3: make a point. I think, like the first Doors album
Speaker 3: was recorded in just a few days or a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks or something like that, and other albums later
Speaker 3: down the line probably took longer. And yeah, but you
Speaker 3: may think that you're playing on light my fire, is
Speaker 3: your is your absolute pinnacle or something?
Speaker 7: A good question, all right. So first album, we're trying
Speaker 7: to learn how to make records, you know, and we
Speaker 7: only did a few takes. But you know, it's second album,
Speaker 7: we're getting more relaxed in the studio, like using the
Speaker 7: studio as a as another door and fooling around with
Speaker 7: backward tracks and ship and having fun experimenting. But then
Speaker 7: you know, we have to make our own Sergeant Pepper,
Speaker 7: So we get to soft parade and put strings, strings
Speaker 7: and horns and all this ship and it was fun
Speaker 7: and people got angry with us changing our sound. Uh
Speaker 7: but touch Me was number one, then then Morrison Hotel
Speaker 7: and then finally La Woman. We get back to the
Speaker 7: garage and the blues and La Woman is I like
Speaker 7: it a lot. It's just a few takes. I said
Speaker 7: to Ray. You know, Miles live at Carnegie Hall. There
Speaker 7: was a terrible trumpet note at the beginning of So What,
Speaker 7: and the engineer said to Miles, I can fix that,
Speaker 7: and he said, no, it feels good. See there it is.
Speaker 7: That's the that's the key to La Woman. It's the
Speaker 7: first punk album. We're gonna fuck the mistakes. We're gonna
Speaker 7: go for it in a few takes, put as much
Speaker 7: passion as we can.
Speaker 2: See. There you go.
Speaker 3: It's like a jazz album. I mean, that's how a
Speaker 3: jazz album is recorded.
Speaker 2: Well you kind of pre answered. I was going to
Speaker 2: say that.
Speaker 8: With with the Soft Parade, was was there a pressure
Speaker 8: two suddenly deliver like the highest art? I mean based
Speaker 8: on the the the kind of atmosphere that brought upon
Speaker 8: like pet Sounds and Sergeant Peppers and even with their
Speaker 8: satanic Majesty's request and all that stuff. Well, I know,
Speaker 8: people laugh at that, but I feel like one day
Speaker 8: some generation is really going to hold No, I'm telling you,
Speaker 8: thanks for playing, though, I believe. I believe that there's
Speaker 8: going to be a Look. I'm a guy who love uh.
Speaker 8: I know, critics hated Black, Black and Blues by the Stones,
Speaker 8: and that's one of my favorite records. So I feel
Speaker 8: like somebody's going to find the wrong record and make
Speaker 8: it their record.
Speaker 2: But what I was asking was what the Salt Parade
Speaker 2: was that the.
Speaker 8: Intent to show that we're just as artistic and just
Speaker 8: as experimental as our contemporaries.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, thank you. We Ray and I had talked
Speaker 7: about before recording the first album, man, someday if we
Speaker 7: could ever have some like horn solos, tenor sacks and
Speaker 7: you know, that'd be cool, some jazz stuff, and so
Speaker 7: we finally got to that by Soft Parade. Actually, I
Speaker 7: think Sergeant Pepper and pet Sounds they were out kind
Speaker 7: of around Strange Days our second album, and that's when
Speaker 7: we were like, wow, man, we who this is a challenge,
Speaker 7: you know, but but turn on too.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: The thing about the Doors though, is like I never
Speaker 3: I never think about them in comparison to other bands
Speaker 3: because they have this their own world. You know, they
Speaker 3: created one of these few bands or artists that can
Speaker 3: create their own sonic universe, and you did. It's like
Speaker 3: pointless to compare them to to other bands.
Speaker 7: Almost well, keep keep talking. I feel helium rising.
Speaker 3: In my.
Speaker 2: Skill.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a compliment. I'm saying you're weird.
Speaker 7: Oh, you guys are amazing.
Speaker 2: You know, we try. Thank you.
Speaker 8: I do have to ask for our listeners and for
Speaker 8: myself as well, Like what was how long did it
Speaker 8: take you guys to come to grips after Marson's death
Speaker 8: on whether or not you should continue or not continue?
Speaker 8: And the creative direction? First of all, I mean, is
Speaker 8: the idea of a group really kind of an illusion
Speaker 8: that's not real? Like is it really everyone gets their
Speaker 8: equals say, and if one doesn't agree and it's not unanimous,
Speaker 8: then we don't do it.
