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Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison
The wife of Jim Morrison offers a thorough portrait of the enigmatic leader of the Doors, discussing the shy, private, and complex man he was, plus Woodstock, the Miami obscenity trial, and other rock celebrities
449 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison
12 books136 followersPatricia Kennealy-Morrison was an American author and journalist. Her published works include rock criticism, a memoir, and two series of science fiction/fantasy and murder mystery novels. Most of her books are part of her series, The Keltiad
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
March 26, 2012
I did some research after reading this " And A lot of things she wrote did not make sense at ... She lied about dates & Times and yes she is a good writer & I don't doubt she loved Jim very much " But to go and say she is his wife is false and how can that be when Jim gave Pams his last name and his entire estate " Pamela & Jim where common law married & I just don't think it's right for Patricia to say all these experiences with Jim & Her are facts when they are not .. I heard she made the whole baby thing up just to trap Jim and he did not fall for it . It's very sad when you read this " Cause it's coming from a women is very mentally Ill and I felt sorry for her in some pathetic way ... Patricia Kennealy should be ashamed. Jim Morrison was such a beauty is many ways and I hope him & Pamela are in peace and together.
June 22, 2012
Garbage. She uses her relationship with Jim to this day to get attention. I do not find her credible at all. Utter crap.
November 21, 2012
This book is filled with well-written sentences. It gets two stars because the author is a delusional psycho who spews far too much bile for my taste. Check out her blog. She calls herself The Lizard Queen in all seriousness.
June 15, 2015
Patricia Kennealy is a great writer. And this story is an intimately written account about her version of events which involved a brief but important love affair with a Rock God. She paints an entirely different picture of Jim Morrison from the ones pushed by publicists, band-mates promoting records, or Hollywood looking to sensationalize a person into myth. Patricia however, shows a fully dimensional human being - loving, caring, thoughtful but highly self-destructive and sadistic. It is one of the few emotionally analytical portraits of Morrison ever written and without question is done with genuinely caring, albeit romanticized tenderness. And even the cruel, abrasive side of Morrison shown here does not compare in depravity with the violent cinematic portrayal on screen or former band mates calling him psychotic.
I have no literary criticisms to note, how much of this book is true is up for grabs. But no more than most other tales about Jim Morrison. Some events, such as the Pagan Marriage ceremony is not falsified - Patricia played a significant part in Jim's later life. To what significance is up to the reader. Accusations towards Patricia of seeking fame is hypocritical - she wrote the book in response of being in a feature film. As did several other Morrison associates (like Ray Manzerak or John Densmore) who felt compelled to write their own version of events to counteract Oliver Stone's own vision of Jim Morrison.
People speak of Morrison's other romances as if he was a middle-aged man. He was a mere 27 when he died... barely a man. It is perfectly plausible and reasonable he would move on from a girl he met in college. Morrison lived an eccentric and dysfunctional life and he attracted many similar people in his circle. If one finds Patricia strange - consider the suitor. She was not an ordinary person even if you do not believe their relationship meant as much to Jim as it did to her you should realize her story is well worth hearing
I have no literary criticisms to note, how much of this book is true is up for grabs. But no more than most other tales about Jim Morrison. Some events, such as the Pagan Marriage ceremony is not falsified - Patricia played a significant part in Jim's later life. To what significance is up to the reader. Accusations towards Patricia of seeking fame is hypocritical - she wrote the book in response of being in a feature film. As did several other Morrison associates (like Ray Manzerak or John Densmore) who felt compelled to write their own version of events to counteract Oliver Stone's own vision of Jim Morrison.
People speak of Morrison's other romances as if he was a middle-aged man. He was a mere 27 when he died... barely a man. It is perfectly plausible and reasonable he would move on from a girl he met in college. Morrison lived an eccentric and dysfunctional life and he attracted many similar people in his circle. If one finds Patricia strange - consider the suitor. She was not an ordinary person even if you do not believe their relationship meant as much to Jim as it did to her you should realize her story is well worth hearing
February 21, 2018
"People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality." - Jim Morrison
"We cripple ourselves with lies." - Jim Morrison
If I could give this ..."memoir"....negative 1000 stars, I would. Miss Kennealy, just Kennealy, why didn't you at least act as though you had some respect for the intelligence of your reading audience just label this as fan fiction? I want my $1.36 back.
It is also pretty obvious that Kennealy wrote this as a "memoir" to avoid any legal hassles regarding her claims.
"There was never a question of my not meeting Jim. I knew it was going to happen the instant I laid eyes on him, long before I got the job at 'Jazz & Pop'..." Patricia Kennealy, 2013, Mongrel Patriot Review
This suggests almost an obsession before their "fateful" meeting. Almost sounds like a fan laying siege to their favorite rock star, rather than a self-described "great intellectual" or an "accomplished author". The great, self-professed "trailblazing feminist" and her true motivation for taking the job with "Jazz & Pop".
1969. Jim Morrison is dealing with professional fall-out of the infamous "Miami concert" and the public humiliation that went along with it, as well as the possibility of a prison term. He is, by all accounts, professionally, emotionally, psychologically and physically at his lowest point and going downhill fast. Enter Patricia Kennealy, who was, without question!!!, going to meet the man she laid eyes on, "long before" she took her with "Jazz & Pop" magazine. (Can't help but wonder if Jim Morrison's weakened state made him seem that much more....accessible?)
1991. Kennealy get's a paid cameo part in Oliver Stone's "The Doors" where her "big wedding day!!" is falsely portrayed with Kennealy's full consent. 1992. We get Kennealy and "Strange Days" where all of sudden Kennealy is Jim Morrison's "wife", the love of his life, his "soul mate" and blah, blah, blah.
"...Jim and I had been lovers for half a year and we were having dinner with others..." She, very conveniently, never names "the others".
This is pretty much the gist of this book.
