Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison

by James Riordan, Jerry Prochnicky

Thirty-five years after his death in Paris at age twenty-seven, Jim Morrison's iconic legend remains as powerful as ever, swathed in the mists of mystery. There have been numerous biographies about the self-proclaimed "Lizard King's" life and career. But none have examined his roots and childhood, the intellectual foundations of his music, his wild days with the Doors, and his enigmatic early death as completely and insightfully as Break On Through.

More than simply a fascinating look at a rock legend whose cult following never stops growing, here is the definitive Morrison biography: his angry relationship with his father; the early tragedies and terrible events responsible for the darkness of his artistic vision; his private life and legal trials, including his infamous Miami obscenity bust; and the truth about his final hours. Based on extensive research and featuring dozens of rarely published photographs, this is the authoritative portrait of the poet, the grim visionary, the haunted man, and his haunting music.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, History, Rock N Roll, Autobiography

576 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1991

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.

"...James Riordan’s career began in the music industry where as a songwriter, manager, producer and concert promoter he worked with several well known artists. In 1976 he began writing a news-paper column on popular music, Rock-Pop, which he later syndicated. Riordan soon became one of America’s premier rock journalists..."

http://artseesdiner.com/JamesRiordan....

Reviews

[Jim Cherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Break On Through is the definitive biography of Jim Morrison, so far. It doesn’t possess the shortcomings of the other Morrison biographies, such as the near idolatry and hero worship of No One Here Gets Out Alive which did serve its purpose in resurrecting The Doors for a new generation (of which I’m one), or the more derivative renditions of Morrison’s life in more recent biographies. Break On Through has the focus of objectivity in looking at Morrison and his work in The Doors, and the original source material they generated bring forth new anecdotes and fresh insights into Morrison.

As in most biography we do go in knowing the outline of the subject’s life. In Morrison’s case that’s the son of a career Navy man who has a mystical encounter in the desert at a young age and believes the soul of an Indian leapt into his soul. The young Morrison grows up to be a rather bookish kid who gets the attention of his peers as much as for his classroom antics as his good grades. He disobeys his father’s wishes and registers at UCLA film school where he proceeds to write essays on the history of film and make a couple of films nobody seems to interested in except Ray Manzarek. Morrison quits school two weeks before graduation, retreats to a rooftop in Venice Beach, ingests a whole lot of LSD and manages to write some of the most seminal and original lyrics by seeing “a rock concert” in his head and taking notes. Later that same summer, Morrison seeks out Manzarek who Morrison knew was in a rock band and where Manzarek lived. Morrison sings him a couple of songs and the two decide to start a band, call it The Doors and make “a million dollars.” They work their way up the club scene on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and Morrison proceeds to become one of the most original and provocative singers in Rock ‘n’ Roll history, becoming even a rock star’s idea of a rock star.

The difference in Break On Through from other biographies is that the authors James Riordan and Jerry Prochnicky examine the influences in Morrison’s thinking such as Antonin Artaud’s Theatre and it’s Double, Nietzsche especially The Birth of Tragedy which reads like a veritable blueprint of The Doors, and the film noir influences on both Morrison and Manzarek and how this all relates to the music of The Doors.

Everyone who is into The Doors or is getting into The Doors is trying to understand why Morrison did the things he did, and how he came to write the things he did. That may be a little beyond biography, but Break On Through is the place to start.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and detailed biography on James Douglas Morrison from childhood to passing. No stone is left unturned as events unfold in Jim’s life from film student at UCLA to lead singer of The Doors. Chaos and stardom ensue but there was always time for him to write his poetry as he always thought of himself as a poet before anything else. Even many decades after the publication of this book ( once you remove the passing of Ray and Danny Sugarmen to name just two ) it still holds up.

[Lord Beardsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is currently the book I have deemed, "Book To Read On The Crapper." It definitely came in handy.

