One of rock’s greatest guitarists celebrates band’s milestone anniversary

Robby Krieger is moments away from making an all-too-rare concert appearance in Northern California Yet before greeting his highly appreciative audience and delivering an amazing -hour-plus show of specific of the best music in rock n roll history at the BottleRock Napa Valley the legendary guitarist for The Doors would sit down backstage with me for an unique interview It was an absolute honor for this massive Doors fan to chat with the -year-old Los Angeles native who is one of rock s finest guitarists and arguably an even better songwriter He certainly doesn t get enough credit for the latter which apparently has a lot to do with the songwriting credits on The Doors albums often going to the band as a whole Krieger vocalist Jim Morrison drummer John Densmore and keyboardist Ray Manzarek Yet it was indeed the guitarist who wrote or co-wrote a large number of of the group s the majority notable songs That number includes Peace Frog Love Me Two Times Touch Me Love Her Madly and majority famously Light My Fire which was the first tune that Krieger composed for the band Related Articles Review Classic rock hero closes BottleRock in brilliant fashion The BottleRock booking was ideally timed as the guitar hero and his terrific band consisting of drummer Ty Dennis bassist Dan Rothchild keyboardist Ed Roth and Krieger s son Waylon on vocals were in the midst of a multi-month celebration of the th anniversary of The Doors The celebration which has included full performances of Doors albums at the famed Whisky A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip is set to culminate with a big th anniversary concert on Oct at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles Visit robbykrieger com or lagreektheatre com for more information Here s my chat with Krieger who like Morrison has a strong connection to the Bay Area The guitarist attended boarding school as a youth in Atherton not far away from where young Morrison once lived in Mountain View while his naval officer father was stationed at Moffett Field Robby Krieger from The Doors performs on the Prudential Stage during the BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival on Sunday Chris Riley Times-Herald Q Hi Robby It s great to get to meet you in person I ve had the chance to see you at the Whisky A-Go-Go a inadequate times in newest years It s such a cool place to hear Doors music especially with all the history that the group shares with the venue And I just love that you have been spotlighting full Doors albums one per show at the Whisky A Usually for the past years or so I ve supposedly played there once a year But for this big th anniversary of The Doors we figured we d do it every month Do all the songs from each album in order once a month Q I was there when you guys did The Soft Parade at the Whisky and it was great Of module that album was pretty experimental and ascertained the band exploring different musical avenues using strings horns etc And a lot of people didn t dig it when it came out in I m wondering what your thoughts are on The Soft Parade A I kind of agreed with the detractors But I thought the songs came out really good the arrangements and all that I can see why people wouldn t want to hear it because The Doors weren t that type of a band And The Beatles weren t either And the Stones really weren t It was just the thing to do at the time Q I indeed love the horns strings and embellishments on The Soft Parade And the record gets off to such an incredibly strong start with Tell All the People and Touch Me In particular I think Touch Me is as great a single as The Doors ever put out A Me too It s one of my favorites that I wrote I really love Tell All the People I kind of stole particular of those lyrics from Follow Me Down by Lead Belly Q Do you have a favorite Doors album A Either the first s The Doors or the last s L A Woman Q I m with you Those are my favorite as well But L A Woman is No in my book It s such a great album A We produced L A Woman ourselves and we kind of started writing all together more on that album Before that it was inevitably either Jim s song or my song or me and Jim s song But the other guys really got into it on L A Woman Q Hyacinth House from that album is an all-time Top Doors song for me A Oh yeah You like that one For that one Jim had come up to my house and we were just fooling around I had my -string which the song starts with and I had this pet bobcat Q Wait a second You had a pet bobcat A Yeah He stayed outside mostly But that s where Jim got the idea for the lion lyric in the song And the I see the bathroom is clear lyric our friend Babe was over at the house and he kind of monopolized the bathroom too much at that point That s where that came from Robby Krieger from The Doors performs on the Prudential Stage during the BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival on Sunday Chris Riley Times-Herald Q What s the greater part fun Doors song to play live A Hmm Fun It s pretty hard to beat Light My Fire just because the middle of the song you get play as much as you want Q What do you think makes a good guitar solo A In my view it s to do stuff that nobody else would think of doing Q Is there a better groove on earth than the one you find on Peace Frog A The only thing about Peace Frog that I think should have been better is the bass part Literally I shouldn t say that The bass part is great The first half of each lick is great And then session bassist Ray Neapolitan does something And it s not bad It s just strange It s just something I would never think of It s weird Robby Krieger from The Doors performs on the Prudential Stage during the BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival on Sunday Chris Riley Times-Herald Q Why do you think people still care about The Doors years later A That s a good question Obviously the music still holds up The movie Oliver Stone s The Doors from had something to do with it The Doors were kind of fading back into time when the movie came out And the book before that No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman Even though I didn t really like the book or the movie But I have to say they helped to bring The Doors back from oblivion Q I m going to ask you the same question I once sought Ray Manzarek during an interview Do you think The Doors would have been as popular if Jim Morrison was ugly A Laughs Obviously not But I think there are a lot of good-looking rock n roll singers But it doesn t reliably help But there are not that countless great-looking rock n roll singers who are also geniuses Q Of module there were so multiple other acts making great music during the s Do you have a favorite from that time period A Dylan was my favorite at first before I was even playing So I would have to say Bob Dylan I loved the Stones too And The Animals Q What keeps you motivated to keep performing A It s just fun It s fun to play these songs I also play jazz I obviously don t make very much money on that But The Doors songs are fun to play There are so numerous guys who would pay me to play those songs with me Usually you have to pay people to play with them There are presumably more Doors tribute bands than for any other band Q Yeah it s got to be right up there Maybe the Grateful Dead has more A We should ask Siri about that Robby Krieger from The Doors performs on the Prudential Stage during the BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival on Sunday Chris Riley Times-Herald