Claims made by Kennealy, claims that cannot be verified by anyone else but her and the Jim & 'Trish saga told only by her and her alone. (Who were "the others", Miss Kennealy (just Kennealy)? Why do I get the feeling there was no "dinner" and therefore no "others" involved.)
This book contains claims by Kennealy that only be verified by Kennealy herself, the more outrageous ones anyway. All of the cutesy-poo conversations right out of a straight-to-DVD romantic comedy that Kennealy claims she had with Morrison, again, these, conveniently, can only be confirmed by Kennealy herself.
Despite having almost 50 years to do so, Kennealy has never, ever produced one iota of the "stacks" of "proof" she claims Jim Morrison "showered" her with, she has never identified the minister who, according only to her, performed the "ceremony" and only has a "marriage certificate" with a lot of redacted information on it with a signature that to me, and others, does not look like Jim Morrison's handwriting.
One would think that after her "husband's" death that Kennealy would have gone before a judge with her minister and all of her "proof" and had her "marriage" legally validated. This would have given her credibility as well as a stake in her "husband's" estate and the chance to oversee the handling of his work and his legacy. Kennealy has never truly explained why she did not simply prove her claim of being Jim Morrison's "wife" despite, according to her (and her alone) Morrison having given her "stacks" of proof to do just that. Kennealy seems to demand that her readers simply take her word with no questions asked.
This..."memoir"...also offers pictures. One that is supposed to be of Kennealy and Morrison together although the woman in the picture looks nothing like Kennealy and looks suspiciously like a picture of Jim Morrison taken while in Mexico (I will state the obvious, Kennealy was not with The Doors in Mexico). There is a picture of Jim Morrison when he was in high school (any random fan could find this picture, yes, even back in the 1990s) and a separate picture of Kennealy when she was in high school (looking nothing like the "natural redhead" she claims to be), random pictures of Jim Morrison and random pictures of Kennealy, a sketch of Kennealy she claims Morrison drew of her and a picture of Kennealy with Jim Morrison's high school girlfriend, Tandy Martin. So, no smoking-gun of pictorial "proof" of her the long-term affair she claims to have had with her "husband".
Oh, regarding that picture of Jim Morrison's childhood friend Tandy Martin? There appears to be something of a backstory concerning that picture, from "Patricia Kennealy: 'Tiffany' Talks. Your Ballroom Days Are OVER Baby!", by Janet M. Erwin:
"She's at it again. She left Jim a valentine today, a big black and white picture of her with Tandy [Martin] Brody, his high school girlfriend. Stuck it under the windshield wiper on his car. She says she's going to keep doing things like that 'to make him crazy'."
Somehow track down Jim Morrison's old girlfriend, get a picture with her, use the picture to try and torment him and then include it in a ..."memoir"...as "proof" of being a significant part of his life. Creepy. Very, very creepy. Some left-over rage there, Miss Kennealy? How did you manage to track Tandy Martin down? And then insist on getting a picture with her? Creepy. Very, very creepy. Also, I don't believe, with all that he was going through at that time that Jim Morrison needed people trying to "make him crazy". Yeah. It's obvious how much Kennealy "loved" Jim Morrison.
And then there are all of these conversations and in-person meetings Kennealy claims to have had with Pamela Courson (that's Courson-Morrison to you, Miss Kennealy). The only documented meeting between Pamela Courson and Kennealy was in the Jim Morrison biography "No One Here Get's Out Alive" - Courson returns from Paris after finding a safe place for she and Jim to live should his Miami trial result in a conviction only to have Kennealy - the self-professed feminist - sit Courson down to tell her that Jim Morrison impregnated her and that she just aborted his baby (I'm sure Kennealy couldn't resist throwing in the "hand fasting ceremony" as well, don't know haven't read "No One Here" in a while. It's ironic, the same book that gave Kennealy any kind of credibility as far as Jim Morrison's life story goes is called, "Nothing Here But A Lot of Lies" by those who were interviewed for it and those who actually knew and cared about Jim Morrison. Weird to think that a book thought of as "Nothing Here But A Lot of Lies" was inspiration for Kennealy to write and try and make money off of HER book).
I have trouble believing that Miss Kennealy had all of these conversations with Pamela Courson and I do not believe the insulting, degrading portrait of a deceased young woman who is no longer here to defend herself that Kennealy so maliciously and viciously paints in this ..."memoir". (I take you were not raised with the notion that is cowardly and classless to speak ill of the dead, especially when their grieving family members are still alive when your..."memoir"...is being published, Miss Kennealy, no Morrison?)
Oh, there also seems to be a backstory about this abortion, or as Kennealy likes to say, "Jim's deceased child". (Can't help but notice all of the wonderful things Kennealy claims went on during her "relationship" with Jim Morrison can be attributed to her and all of the negatives - Jim removed her birth control device - nah, don't think so. Who had more to gain from Kennealy's pregnancy, Jim or Kennealy? - the abortion, etc., are all attributed to Jim Morrison.) But I digress, regarding "Jim's deceased child":
"My suspicions about the abortion are correct. She wasn't sure Jim was the father, and that's why she aborted. What I didn't know, didn't even suspect, was the reason for her coming to Los Angeles twice, throwing herself at him over and over despite his obvious indifference, even hostility. She's trying to get him into bed again, in hopes of conceiving again, 'this time 100% proof positive his'. She and I continued to talk on the telephone, and sometime in late November or early December she told me of an 11-page letter she'd written to Jim describing the abortion in graphic detail." - Janet M. Erwin, "Patricia Kennealy: 'Tiffany' Talks. Your Ballroom Days Are OVER Baby!"