In the realm of Jim Morrison biographies, this is probably the least biased and the one that sticks mostly to the facts. The author (of course) idolizes him a bit too much for my liking (but that's virtually inescapable in any Jim Morrison biography); however, the author juxtaposes this by gently pointing out (without trying to pin-point or use supposition) that his subject was a particularly mentally ill person of an extremely sensitive and damaged temperament who seemed to be forever searching for some piece of mind, which ultimately eluded him in life.

It was interesting for me to read this at the age of 28, a year older than the subject when he died. The Doors were my first band and I greedily read any Jim Morrison biography I could get my hands on as a thirteen-year-old. I idolized him for being a rebel, etc. Now, while reading this, I found that his story made me feel deeply sad and realize that 27 is far too young to mentally and physically be that damaged.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a slight obsession with Jim Morrison and The Doors throughout high school. I can't even count how many biographies on Morrison that I've read, but this is the only one that really sticks out in my mind. If you want to know everything you can about the life and death of Jim Morrison this is your book.

[Sean Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are certain amateur moments than can take one out of the book, such as the terms "teenyboppers" and "The Establishment" (yes Riordan capitalizes those words). The Epilogue is stone deaf stupid with such lines as "In Washington D.C., a United States senator takes a break from the speech he is writing urging new cuts in the military budget. He leans back in his black leather desk chair and pushes the play button on his stereo. The song that plays is The Unknown Soldier."

I will forgive the book these missteps considering the research and the nuance. Riordan comes neither to bury nor to praise Morrison, but places him in his time and thoroughly discusses his musical, philosophical, theatrical, and literary influences. The tale is much like No One Here Gets Out Alive in that it is tragic, a poet who becomes a sex symbol and rock star and tries to chart another course. Yet, Riordan shows how Morrison actively cultivated what he hated and how his personal rebellion failed. He broke on through and once on the other side it felt hollow. He still had great moments after the Miami debacle, but by the time he was found guilty and Hendrix and Joplin were dead he was losing it. Paris was just the last attempt to avoid those demons.

This is a fair book. Multiple points of view are quoted on several occasions. Morrison is at best a tragic hero, and Riordan never shies away from his weaknesses, failures, and abusiveness. The result is a complex mosaic worthy of a complicated man with a considerable artistic legacy.

[evan allee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book was my final project for a class. It feels only right that I present to Goodreads my review: “Morrisonism: Y’all Call Him the Shaman, I Call Him a Cult Leader.”