Speaker 7: Well that's how we were.
Speaker 2: But okay, so absolutely everyone.
Speaker 7: Lot of groups have singer songwriters Lennon McCartney, Keith Richards
Speaker 7: and Mick and and they're kind of the dominant force,
Speaker 7: whereas Jim not being able to you know, how do
Speaker 7: we write songs? But I got all these words and
Speaker 7: melodies we were really more equal because of that, you.
Speaker 2: Know, you always translated almost.
Speaker 7: Yeah, beautiful, that's it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: So yeah, the as far as the meeting with you
Speaker 8: guys in what direction to take his work? Well yeah,
Speaker 8: I mean, can you just talk about that period of
Speaker 8: the decision to continue on?
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, that's good man. You don't let me off
Speaker 7: the hook, all right? No, no, no, it's good. Okay.
Speaker 7: So Jim dies and we're working on stuff, and we
Speaker 7: first entertained replacing him, and I said, excuse me, who's
Speaker 7: going to fill Jim's leather pants? You know, I mean
Speaker 7: that's a tall order. Uh So then Ray and Robbie
Speaker 7: tried to sing. We made two albums because we had
Speaker 7: this material and we were tight. And after those couple
Speaker 7: of albums, we realized, wait a minute, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 7: Our focal point is gone, and let's do you know,
Speaker 7: we wanted to do individual stuff, and so it naturally
Speaker 7: kind of fell away. We went our own ways. We
Speaker 7: came back later and we did a poetry album. It
Speaker 7: was pretty cool American prayer way out there Jim's words,
Speaker 7: you know, he had died, and we wrote all this
Speaker 7: music and that was fun.
Speaker 5: I wonder if you think that Queen pulled it off,
Speaker 5: since I was trying to think of another man who
Speaker 5: actually has done that with their lead singer who's passed, and.
Speaker 7: Yeah, pretty close. I don't know, uh.
Speaker 8: Uh for nostalgia's sake, I mean, you know Lambert.
Speaker 7: Is yeah, yeah, yes, huge. You know, like my second
Speaker 7: book was called The Doors Unhinged. It was about my
Speaker 7: struggle with Ray and Robbie playing and I love their playing,
Speaker 7: but they were going out as the Doors. Well wait,
Speaker 7: you know, Ian Askesberry from the Cult. It's fine, but
Speaker 7: but it's like the police without sting the come on,
Speaker 7: call it, call it founding members of the Doors or whatever.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 2: But Maurice, well that's how it is.
Speaker 7: I know. Yeah, I mean I understand people want to
Speaker 7: hear and hear them play like and hear Queen and
Speaker 7: earth Wind and Fire.
Speaker 3: I get it, you know, I get yeah.
Speaker 8: So now, well before I wrap, I do want to
Speaker 8: know where we where we are today? Does it does
Speaker 8: it irk you a little bit that somehow not only
Speaker 8: do we wind back at square one, we're kind of
Speaker 8: way pre like damn near Neanderthal times that we took
Speaker 8: forty eight steps backwards, like just as just as a
Speaker 8: person who had ideas in the sixties to you know,
Speaker 8: to fight against this corrupt system and push us forward.
Speaker 2: Just to see us come back to.
Speaker 8: The place where we now have to struggle all over
Speaker 8: again like it was the sixties.
Speaker 2: Like does that this may you like? Was it? Like?
Speaker 2: Was your work for naught?
Speaker 3: Oh? Man, love you promised us? Bro's the peace and
Speaker 3: love you.
Speaker 7: Say? There it is? Oh my god, big questions, you know.
Speaker 7: I mean, uh, this country was founded on racism, and
Speaker 7: so you know, I got a piece of rolling stone
Speaker 7: asking Obama to pardon Leonard Peltier, native American who's been
Speaker 7: in jail frigging fifty years. You know, there was a
Speaker 7: shootout and FBI guy died and nobody knows who did it,
Speaker 7: but they had to nail somebody and whatever. So in
Speaker 7: that article, I also said, oh god, you know, it
Speaker 7: wouldn't be a bad thing if if we could apologize
Speaker 7: to the first people's the genocide, and then we can
Speaker 7: move on. And there's a that's how you go forward,
Speaker 7: admit ship you.
Speaker 2: Know, a long time admitting an apologize doesn't.
Speaker 7: Know, I know, but I guess I'm an eternal optimist.
Speaker 7: I mean, we got a gin orange out or any
Speaker 7: minute now, right.
Speaker 2: Yes, he's out.