I believe Ms. Erwin is still waiting to be sued over this article, should anything she wrote be considered libelous or damaging. While Kennealy has spent a lot of time explaining how "copyright laws" keep her from PROFITING off of Jim Morrison and the all of the other "legalities" she has to deal with and even though she was very careful not to name certain names in this book so she herself would not be sued, Kennealy has never taken action against the many people who have publicly, loudly and repeatedly called her liar regarding "Strange Days" and all of the other claims she has made about Jim Morrison.
And as far as Miss Kennealy's assertion that Pamela Courson "murdered" Jim Morrison because, again, according only to Kennealy, Morrison had written her "stacks" of love letters saying he was trying to let Courson down gently and that he planned to return from Paris and live in New York with Miss Kennealy, Kennealy remained oddly quiet after Jim Morrison's death.
According to Kennealy her "husband" who she claims to love with every fiber of her being (a "husband" she has honored, according to to her, by supposedly remaining celibate for almost 50 years) is constantly writing to her, professing his deep, passionate "love" for her and "stacks" of promises of him returning to New York to live with her in wedded bliss and she never, even once, questions the last person who was with him, the "horrible" Pamela Courson, at the time of his then mysterious death? Courson was in Los Angeles for a good part of her final years, she was not hard to find. What a strange lack of reaction from Jim Morrison's "wife".
It is also worth noting that is was Kennealy who started the rumor that Courson lied to Jim Morrison by saying the heroin Courson was using was actually cocaine in order to get Morrison to take his fatal dose so that, and I quote Kennealy, "...Patricia can't have him either" (SatireKnight, Patricia Kennealy, FAQ 3). Sorry Patricia, statements from Marianne Faithful, who lived with the dealer who sold Morrison the drugs that killed him and an article called "L.A. Woman and The Last Days of Jim Morrison" destroy your unfounded little theory.
Jim Morrison consistently, legally and formally indicated his marital status as either "single" or "unmarried", he consistently, legally and formally named Pamela Courson and his younger siblings as the sole heirs to his estate and he legally referred to Pamela Courson as his "only companion in life" to whom he left a good portion of his estate, "in the event we never wed". Correspondence written by Jim Morrison to someone named "Bob" indicating he and Courson's desire to stay in Paris long-term, to jointly sell "Themis" and asking for credit cards in both he and Courson's name, in Morrison's Last Will & Testament as well he declares himself "unmarried" and he declares himself "single" four months after his "marriage" to Kennealy on his "death benefits" card - this can all be researched online and these documents do not line up AT ALL with Kennealy's version of events.
"...but HE ACTUALLY MARRIED ANOTHER WOMAN, and the week before his death was writing this only wedded wife of his (that would be ME, in case the third-person voice shift confuses the grammatically challenged among you) impassioned letters about his return to her in New York: how much he misses making love with her (me), calling her (me) his wife (me) and himself her (my) husband, sending her (me) lyrical and erotic love poems and declarations of his undying devotion and spectacular costly gifts for their (our) first anniversary, admitting to her (ME ME ME) that he 'went back to Pam [HER HER HER] like a dog returning to its own vomit'. - Patricia Kennealy, "An Open Letter to Jim's Fans", still available online, in regards to Patricia Butler's equally ridiculous, "Angels Dance & Angels Die"
Kennealy to her Facebook followers: ""And though he just posted a nice followup piece, he blows it to hell by mentioning the junkie hooker [a reference to the late Pamela Courson] and their "common-law marriage." Which never existed: common-law marriage did not obtain in California back then. So, on the basis of that, I am indeed Jim's wife. I just have never gone to court to pursue my rights. Because, unlike the Courson and Morrisons (who sued each other after the junkie's death [another reference to the late Pamela Courson] intestate from a heroin OD), I don't grub in my husband's grave for money." "She Dances in a Ring of Fire" Tumblr blog (search "she dances in a ring of fire tumblr kennealy facebook),
A woman, particularly one who will tell anyone who will listen about her "great intellect" and one who considers herself a "strong feminist" and who is confident that she has the truth and the facts on her side, and who has "stacks" of of proof that she can offer up both legally and publicly whenever she so chooses in order to back up her claims should not feel the need to make such ugly, hateful, cowardly statements like this, especially when the grieving family members of the people you are trashing were well within hearing range.
"Patricia doesn’t know how seriously Jim took the ceremony ('probably not too seriously'), but to her, going through the ceremony was 'like being validated the way I wanted to be. It was a very private thing for me, a bond I wanted to make with this person'." - quote from Patricia Kennealy in Victoria Balfour's 1984 book, "Rock Wives", SatireKnight, "Stuff Patricia Kennealy Wants Forgotten"
As far as "grubbing" in Jim Morrison's "grave for money"? You grubbed Patricia. You grubbed quite a bit. Copyrighting photos of Jim Morrison's grave site, two failed..."memoirs"..., the long-defunct "Lizard Queen Productions" website, a paid cameo in the film "The Doors" and there's more...
"But I guess all those letters, poems and gifts from Jim (you know, the ones where he calls me his wife; especially the one I gave his parents, brother and sister a copy of, when his brother came to visit me the first time here in NYC) don't really exist, right?" -- Patricia Kennealy, leaving a comment on VintageGroupies.Livejournal.com (search "vintagegroupies livejournal kennealy")
When his, Jim Morrison's, brother came to "visit" you, Miss Kennealy? Care to share more about this "visit"? Something about letters, something about wanting to publish and profit from letters you claimed Jim Morrison wrote to you, something about wanting to publish and profit from poems you claim you co-authored with Jim Morrison? Can you give some more information? How did the meeting go? Why have you gone silent about your aggressive promises to publish these letters and poems for almost 25 years? (And why would the totally legitimate "wife" of a rock legend feel the need to comment on a low-rent website where people are discussing the various books about rock stars they have read?)
