OBorn in Melbourne, Florida back in 1943, the singer Jim Morrison helped to form The Doors in 1965 alongside Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore. His career was tragically cut short at the age of 27 in 1971 but he remains as one of the most influential singer and songwriters of all time.
More than a frontman, Morrison became a symbol of his generation and back in 1969 in an interview with Rolling Stone the musician recalled the moment he decided to be a singer.
What made Jim Morrison want to become a singer
“I think I had a suppressed desire to do something like this ever since I heard … y’see, the birth of rock and roll coincided with my adolescence, my coming into awareness. It was a real turn-on, although at the time I could never allow myself to rationally fantasize about ever doing it myself.”
“I guess all that time I was unconsciously accumulating inclination and listening. So when it finally happened, my subconscious had prepared the whole thing. I didn’t think about it. It was just there. I never did any singing. I never even conceived it.”
He continued:
“I thought I was going to be a writer or a sociologist, maybe write plays. I never went to concerts. One or two at most. I saw a few things on TV, but I’d never been a part of it all. But I heard in my head a whole concert situation, with a band and singing and an audience — a large audience.”
“Those first five or six songs I wrote, I was just taking notes at a fantastic rock concert that was going on inside my head. And once I had written the songs, I had to sing them,” Jim Morrison said.
The Doors were the first American band to have eight consecutive gold LPs and have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, which makes them one of the best-selling groups of all time.
Some of their most famous albums are “Strange Days” (1967), “The Soft Parade” (1969), “Morrison Hotel” (1970) and “L.A. Woman” (1971). The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1993 by Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam).