You could say it's an accident that I was ideally suited for the work I am doing. It's the feeling of a bowstring being pulled back for 22 years and suddenly being let go. I am primarily an American, second, a Californian, third, a Los Angeles resident. I've always been attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority. I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos--especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom--external revolt is a way to bring about internal freedom. Rather than starting inside, I start outside--reach the mental through the physical. I am a Sagittarian--if astrology has anything to do with it--the Centaur--the Archer--the Hunt--But the main thing is that we are The Doors.

We are from the West. The whole thing is like an invitation to the West.

The sunset - This is the end
The night
The sea

The world we suggest is of a new wild west. A sensuous evil world. Strange and haunting, the path of the sun, you know? Toward the end. At least for our first album. We're all centered around the end of the zodiac. The Pacific - violence and peace - the way between young and the old.

FULL REAL NAME: James Douglas Morrison
BIRTH DATE & PLACE: December 8, 1943, Melbourne, Florida, USA
PERSONAL DATA (Height, weight, and coloring): 5'11", 145lbs., brown hair, blue-gray eyes
FAMILY INFO (Names of parents, brothers, and sisters): Dead
HOME INFO (Where located and description): Laurel Canyon, L.A. - nice at night
SCHOOLS ATTENDED: St. Petersburg Junior College, Florida State Univ., UCLA
MARRIAGE INFO: Single
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED/PART SUNG: Lead voice
FAVORITE SINGING GROUPS: Beach Boys, Kinks, Love
INDIVIDUAL SINGERS: Sinatra, Presley
ACTOR/ACTRESS: Jack Palance, Sarah Miles
TV SHOWS: News
COLORS: Turquoise
FOODS: Meat
HOBBIES: Horse races
SPORTS: Swimming
WHAT LOOKED FOR IN A GIRL: Hair, eyes, voice, walk
WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO ON A DATE?: Talk
PLANS/AMBITIONS: Make films

The first music I heard that I liked was Peter and the Wolf. I accidentally sat and broke the record (I was about seven). Then I listened to rock'n'roll -- I listened to the radio a lot -- Fats Domino, Elvis, The Platters...

I started surfing at fourteen. There was lots of classical music in my house. My father liked march music. There was a piano at home. I studied trumpet at ten, but nothing came of it. Then I started playing blues on the piano -- no lessons though. When I was seventeen, I started playing guitar. I used my friend's guitar. I didn't get my own until I was eighteen. It was a Mexican flamenco guitar. I took flamenco lessons for a few months. I switched around from folk to flamenco to blues to rock'n'roll.

Records got me into the blues. Some of the newer rock'n'roll, such as the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. If it hadn't been for Butterfield going electric, I probably wouldn't have gone rock'n'roll.

I didn't plan on rock'n'roll. I wanted to learn jazz; I got to know some people doing rock'n'roll with jazz, and I thought I could make money playing music.

In rock'n'roll you can realize anything that you can in jazz or anything. There's no limitation other than the beat. You have more freedom than you do in anything except jazz -- which is dying -- as far as making any money is concerned.

In The Doors we have both musicians and poets, and both know of each other's art, so we can effect a synthesis. In the case of Tim Buckley or Dylan you have one man's ideas. Most groups today aren't groups. In a true group all the members create the arrangements among themselves.

FULL REAL NAME: Robert Alan Krieger
BIRTH DATE & PLACE: January 8, 1946, in Los Angeles
PERSONAL DATA (Height, weight, and coloring): 5'9", 135 lbs., brown hair, green eyes
FAMILY INFO (Names of parents, brothers, and sisters): Stu, Marilyn, Ron
HOME INFO (Where located and description): Laurel Canyon-Groovy
SCHOOLS ATTENDED: Uni High, Menla UCLA, Cal at Santa Barbara
MARRIAGE INFO: no
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED/PART SUNG: guitar
FAVORITE SINGING GROUPS:
INDIVIDUAL SINGERS: Van Morrison, Jimmy Reed, James Brown
ACTOR/ACTRESS: Brando, W.C. Fields
TV SHOWS:
COLORS: all
FOODS: peanuts
HOBBIES: music
SPORTS: surfing
WHAT LOOKED FOR IN A GIRL: soul
WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO ON A DATE?: do as much as possible
PLANS/AMBITIONS: produce