"Patricia's claim about the writings have proven to be false. She met with Andy, Jim Morrison's brother, along with a handwriting expert confirmed that the writings were forgeries. She was supposed to release them in 2010 (that would have been the 40 year mark under the old copyright law, thus making them eligible for the public domain), but when Andy made it known that they were forgeries, somehow all of the claims disappeared, and she never spoke of them again." - Lipstickalley.com, "Amazing Jim Morrison Doors Tea"
Well, I guess that answers my question. Yet another self-serving version of events meant to "prove" her claims made by Miss Kennealy.
More importantly though, I don't think anyone who counts themselves as a Kennealy fan should hold their breath for "Fireheart" - a project she was supposed to share with her public in 2010 but Kennealy seems to want the surviving members of Jim Morrison's family to think that she is going to prove herself once and for all in 2021! The 50th anniversary of Jim Morrison's death!! Giving herself an additional 11 years after her "visit" with Andy Morrison has probably just given her more time to try and come up with more forgeries and I have to believe Jim Morrison's family and his estate will be ready and waiting for Miss Kennealy in 2021.
"Oh, as to that answering machine message: it was on my phone for a very few months about 15 YEARS AGO (a disc jockey friend of mine, Carol Miller, helped me put it together, using Jim's own voice), and it was A JOKE. Geez, you people have no f**king sense of humor, do you? Or any sense of truth or accuracy or perception, either. Get a grip, leave me and Jim alone, and leave me out of your groupie crap. (Dame)Patricia Morrison (yes, really truly me)" -- Patricia Kennealy, VintageGroupies.Livejournal.com (search vintagegroupies livejournal kennealy")
You publicly admit to making a fake voicemail message, or outgoing message, whatever it was, that was supposed to sound like it was from Jim Morrison. Interesting. Did this message suddenly become a "joke" because you knew it would not hold up as "proof" of your "marriage" to Jim Morrison? (For a woman who claims the mere mention of Jim Morrison's name is - sniffle!! - just "too painful to bear", making that fake recording sounds like a very strange thing to do. Maybe it is your inability to PROFIT off of Jim Morrison that is "too painful" for you to bear.)
"Yeah, this is a LITTLE different from the other Bitter Ex books, because most of the Bitter Ex books involve a divorce from the rock star. In Kennealy's account, it involves the DEATH of the rock star. But there’s still so much bitterness and REWRITING OF HISTORY that it’s hard to see it as anything else. There’s so much HATE and BITTERNESS in this book that she had to write a FICTIONAL BOOK [Blackmantle] with herself as a Mary Sue to get even SOME of the venom out." SatireKnight, Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison"
Sums this up pretty well. Hate, bitterness (rage over an unforgiven rejection from Morrison) and especially the "rewriting of history" part.
"Most of the people who don't buy her story or her self-promotion as the Lizard Queen are not "protecting" anything, let alone profits or lies or 'self-interest'. They simply don't believe her. Once again, I have to wonder if she's slagging off other writers who have produced books on Morrison over the years, since she claims they are all lying about her and hiding her true status out of misogynistic evil Pamela-worship. You know... THOSE BOOKS SHE WAS INTERVIEWED FOR. And the books by the Doors, who presumably saw Morrison a lot more than she did and knew more about his overall life? Ignore them! They're all liars! Only believe her! And ignore those previous interviews she gave before Strange Days! That was Oliver Stone's evil Patricia-lookalike robot, sent to spread lies! LIES!" - SatireKnight, Patricia Kennealy, FAQ 9
Sounds about right.
Skip reading or paying for this book and simply go online and search "Your Ballroom Days Are Over" by Janet Erwin, search "SatireKnight Kennealy" or for the Lipstickalley article (you can also search "Narkive Newsgroup Archive 2005 Jim's Letter to His Parents" which offers more damning information regarding the time Andy Morrison "visited" Miss Kennealy) and will get a much fuller and apparently much more accurate telling of the great romance that was Patricia and....what she wishes had happened.
"We cripple ourselves with lies." - Jim Morrison
If I could give this ..."memoir"....negative 1000 stars, I would. Miss Kennealy, just Kennealy, why didn't you at least act as though you had some respect for the intelligence of your reading audience just label this as fan fiction? I want my $1.36 back.
It is also pretty obvious that Kennealy wrote this as a "memoir" to avoid any legal hassles regarding her claims.
"There was never a question of my not meeting Jim. I knew it was going to happen the instant I laid eyes on him, long before I got the job at 'Jazz & Pop'..." Patricia Kennealy, 2013, Mongrel Patriot Review
This suggests almost an obsession before their "fateful" meeting. Almost sounds like a fan laying siege to their favorite rock star, rather than a self-described "great intellectual" or an "accomplished author". The great, self-professed "trailblazing feminist" and her true motivation for taking the job with "Jazz & Pop".
1969. Jim Morrison is dealing with professional fall-out of the infamous "Miami concert" and the public humiliation that went along with it, as well as the possibility of a prison term. He is, by all accounts, professionally, emotionally, psychologically and physically at his lowest point and going downhill fast. Enter Patricia Kennealy, who was, without question!!!, going to meet the man she laid eyes on, "long before" she took her with "Jazz & Pop" magazine. (Can't help but wonder if Jim Morrison's weakened state made him seem that much more....accessible?)
1991. Kennealy get's a paid cameo part in Oliver Stone's "The Doors" where her "big wedding day!!" is falsely portrayed with Kennealy's full consent. 1992. We get Kennealy and "Strange Days" where all of sudden Kennealy is Jim Morrison's "wife", the love of his life, his "soul mate" and blah, blah, blah.
"...Jim and I had been lovers for half a year and we were having dinner with others..." She, very conveniently, never names "the others".
This is pretty much the gist of this book.
Claims made by Kennealy, claims that cannot be verified by anyone else but her and the Jim & 'Trish saga told only by her and her alone. (Who were "the others", Miss Kennealy (just Kennealy)? Why do I get the feeling there was no "dinner" and therefore no "others" involved.)