In the margins on page 74 of the biography “Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison” by James Riorden and Jerry Prochnicky, I wrote, “Jim Morrison was one conversation with the wrong person away from becoming a cult leader.”
We will start at the not-so-basic plot summary. Jim Morrison, born the eldest son of a Navy officer, lived a tumultuous childhood with a gory trauma that manifested in a way that modern psychiatrists would diagnose as personality disorder. While the word “brat” is included in the phrase “military brat,” Jim Morrison takes this to the extreme—as he often did—by becoming one of the most insufferable people I have ever read about in my life. At the crux of Morrison’s behavior is a maelstrom of childhood wounds that “could not be satisfied by fame or fortune” and required much more than this could offer, as they had more to do with “the needs of a four-year-old boy than they did with a 23-year-old man” (172). My advice if you are going to read this book—HEED THAT as a WARNING.
Summary—sorry. Right. With only three years settled in one place, teenage Jim Morrison, with a genius IQ of 149—great, what more does a mini-narcissist need than to be told they’re a genius?—was the very definition of somebody too smart for their own good. Through his intense interests in all things literature, poetry, philosophy, mysticism, and the arts, Morrison’s insatiable curiosity led him towards writers that he ultimately idolized, such as Blake, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Kerouac, and Kafka. In a way, he sought for guidance through these writers, who all share similar themes of rejecting societal norms and delving into the human psyche, but it was philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who “shape[d] much of [Morrison’s] thinking” (38). Ultimately, Nietzsche’s philosophy was that every person has somebody they obey, even people in positions of great power—such as Morrison’s father, who he did not respect—and the only person who truly did not have to answer to anybody was someone who, because of their creativity and independence, did not have to answer to anybody. This is where I come in to say that this frame of thinking is what birthed Morrisism, because Morrison was like, “Oh my God. Obviously, of course I was meant to be a shaman.” So, through numerous spiritual awakenings aided by original poetry and enough LSD to kill an elephant, Jim Morrison graduates UCLA and through another spiritual awaking aided by Ray Manzarek on the beach, The Doors are formed. They put out two albums in one year, which mainstreams them, and Jim Morrison does LSD—as does everyone else, of course, it’s not regulated and it’s the 1960s, but especially Jim Morrison, Jesus Christ, does Jim Morrison do LSD.
Once The Doors are established in mainstream news that same year, 1967, we have the cemented, insufferable, eternal godlike portrayal of Morrison, who died for our sins, putting on performances like they were his last, he was the modern Adonis and also a Casanova and he was an angel with his angelic features and his shamanistic prowess (gag me with a fucking spoon) and his body was so precious (a literal paraphrase I remember seeing somewhere in the book) and he was a sex symbol and he was so hot and sexy and gorgeous with an angelc face and high cheekbones and long hair and mysterious eyes that somehow concealed and revealed information and his lips were so pouty and full especially as he spoke in such a slow and sultry and seductive manner that hypnotized everybody because in case you forgot, he was a shaman, just in case you didn’t catch it the first fifty times he described himself as such, and everyone was in love with him because he was a reflection of the best and worst parts of them, it’s the shaman’s job to allow people to project their fantasies onto him and those fantasies come alive and he was also on LSD, which opened his mind and his soul and his eyes and everything has so much meaning—and this is coming from me, a poet, a literature major, being haunted and annoyed and spiritually irked the prophetic nature of someone who so desperately needed to be either 1) humbled as an adult or 2) held as a child.
I cannot deny the impact that Jim Morrison has had on not only rock ‘n’ roll, but on American culture—especially in the 1960s and early 70s. And to some degree, I do agree that Morrison was a figurehead for sexual freedom and independence and eroticism for a generation that was so repressed. I don’t deny that Jim Morrison was extremely troubled—and for that, I sympathize, but I sympathize with the “wild child, yet simultaneously invisible” part of him, not the “not…not a cult leader” part of him. I also can’t deny the level of narcissism disguised as shamanism or martyrdom or literally Jesus fucking Christ dying for our sins or the “sacrifice of the divine lamb” as Morrison described himself as on page 418. There’s only so much I can take of people falling for the idolization of a man who so desperately wanted to be idolized before I am literally throwing the book over my face in attempt to absorb the words through osmosis so that I do not have to read Jim Morrison’s name one more time.
Not only this, despite the godlike caliber that Morrison at times held himself at, he would facilitate trouble and fights and abuse on purpose as if to punish himself, and then he would call it performance art. At some point during this book, around 1969-Miami era, I literally thought to myself, “The way that he is harnessing verbal abuse from the audience should be considered a form of self harm,” in which I did feel sorry for him. Watching the deterioration of a person is not something anyone enjoys. In the same vein, I am so past fed up with Jim Morrison, and I don’t want it to seem like I did not try to give him the benefit of the doubt—but then The Doors’ discography quickly turned into the Lizard King’s doctrine, and I was like…yeah. There’s not much I want to defend. And I have to say, my God was it satisfying to read about Janis Joplin knocking him clean out with a glass bottle.