I grew up in Chicago and left when I was 21 for Los Angeles. My parents gave me piano lessons when I was around nine or ten. I hated it for the first four years -- until I learned how to do it -- then it became fun, which is about the same time I first heard Negro music. I was about 12 or 13, playing baseball in a playground; someone had a radio tuned into a Negro station. From then on I was hooked. I used to listen to Al Benson and Big Bill Hill -- they were disk jockeys in Chicago. From then on all the music I listened to was on the radio. My piano playing changed; I became influenced by jazz. I learned how to play that stride piano with my left hand, and knew that was it: stuff with a beat -- jazz, blues, rock.

At school I was primarily interested in film. It seemed to combine my interests in drama, visual art, music, and the profit motive. Before I left Chicago I was in theater. These days, I think we want our theater, our entertainment to be larger than life. I think the total environmental thing will come in.

I think The Doors is a representative American group. America is a melting pot and so are we. Our influences spring from a myriad of sources which we have amalgamated, blending divergent styles into our own thing. We're like the country itself. America must seem to be a ridiculous hodgepodge to an outsider. It's like The Doors. We come from different areas, different musical areas. We're put together with a lot of sweat, a lot of fighting. All of the things people say about America can be said about The Doors.

All of us have the freedom to explore and improvise within a framework. Jim is an improviser with words.

FULL REAL NAME: Raymond Daniel Manzarek
BIRTH DATE & PLACE: February 12, 1939, in Chicago
PERSONAL DATA (Height, weight, and coloring): 6', 160 lbs., blond, blue eyes
FAMILY INFO (Names of parents, brothers, and sisters): Raymond, Helen, Rick, Jim
HOME INFO (Where located and description): Hollywood
SCHOOLS ATTENDED: UCLA
MARRIAGE INFO: Married
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED/PART SUNG: organ, piano, bass
FAVORITE SINGING GROUPS: no good new groups at this date
INDIVIDUAL SINGERS: Muddy Waters, Jacques Brel
ACTOR/ACTRESS: Marlene Dietrich, Orson Welles
TV SHOWS: documentaries, news, sports
COLORS: blue
FOODS: oysters, snails, prime ribs
HOBBIES: projecting the feel of the future
SPORTS: tennis, swimming
WHAT LOOKED FOR IN A GIRL: compatibility, reality
WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO ON A DATE?: dinner, movies, ice cream, drive to beach
PLANS/AMBITIONS: films

I've been playing for six years. I don't really have too much to say about all this. I took piano lessons when I was ten. They tried to get me to play Bach. They tried for two years. When I was in junior high I got my first set of drums. I played symphonic music in high school (tympani snare), then I played jazz for three years. I used to play sessions in Compton and Topanga Canyon. Since last year it's been rock 'n roll and these creeps.

FULL REAL NAME: John Paul Densmore
BIRTH DATE & PLACE: December 1, 1944, in Santa Monica, California
PERSONAL DATA (Height, weight, and coloring): 5'9.5", 135 lbs., white-light?
FAMILY INFO (Names of parents, brothers, and sisters): Ray Densmore, Margaret Densmore, Ann Densmore, Jim Densmore
HOME INFO (Where located and description): 10610 Wilkins Avenue, Los Angeles, California-baroque
SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University High, Santa Monica City College, Los Angeles City College, San Fernando Valley State
MARRIAGE INFO: not married
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED/PART SUNG: drums, piano, tympani, vibes
FAVORITE SINGING GROUPS: none in particular-Beatles are the best
INDIVIDUAL SINGERS: Van Morrison, Jimmy Reed
ACTOR/ACTRESS: Charles Bronson, Peter Sellers, & Claudia Cardinale
TV SHOWS: old movies, rock 'n' roll shows
COLORS: blue
FOODS: vegetables, Chinese food, Zen macrobiotics, meat, fish
HOBBIES: listening to all kinds of music
SPORTS: tennis, basketball
WHAT LOOKED FOR IN A GIRL: sensitive
WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO ON A DATE?: communicate in one way or another
PLANS/AMBITIONS: musical production or engineering (musical)