This book contains claims by Kennealy that only be verified by Kennealy herself, the more outrageous ones anyway. All of the cutesy-poo conversations right out of a straight-to-DVD romantic comedy that Kennealy claims she had with Morrison, again, these, conveniently, can only be confirmed by Kennealy herself.
Despite having almost 50 years to do so, Kennealy has never, ever produced one iota of the "stacks" of "proof" she claims Jim Morrison "showered" her with, she has never identified the minister who, according only to her, performed the "ceremony" and only has a "marriage certificate" with a lot of redacted information on it with a signature that to me, and others, does not look like Jim Morrison's handwriting.
One would think that after her "husband's" death that Kennealy would have gone before a judge with her minister and all of her "proof" and had her "marriage" legally validated. This would have given her credibility as well as a stake in her "husband's" estate and the chance to oversee the handling of his work and his legacy. Kennealy has never truly explained why she did not simply prove her claim of being Jim Morrison's "wife" despite, according to her (and her alone) Morrison having given her "stacks" of proof to do just that. Kennealy seems to demand that her readers simply take her word with no questions asked.
This..."memoir"...also offers pictures. One that is supposed to be of Kennealy and Morrison together although the woman in the picture looks nothing like Kennealy and looks suspiciously like a picture of Jim Morrison taken while in Mexico (I will state the obvious, Kennealy was not with The Doors in Mexico). There is a picture of Jim Morrison when he was in high school (any random fan could find this picture, yes, even back in the 1990s) and a separate picture of Kennealy when she was in high school (looking nothing like the "natural redhead" she claims to be), random pictures of Jim Morrison and random pictures of Kennealy, a sketch of Kennealy she claims Morrison drew of her and a picture of Kennealy with Jim Morrison's high school girlfriend, Tandy Martin. So, no smoking-gun of pictorial "proof" of her the long-term affair she claims to have had with her "husband".
Oh, regarding that picture of Jim Morrison's childhood friend Tandy Martin? There appears to be something of a backstory concerning that picture, from "Patricia Kennealy: 'Tiffany' Talks. Your Ballroom Days Are OVER Baby!", by Janet M. Erwin:
"She's at it again. She left Jim a valentine today, a big black and white picture of her with Tandy [Martin] Brody, his high school girlfriend. Stuck it under the windshield wiper on his car. She says she's going to keep doing things like that 'to make him crazy'."
Somehow track down Jim Morrison's old girlfriend, get a picture with her, use the picture to try and torment him and then include it in a ..."memoir"...as "proof" of being a significant part of his life. Creepy. Very, very creepy. Some left-over rage there, Miss Kennealy? How did you manage to track Tandy Martin down? And then insist on getting a picture with her? Creepy. Very, very creepy. Also, I don't believe, with all that he was going through at that time that Jim Morrison needed people trying to "make him crazy". Yeah. It's obvious how much Kennealy "loved" Jim Morrison.
And then there are all of these conversations and in-person meetings Kennealy claims to have had with Pamela Courson (that's Courson-Morrison to you, Miss Kennealy). The only documented meeting between Pamela Courson and Kennealy was in the Jim Morrison biography "No One Here Get's Out Alive" - Courson returns from Paris after finding a safe place for she and Jim to live should his Miami trial result in a conviction only to have Kennealy - the self-professed feminist - sit Courson down to tell her that Jim Morrison impregnated her and that she just aborted his baby (I'm sure Kennealy couldn't resist throwing in the "hand fasting ceremony" as well, don't know haven't read "No One Here" in a while. It's ironic, the same book that gave Kennealy any kind of credibility as far as Jim Morrison's life story goes is called, "Nothing Here But A Lot of Lies" by those who were interviewed for it and those who actually knew and cared about Jim Morrison. Weird to think that a book thought of as "Nothing Here But A Lot of Lies" was inspiration for Kennealy to write and try and make money off of HER book).
I have trouble believing that Miss Kennealy had all of these conversations with Pamela Courson and I do not believe the insulting, degrading portrait of a deceased young woman who is no longer here to defend herself that Kennealy so maliciously and viciously paints in this ..."memoir". (I take you were not raised with the notion that is cowardly and classless to speak ill of the dead, especially when their grieving family members are still alive when your..."memoir"...is being published, Miss Kennealy, no Morrison?)
Oh, there also seems to be a backstory about this abortion, or as Kennealy likes to say, "Jim's deceased child". (Can't help but notice all of the wonderful things Kennealy claims went on during her "relationship" with Jim Morrison can be attributed to her and all of the negatives - Jim removed her birth control device - nah, don't think so. Who had more to gain from Kennealy's pregnancy, Jim or Kennealy? - the abortion, etc., are all attributed to Jim Morrison.) But I digress, regarding "Jim's deceased child":
"My suspicions about the abortion are correct. She wasn't sure Jim was the father, and that's why she aborted. What I didn't know, didn't even suspect, was the reason for her coming to Los Angeles twice, throwing herself at him over and over despite his obvious indifference, even hostility. She's trying to get him into bed again, in hopes of conceiving again, 'this time 100% proof positive his'. She and I continued to talk on the telephone, and sometime in late November or early December she told me of an 11-page letter she'd written to Jim describing the abortion in graphic detail." - Janet M. Erwin, "Patricia Kennealy: 'Tiffany' Talks. Your Ballroom Days Are OVER Baby!"
I believe Ms. Erwin is still waiting to be sued over this article, should anything she wrote be considered libelous or damaging. While Kennealy has spent a lot of time explaining how "copyright laws" keep her from PROFITING off of Jim Morrison and the all of the other "legalities" she has to deal with and even though she was very careful not to name certain names in this book so she herself would not be sued, Kennealy has never taken action against the many people who have publicly, loudly and repeatedly called her liar regarding "Strange Days" and all of the other claims she has made about Jim Morrison.