A lot of my fed-upness, I admit, comes from the idolized tone of the writing. I think that the structure of this book works very well. Going chronologically is the most ideal structure, which allows Riordan and Prochnicky to plant seeds of how a present decision impacts the future—example, Morrison allegedly (because sometimes there’s room of 13,000 people and nobody can really say for certain if he did or didn’t) flashing the crowd in Miami. This leaves the reader wanting to read on to find out how this incident will circle back, just by writing, “It was the performance that most changed his life—you could even say it killed him” (292). By going chronologically, we can genuinely see the way Morrison’s reoccurring childhood wounds undergird arguably every decision that he makes, consciously and unconsciously. It is incredibly interesting to see how the types of things that Morrison was reading at such a young age shaped his impressionable mind and grew into adulthood with him.
And here is where I have to discuss—despite how desperately he wanted to be a free thinker like the writers and philosophers he so admired, Morrison was so easily influenced. Of course, he was a repressed, nomadic child when reading philosophy, and he was desperate for some type of direction though he would never ever admit that, which he found it in literature. But as an adult, especially in college, Morrison turned to LSD the moment he was introduced to it. LSD became him. And it is commonly believed that without Ray Manzarek, The Doors would never have formed. On a broader scale, Morrison preached free thought and on one recorded occasion accused his audience of being “slaves” who “let everybody push [them] around” (295), but wasn’t Morrison the same? Wasn’t he churning out albums he wasn’t proud of because Elekrta needed an album? Wasn’t he drowning himself in alcohol to avoid his own inner monologue? Morrison needed guidance, which was impossible for him to accept, but this guy is literally the definition of “lost.”
Part of me wants to say that pieces of this book are unnecessary or repetitive. Another part of me wants to say that I cannot imagine there being another book out there that contains this much information about the life of Jim Morrison, and containing such a life is an incredible feat that was thoroughly accomplished in this book, which, you know what? I’ll applaud that. One aspect I did love was the making of each album; the writing, the recording, the order in which the songs play, the vibe of the songs and what they are about—especially songs like “Horse Latitudes” which was based off a poem Morrison wrote—and the pieces of interviews where Doors talk about certain songs or parts of the album. I also think that I am both amazed and disturbed at the level of intimate detail that this book captures, down to the fact that Jim Morrison was an anal guy and that he and his handfasted wife did blood magic and then copulated inside of their blood magic circle. At times, I think that there is too much detail, and then other times I understand if Riordan and Prochnicky felt they needed some outlet to expel such information. I think, and I know that I am not alone in this thinking, that Morrison thought he was above it all. He simultaneously saw himself as immortal, yet on borrowed time. But ultimately, I don’t think that a 500 page psychoanalysis of someone’s celebrity antics, when all of this can be explained by childhood wounds, was all that necessary. I finished this book and for all the talk of Morrison being something more than human—he feels utterly human. This would have been a great way to bring it all home—he wanted to live as a god, but he died such a human death. But instead, the book ends with an extrapolation of the “magic of the Morrison mystique.” There is this desperate need to understand a man, who, although influential, is just a man—and that is a point that I do not see driven home anywhere in this book, and that is my one big qualm. We get to see the black and white and abysmal grey area of Morrison’s existence, but even with all of this, he is not humanized at all. This book, while incredibly, impressively thorough—nearing questionable—it does not feel unbiased. Despite the coverage of both the Dr. Jekyll and the Mr. Hyde versions of Jim Morrison, the idolization of a man who was just a man is laced all throughout this book.
What is even more irritating to me is that even though Morrison is dead, from just the 500 pages I have spent with him, I know for a fact that he would relish in the idea of people still conspiring over the nature of his existence. And what is most irritating to me is that now, here Jim Morrison is, invading my mind palace as I try my darndest to not be irritated by him because I know that he would love the fact that he’s still irritating people even though he has been dead for 54 years now. All this to say—The Doors are a great band and I don’t deny their influence, and especially Jim Morrison’s influence in the 1960s. If you are someone who enjoys studying the minds if people, this might be an interesting read for you. If you are interested in the personal lives of rockstars, especially those with pubic and private personas, you may enjoy it. If you want a detailed transcription of studio sessions—perhaps find a different book. If you worship the doctrines of the Lizard King, this book would likely be a five-star read! For me, however, I would give it about a 2.8 for the thorough writing that captured the essence of Morrison, and the impressive amount of love and care that was evident while writing the book. I just would have preferred a bit less of a spellbound telling and more of a humanized approach to Morrison’s character. Jim Morrison was a great mind…and that’s all I can really say about him. I won’t be drinking the Kool-Aid.