Speaker 5: According to this recording.
Speaker 7: He's out.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 2: We're just waiting to see what George is doing. We're
Speaker 2: just waiting on Georgia now.
Speaker 7: And you know, between you and me and and and
Speaker 7: your zillions of listeners, you know, Biden is.
Speaker 3: He's like me.
Speaker 7: He's another old white guy. But but he wish he
Speaker 7: like you though.
Speaker 5: We hope that he's like you.
Speaker 7: Well, hey, hey, you know what. Okay, here it is
Speaker 7: Hillary loses, and I go, God, damn it, I'm going
Speaker 7: to see a woman president before I die. And I'm
Speaker 7: up there and now I'm like, whoa wait a minute,
Speaker 7: I might see a black woman president. Yeah, and I
Speaker 7: you know, and she's I love her, but you know,
Speaker 7: I don't want to. I can't idealize her like Biden either.
Speaker 7: You know, she was a prosecutor. Holy oh my god,
Speaker 7: you know, John, she's a beautiful you know, she threw
Speaker 7: me in jail, but she's a beautiful woman. So it
Speaker 7: was our job, you know, I mean, but I still ah,
Speaker 7: we're just uh, it's slow, it's slow, but we're going forward. Here.
Speaker 7: It is Leonard Cohen. Democracy is coming to the U.
Speaker 7: S A it's not here. We're working on it, you know.
Speaker 7: So there it is.
Speaker 3: Poem.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I was I was going to say before before
Speaker 8: you close this out with this poem. That's also one
Speaker 8: of her reminder listeners that you're The Secrets is your
Speaker 8: third book, correct, correct? Okay, Yeah, The Secrets Meetings with
Speaker 8: Remarkable Musicians is available. Came out late twenty twenty and
Speaker 8: it's you exploring the creative process of modern artist.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we want to thank you for doing this. So
Speaker 8: could you please bless us with this poem in closing?
Speaker 7: Okay, so, uh yeah, this goes out to Stacy Abrams
Speaker 7: and uh, I'm going to play it. I'm going to
Speaker 7: play my jazz brushes on my dunes on my doom back,
Speaker 7: which is crazy, but so what and what can I say?
Speaker 7: All Right? This is a poem by Ethridge Knight, African
Speaker 7: American poet who I think he won the National Book
Speaker 7: Award or was nominated and Gwendolyn Gwendolyn Brooks, Pulitzer poet,
Speaker 7: was his mentor. Yes, and so uh, Ethridge wrote this
Speaker 7: for his daughter when she he was fourteen. Now I'm
Speaker 7: going to move this mic down in the front of
Speaker 7: my face. So I won't drown out the vocal. We'll
Speaker 7: see if this works. It's called circling the daughter. You
Speaker 7: came to be in the month of Malcolm, and the
Speaker 7: rain fell with a fierce gentleness like a martyr's tears
Speaker 7: on the streets of Manhattan, when your light was lit
Speaker 7: and the city sang you welcome. Now I sit trembling
Speaker 7: in your presence. Fourteen years have brought the moon, blood,
Speaker 7: the roundness, the girl giggles, the grand leaps. We are touched,
Speaker 7: tender and our fears. You break my eyes with your
Speaker 7: beauty lit Baby, I love you.
Speaker 2: Okay. It is ladies and gentlemen with the brushes.
Speaker 8: That is the legend. John Dinsmore Orn brushes poetry. Yeah,
Speaker 8: Quest Supreme.
Speaker 2: Yo, man, I was watching.
Speaker 10: I was thinking they need to get John Dinsmore and
Speaker 10: cast you as Joe Biden on s n L.
Speaker 2: That's funny. I think.
Speaker 5: Jim Carrey can't do what you could do.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 7: You know, if this damn virus gets better, maybe next
Speaker 7: year my paper back will be out and I'll get
Speaker 7: to sit in with the roots again.
Speaker 8: So, ladies and gentlemen, this is quest Love Supreme. We
Speaker 8: like to think John Dinsmore for blessing us with this interview.
Speaker 8: Very informative the performance. You gotta bring the performance back.
Speaker 8: Go on behalf of Team Supreme. Mont takeolo on pay Bill.
Speaker 8: Sugar Steve and Laia, this is Quest Love. We will
Speaker 8: see you on the next Goren.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Hey, this is Sugar Steve.
Speaker 2: Make sure you keep up.
Speaker 3: With us on Instagram at QLs and let us know
Speaker 3: what you think and who should be next to sit
Speaker 3: down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast.
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