And as far as Miss Kennealy's assertion that Pamela Courson "murdered" Jim Morrison because, again, according only to Kennealy, Morrison had written her "stacks" of love letters saying he was trying to let Courson down gently and that he planned to return from Paris and live in New York with Miss Kennealy, Kennealy remained oddly quiet after Jim Morrison's death.
According to Kennealy her "husband" who she claims to love with every fiber of her being (a "husband" she has honored, according to to her, by supposedly remaining celibate for almost 50 years) is constantly writing to her, professing his deep, passionate "love" for her and "stacks" of promises of him returning to New York to live with her in wedded bliss and she never, even once, questions the last person who was with him, the "horrible" Pamela Courson, at the time of his then mysterious death? Courson was in Los Angeles for a good part of her final years, she was not hard to find. What a strange lack of reaction from Jim Morrison's "wife".
It is also worth noting that is was Kennealy who started the rumor that Courson lied to Jim Morrison by saying the heroin Courson was using was actually cocaine in order to get Morrison to take his fatal dose so that, and I quote Kennealy, "...Patricia can't have him either" (SatireKnight, Patricia Kennealy, FAQ 3). Sorry Patricia, statements from Marianne Faithful, who lived with the dealer who sold Morrison the drugs that killed him and an article called "L.A. Woman and The Last Days of Jim Morrison" destroy your unfounded little theory.
Jim Morrison consistently, legally and formally indicated his marital status as either "single" or "unmarried", he consistently, legally and formally named Pamela Courson and his younger siblings as the sole heirs to his estate and he legally referred to Pamela Courson as his "only companion in life" to whom he left a good portion of his estate, "in the event we never wed". Correspondence written by Jim Morrison to someone named "Bob" indicating he and Courson's desire to stay in Paris long-term, to jointly sell "Themis" and asking for credit cards in both he and Courson's name, in Morrison's Last Will & Testament as well he declares himself "unmarried" and he declares himself "single" four months after his "marriage" to Kennealy on his "death benefits" card - this can all be researched online and these documents do not line up AT ALL with Kennealy's version of events.
"...but HE ACTUALLY MARRIED ANOTHER WOMAN, and the week before his death was writing this only wedded wife of his (that would be ME, in case the third-person voice shift confuses the grammatically challenged among you) impassioned letters about his return to her in New York: how much he misses making love with her (me), calling her (me) his wife (me) and himself her (my) husband, sending her (me) lyrical and erotic love poems and declarations of his undying devotion and spectacular costly gifts for their (our) first anniversary, admitting to her (ME ME ME) that he 'went back to Pam [HER HER HER] like a dog returning to its own vomit'. - Patricia Kennealy, "An Open Letter to Jim's Fans", still available online, in regards to Patricia Butler's equally ridiculous, "Angels Dance & Angels Die"
Kennealy to her Facebook followers: ""And though he just posted a nice followup piece, he blows it to hell by mentioning the junkie hooker [a reference to the late Pamela Courson] and their "common-law marriage." Which never existed: common-law marriage did not obtain in California back then. So, on the basis of that, I am indeed Jim's wife. I just have never gone to court to pursue my rights. Because, unlike the Courson and Morrisons (who sued each other after the junkie's death [another reference to the late Pamela Courson] intestate from a heroin OD), I don't grub in my husband's grave for money." "She Dances in a Ring of Fire" Tumblr blog (search "she dances in a ring of fire tumblr kennealy facebook),
A woman, particularly one who will tell anyone who will listen about her "great intellect" and one who considers herself a "strong feminist" and who is confident that she has the truth and the facts on her side, and who has "stacks" of of proof that she can offer up both legally and publicly whenever she so chooses in order to back up her claims should not feel the need to make such ugly, hateful, cowardly statements like this, especially when the grieving family members of the people you are trashing were well within hearing range.
"Patricia doesn’t know how seriously Jim took the ceremony ('probably not too seriously'), but to her, going through the ceremony was 'like being validated the way I wanted to be. It was a very private thing for me, a bond I wanted to make with this person'." - quote from Patricia Kennealy in Victoria Balfour's 1984 book, "Rock Wives", SatireKnight, "Stuff Patricia Kennealy Wants Forgotten"
As far as "grubbing" in Jim Morrison's "grave for money"? You grubbed Patricia. You grubbed quite a bit. Copyrighting photos of Jim Morrison's grave site, two failed..."memoirs"..., the long-defunct "Lizard Queen Productions" website, a paid cameo in the film "The Doors" and there's more...
"But I guess all those letters, poems and gifts from Jim (you know, the ones where he calls me his wife; especially the one I gave his parents, brother and sister a copy of, when his brother came to visit me the first time here in NYC) don't really exist, right?" -- Patricia Kennealy, leaving a comment on VintageGroupies.Livejournal.com (search "vintagegroupies livejournal kennealy")
When his, Jim Morrison's, brother came to "visit" you, Miss Kennealy? Care to share more about this "visit"? Something about letters, something about wanting to publish and profit from letters you claimed Jim Morrison wrote to you, something about wanting to publish and profit from poems you claim you co-authored with Jim Morrison? Can you give some more information? How did the meeting go? Why have you gone silent about your aggressive promises to publish these letters and poems for almost 25 years? (And why would the totally legitimate "wife" of a rock legend feel the need to comment on a low-rent website where people are discussing the various books about rock stars they have read?)
"Patricia's claim about the writings have proven to be false. She met with Andy, Jim Morrison's brother, along with a handwriting expert confirmed that the writings were forgeries. She was supposed to release them in 2010 (that would have been the 40 year mark under the old copyright law, thus making them eligible for the public domain), but when Andy made it known that they were forgeries, somehow all of the claims disappeared, and she never spoke of them again." - Lipstickalley.com, "Amazing Jim Morrison Doors Tea"
Well, I guess that answers my question. Yet another self-serving version of events meant to "prove" her claims made by Miss Kennealy.