[Erna · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wrote a paper about the doors for a class not too long ago, so i decided to read one of jim's biographies (because i hyperfixated a little bit, as one does writing an interesting paper. idk about y'all.)

anyway, this was a very interesting book for so many reasons - a glimpse into the relatively brief existence of a band that shouldn't have really been a band, led by someone as all-encompassing and enigmatic as jim morrison. he was undoubtedly very fucked up, of course, but also beautiful, witty, strange and remarkably intelligent. by the end, i was actually incredibly moved by the book and even brought to tears. i find this book and the whole journey with this band really hard to describe, now as i sit here and ponder it. and i will be thinking about them, especially jim, for a long time i think. awh man :(

[D. D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant book! Very artistic and well written it gripped me and I couldn't put it down till the end! Without a doubt the best biography I've read this year and it has been a year with many biographies, 2025!
It's incredible that it's such a big book yet it's so delicious you read it fast and don't understand when you've already finished! Just perfect!

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors tend to be a bit wordy at times, but this bio is a good antidote to more sensationalized treatments of Morrison's life (and there was certainly plenty of incidents to sensationalize). The book makes clear the obvious importance of Morrison to the group's vision and impact, but it also shows that Manzarek, Krieger, and Densmore were strong contributors. The Doors' music is still listened to today because, though it was often not easy, they worked as a group to fashion the songs. Though I am a big fan of the group, I've long been ambivalent about the value of Morrison's poetry. This book makes a good argument that we should all take another look.

[Nettle Soup · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't have said it better, so I am pasting someone eles's review, but I can say that this is the only 500+ page book I've read about 4 times over, ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT !:

Tortured visionary and bumbling drunk--two sides of ``The Lizard King'' that emerge from this lengthy but less-than-probing biography of the late rock star. Riordan (a Rolling Stone contributor) and Prochnicky (a self-professed veteran Morrison scholar) attempt to retrace Morrison's ``aural, visual, and psychological journey'' through ``a fun house mirror'' of Sixties-style metaphysics. They recount Morrison's repressive childhood under a Navy captain father, his youth as school misfit and troublemaker, his post-college life as a Venice beach-bum, and his subsequent descent into an acid- inspired ``spiritual netherworld.'' Morrison comes across as an insecure but creatively driven man prone to extreme mood swings, and an emotional manipulator who ``enjoyed dangling people from his own self-styled parapet.'' In some respects, he seems a hippie Oscar Wilde who strove for recognition as a serious poet only after establishing a notorious persona. But it is less the star and more the martyr that surfaces here, with gruesome accounts of Morrison being beaten by cops, lambasted by finicky critics, verbally abused by audiences, and incessantly drained by a neurotic girlfriend. Riordan and Prochnicky try to bolster the Morrison mythos by mentioning his love of Nietzsche, romantic attachment to shamanism, undying interest in film history, and gift for surrealist thinking that nurtured his work but abetted his ``failing to draw the line between art and life, business and pleasure, self-instruction and self-destruction.'' Unfortunately, they sidestep any fresh or bold interpretations of Morrison's mystique, resorting to redundant drugstore psychologisms and a disturbing zeal to discount any allegations of Morrison's thinly veiled homosexual side. Worse, the authors promise to delve into Morrison's subtle lyrics but opt instead for shallow and rushed summaries. Candid and articulate but essentially a star-struck reminiscence that fails to transcend the packaged legend. For more compact and worthy biographies of Morrison, see David Dalton's Mr. Mojo Risin' and Dylan Jones's Jim Morrison (p. 466). (Twenty-five b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

[Nade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Break on Through by James Riordan and Jerry Prochnicky is an extremely well-written biography of Jim Morrison. Having read other books on the subject, I can say that this book presents Morrison very objectively, presenting not only his pubic image or the myth, but also giving insights as to what he was off stage by providing interviews with people close to him. Because, indeed, Morrison the rock star and Jim the poet are two different people. The authors make the distinction between the two visible.