More importantly though, I don't think anyone who counts themselves as a Kennealy fan should hold their breath for "Fireheart" - a project she was supposed to share with her public in 2010 but Kennealy seems to want the surviving members of Jim Morrison's family to think that she is going to prove herself once and for all in 2021! The 50th anniversary of Jim Morrison's death!! Giving herself an additional 11 years after her "visit" with Andy Morrison has probably just given her more time to try and come up with more forgeries and I have to believe Jim Morrison's family and his estate will be ready and waiting for Miss Kennealy in 2021.
"Oh, as to that answering machine message: it was on my phone for a very few months about 15 YEARS AGO (a disc jockey friend of mine, Carol Miller, helped me put it together, using Jim's own voice), and it was A JOKE. Geez, you people have no f**king sense of humor, do you? Or any sense of truth or accuracy or perception, either. Get a grip, leave me and Jim alone, and leave me out of your groupie crap. (Dame)Patricia Morrison (yes, really truly me)" -- Patricia Kennealy, VintageGroupies.Livejournal.com (search vintagegroupies livejournal kennealy")
You publicly admit to making a fake voicemail message, or outgoing message, whatever it was, that was supposed to sound like it was from Jim Morrison. Interesting. Did this message suddenly become a "joke" because you knew it would not hold up as "proof" of your "marriage" to Jim Morrison? (For a woman who claims the mere mention of Jim Morrison's name is - sniffle!! - just "too painful to bear", making that fake recording sounds like a very strange thing to do. Maybe it is your inability to PROFIT off of Jim Morrison that is "too painful" for you to bear.)
"Yeah, this is a LITTLE different from the other Bitter Ex books, because most of the Bitter Ex books involve a divorce from the rock star. In Kennealy's account, it involves the DEATH of the rock star. But there’s still so much bitterness and REWRITING OF HISTORY that it’s hard to see it as anything else. There’s so much HATE and BITTERNESS in this book that she had to write a FICTIONAL BOOK [Blackmantle] with herself as a Mary Sue to get even SOME of the venom out." SatireKnight, Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison"
Sums this up pretty well. Hate, bitterness (rage over an unforgiven rejection from Morrison) and especially the "rewriting of history" part.
"Most of the people who don't buy her story or her self-promotion as the Lizard Queen are not "protecting" anything, let alone profits or lies or 'self-interest'. They simply don't believe her. Once again, I have to wonder if she's slagging off other writers who have produced books on Morrison over the years, since she claims they are all lying about her and hiding her true status out of misogynistic evil Pamela-worship. You know... THOSE BOOKS SHE WAS INTERVIEWED FOR. And the books by the Doors, who presumably saw Morrison a lot more than she did and knew more about his overall life? Ignore them! They're all liars! Only believe her! And ignore those previous interviews she gave before Strange Days! That was Oliver Stone's evil Patricia-lookalike robot, sent to spread lies! LIES!" - SatireKnight, Patricia Kennealy, FAQ 9
Sounds about right.
Skip reading or paying for this book and simply go online and search "Your Ballroom Days Are Over" by Janet Erwin, search "SatireKnight Kennealy" or for the Lipstickalley article (you can also search "Narkive Newsgroup Archive 2005 Jim's Letter to His Parents" which offers more damning information regarding the time Andy Morrison "visited" Miss Kennealy) and will get a much fuller and apparently much more accurate telling of the great romance that was Patricia and....what she wishes had happened.
August 14, 2008
I read this after I "met" Patricia online. The story is really good. I really enjoyed it. All the way to the end I didn't understand why she had been getting so much flack for it. It was her story about what happened to her. Who is to judge that? I, for one, really enjoyed how she told her story!
February 1, 2008
I don't know why, but I couldn't trust this book as true. It was a good story though.
December 18, 2008
kennealy is a pretentious writer... i don't think i like her much/trust her recounting of certain things. but entertaining nonetheless. yes, i am taken with jim morrison.
September 28, 2020
It's a shame.
When I first read this book, I was young, dumb, and first coming into the entertainment industry. I was single, ready to mingle, and working with some of the hottest rock stars of the day.
So when I came across this book, in the late 90s, I was entranced by someone who, I thought, would have had a unique understanding of the world I was just coming into. She was a woman, after all, in a position of power, and ultimately married one of the hottest rock stars of HER day. (It should be noted that while I enjoy The Doors' music, I don't believe they were the best band of the 1960s, not by a long shot - the Airplane did it FAR better, and plus, they had Grace Slick as their frontwoman.)
What an awesome read it was!
Alas, more than 20 years have gone by.
I'm older, now - in a healthy, loving relationship with a man who is the love of my life - and have lived several lifetimes in an industry where good men die like dogs, as Dr. Hunter S. Thompson once said.
And in re-reading this book during the COVID-19 lockdown, I realize that my initial perception of Patricia Kennealy as a strong, take-no-guff music industry feminist was little more than a house of cards.
I can honestly say that this book is entertaining, and that's because PK is a truly talented writer. Hence, my rating of two stars, instead of just one.
But the subject matter of this book is little more than wishful thinking, a fairy tale, and a depiction of a woman who never seemed to get over the fact that a rock star didn't want her.
During my time in the industry, I've had the fleeting and fanciful notion (key words being FLEETING and FANCIFUL) of having a HEA with the rocker-du-jour. But someone who is TRULY in the entertainment industry doesn't take those those notions as anything more than the fleeting and fanciful notions that they are.
Because even today, in 2020, women in the industry are held to a different standard than men, and having a dalliance with a rock star (or, these days, a rapper) would result in the woman being viewed as little more than a wanton groupie by those who write checks and make executive decisions.