This book also stands out because of its incredibly detailed account of the story. All the fact are presented from multiple perspectives with the interviews of Morrison himself and the people around him. The authors present many facts previously less known about the Doors through a well-organized and easy to follow narrative. But easy to follow does not mean a tale of what was visible only on the surface. The authors offer insights about the turmoil in Morrison's mind and the poet trying to fight off the sex symbol. They speculate about what sparked the disappointment and dissatisfaction with his reality, making it easier sympathize with Morrison's actions. Every event in Morrison's life is inspected, along with why it was like that and what it lead to in the end. The authors strengthen their speculations with excerpts from Morrison's poetry and the Doors' lyrics.

The authors also provide context about society's values and morals at the time to provide ground for comparing and contrasting the Doors' philosophy. The albums of the group as a whole and the separate songs are analyzed along with the public's and the critics' reaction to them.

The book Break on Through offers an in-depth insight of Morrison's life, death, inspirations, and legacy. It is a superb account of a genius trapped by the philosophy he advocated.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb calls this "the authoritative portrait of the man and his career." Having read through page 24, I look at that phrase a bit askance. Chapter One purports to give a stream of consciousness from Jim himself. On page 24 the authors refer to "the Dionysian principles of shamanism," which I would think is rather a clash of cultures.

On finishing: In spite of the purported stream of consciousness, I think this is an excellent and sympathetic analysis of ... the legend. Riordan and Prochnicky seem to agree with Morrison that his life was changed at age four. They base their analysis of his crazy spells on the imposition of a shaman's mind on his own. But they never quite come out and say they believe it, so they are left between two stools. In spite of this, they have drawn a very believable human being, one whose feet of clay are believeable, to be sympathized with, because they are not clearly pictured.

Especially interesting to me was the infusion of a shamans' ceremonies into Morrison's stage performance. I was surprised to learn how closely Morrison modeled his stage work of the Doors' highest years on descriptions of shamanic trances.

The authors, 20 years after Jim Morrison's death, have bought into the legend to an extent. Yes, they want to do a thoroughly honest psychological analysis. Yes, they have drawn a well-rounded, in-depth human being, including the warmth, the genius, the narcisism, and the abrasiveness. But the pictures the reader is left with, the emotions the authors want us to feel toward Jim, are vague enough that we don't actually see the man who threatened a terrified girlfriend with a knife, who lulled friends into loving him and in the next second turned on them verbally. The authors, like the rest of us, want to see the legend.

[Molly chaucer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

I am so glad that I read this book. It is wonderfully detailed - a photo of the mind. After digesting every word, I was saddened when the final page was turned. The group truly loved one another. There music was an outpouring of their souls. I didn`the know this until I read the book
Another point I learned is how each song came into being. They honed their craft like an intricate knitted sweater. The listening audience gained a quick glimpse into their lives. An unforgettable one at that.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in 1991. I did not enjoy it as much as "No One Gets Out Alive" which is also about Jim Morrison. " Break On Through" has lots of good good of Morrison and friends. I keep trying to give these books up...maybe this time? Yep, I gave them up today: Jan 14, 2013.

[Bill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on Morrison. I've read damn near all of them and this one is top of my list.

[Dante Vocaturo · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fandom with The Doors has come fast and has come obsessively, and I think much of that has to do with the enigma of Jim Morrison. To me he's one of the few men whose myth feels grounded -- he's larger than life now but reading about who he was and how he operated everything seems to make sense. Disturbed and inspired. Creative and destructive. His own worst enemy and the only person who saw himself in the light he knew he'd shine in. This book is a brilliant and detailed examination of someone who you could spend a lifetime trying to dissect and never reach past the surface. It's poetic and critical and deep and understanding, a microcosm of Jim Morrison and The Doors' popularity twenty-plus years after his death

[Deia Skitalica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is actually quite good, I wasn't sure what to expect. Riordan really gets deep into it, and explains both Morrison, his personality, the group dynamics, the music, the music industry, the sociopolitical situation in the US at the time that inspired (or provoked) them to write such music. It was an enjoyable read, and probably the first book on The Doors that I should have picked up (instead I went with Densmore's /Riders on the Storm/, which isn't bad, but leaves the reader short). This one filled a lot of gaps for me.

[SierraCoyote · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive account of the life and times of Jim Morrison. Clocking in at over 500 pages, the book focuses on Jim’s early life, coming to LA, meeting and forming The Doors with Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Desmore. It discusses his literary background and poetic soul that created the unique sound of The Doors. Chronicling his tumultuous relationship with Pam Courson and his struggles with fame, inner demons, and the mantle of “rock god”, the book is a page turner and a must read for any Doors fan.

[Kevin Spivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of music of the sixties and seventies and all the back stories, this book about The Doors was truly a full deep dive into all things Jim Morrison and The Doors. It is a long book and takes a commitment to read but it is well worth it, especially if you are a fan of the group. If you don't have the time then watch the movie about The Doors directed by Oliver Stone. It's good but this author gives you more.

[AL · Rating 5 out of 5]

A detailed biography of Jim Morrison that has lots of information not in the Hopkins/Sugerman books. The facts are coherent and organized well, which gave me a good feel for the chronology involved unlike other biographies. Very much worth a read for anyone interested in The Doors and their Lizard King.

[Shane Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who proofed this?

I really loved the Morrison story. I went in knowing so little and came out a huge fan, but despite the entertainment I was disappointed with the multiple spelling and grammatical issues. I don't have a degree in English and I never went to college but Christ there were a lot of mistakes.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. God, did this book need an editor to cut out the intermittent agonizingly mindless wanderings of the authors. If you cut out the 100 pages that this book doesn't need, it's a 4 star book with a lot of good information and a sympathetic portrait of all the band members.

[Joseph R. McNeil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done

Pretty good book had a lot of things about the Doors I was not aware of. I was 17 when Jim left us and remember how good the Doors were. I have a bootleg of the Philadelphia concert from 1970 bought it a t a Flea market its a great concert!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first objective and balanced biography I have read of Jim Morrison. He was not the monster other sensationalist biographies have made him out to be and when sober was like a college professor, highly erudite, charming and mild mannered. His undoubted dark side, made worse by alcoholism, is however unflinchingly acknowledged.

[Barongia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro ben scritto se di piacevole lettura che affronta tutte le tematiche riguardo la vita di questo poeta-sex symbol americano, la cui storia non è raccontata in modo distaccato, ma accesa da numerose interviste a persone a lui vicino e numerosi extra (con tanto di fonte)

[Zanis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal read! I liked the Doors before reading this, but wasn't super obsessed or anything. This book was extremely interesting and enlightening. Author was fantastic as well as objective and really emerged you in Morrison's life. Would highly recommend and would definitely re-read.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a whole bunch of Jim Morrison/ Doors books over the years. This one is one of the best. It is Extremely factual and included many many details that I've never seen or read before.

[Candy Holliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked the book. Has alot of great tales about Jim but many things seemed repeated. Overall a very good insight to the man and the legend.

[Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book on The Doors...it paints a good picture of what was going on at the time and how The Doors fit in with the times.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I’ve read on Jim Morrison. The author really did his research to separate myth from fact.