This was doubly, if not triply, the case in the late 1960s-early 1970s, even with the bullshit notion of "free love" floating in the air. Even more to the point, what PK wanted from a relationship (a happy, healthy, traditional marriage with children, the 2.3 kids, the white picket fence, and Fido in the front yard) didn't jive with what JM wanted from a relationship (going with the flow, toxic, dramatic, fueled by drugs, partying until the early hours of the morning)...at least not with her.
I have no doubt that PK and JM had a romantic fling. However, it was clearly little more than a dalliance on JM's part - one he didn't take seriously (if he did, he would have left Pamela Courson, his longtime companion, and ran off with PK - sorry, Patricia, but at your big age, you should damn well know this by now - when a man wants to stay, nothing can make him leave, and when a man wants to leave, nothing can make him stay) - and one that was just another "notch on his belt."
I can understand why, at the time, PK felt jilted. We've all been there, have we not? I, like every other woman at some point in her life, have done dumb things in the name of what we THOUGHT was "love." We've done the drive-bys, we've done the novella-long text messages, and for the ones who have engaged in a one-night stand (I've never had one), especially with a celebrity (doubly not), we've blown up flings into "love" only to realize they were a big old nothing-burger.
But at some point, you grow up. At some point, you have a conversation with yourself and you realize that YOU are worth more than being some rocker's plaything, especially when he's little more than community property (seriously, HOW many women did JM bed in his lifetime?) , and you look for someone who can love you the way YOU NEED to be loved and in the way YOU DESERVE to be loved.
PK hasn't done that. She's forever remained stuck at the age of 27, bragging about being the editor of a long-defunct magazine that not even the journalists of today remember or cite (it wasn't Rolling Stone or The Village Voice - it was the equivalent of NYC Record or The Aquarian, for those old enough to remember), with no other credits to her name. Yes, it's impressive that she was the first woman editor of a major rock magazine, and she's to be commended for blazing that path for women like me - but really, as anyone in the industry knows, you're only as good as your last "hit."
Sure, she's written books and advertising copy - but she lost the contracts for BOTH for the same reason: her obsession with a rock star who made clear, with his actions and his words, that she was at best a fling, and at worst a stalker and a groupie.
It seems her life began, and ended, with that affair with JM.
And for me, THAT is the true tragedy of PK's story: that at 74 years old, she has nothing to show for her talent and her groundbreaking career but the same studio apartment she was living in when she first met JM, filled with the same memorabilia from the 1960s and 1970s that is yellowed and withering and gathering dust, dying her hair the same color that allegedly turned JM on, and repeating the false allegations of being married to him when you were little more than a problematic groupie during his lifetime (face it, she wouldn't have been able to make those claims of being his 'widow' if he, or Pamela, were alive today).
She's a rock'n'roll Miss Havisham, dancing around her studio apartment in her handfasting dress to "The Soft Parade," furiously hurling rage-fueled missives at long-dead rock stars and their long-dead dearly beloveds, and trying to claim a life that was never hers to claim in the first place.
When I first read this book, I was young, dumb, and first coming into the entertainment industry. I was single, ready to mingle, and working with some of the hottest rock stars of the day.
So when I came across this book, in the late 90s, I was entranced by someone who, I thought, would have had a unique understanding of the world I was just coming into. She was a woman, after all, in a position of power, and ultimately married one of the hottest rock stars of HER day. (It should be noted that while I enjoy The Doors' music, I don't believe they were the best band of the 1960s, not by a long shot - the Airplane did it FAR better, and plus, they had Grace Slick as their frontwoman.)
What an awesome read it was!
Alas, more than 20 years have gone by.
I'm older, now - in a healthy, loving relationship with a man who is the love of my life - and have lived several lifetimes in an industry where good men die like dogs, as Dr. Hunter S. Thompson once said.
And in re-reading this book during the COVID-19 lockdown, I realize that my initial perception of Patricia Kennealy as a strong, take-no-guff music industry feminist was little more than a house of cards.
I can honestly say that this book is entertaining, and that's because PK is a truly talented writer. Hence, my rating of two stars, instead of just one.
But the subject matter of this book is little more than wishful thinking, a fairy tale, and a depiction of a woman who never seemed to get over the fact that a rock star didn't want her.
During my time in the industry, I've had the fleeting and fanciful notion (key words being FLEETING and FANCIFUL) of having a HEA with the rocker-du-jour. But someone who is TRULY in the entertainment industry doesn't take those those notions as anything more than the fleeting and fanciful notions that they are.
Because even today, in 2020, women in the industry are held to a different standard than men, and having a dalliance with a rock star (or, these days, a rapper) would result in the woman being viewed as little more than a wanton groupie by those who write checks and make executive decisions.
This was doubly, if not triply, the case in the late 1960s-early 1970s, even with the bullshit notion of "free love" floating in the air. Even more to the point, what PK wanted from a relationship (a happy, healthy, traditional marriage with children, the 2.3 kids, the white picket fence, and Fido in the front yard) didn't jive with what JM wanted from a relationship (going with the flow, toxic, dramatic, fueled by drugs, partying until the early hours of the morning)...at least not with her.
I have no doubt that PK and JM had a romantic fling. However, it was clearly little more than a dalliance on JM's part - one he didn't take seriously (if he did, he would have left Pamela Courson, his longtime companion, and ran off with PK - sorry, Patricia, but at your big age, you should damn well know this by now - when a man wants to stay, nothing can make him leave, and when a man wants to leave, nothing can make him stay) - and one that was just another "notch on his belt."
I can understand why, at the time, PK felt jilted. We've all been there, have we not? I, like every other woman at some point in her life, have done dumb things in the name of what we THOUGHT was "love." We've done the drive-bys, we've done the novella-long text messages, and for the ones who have engaged in a one-night stand (I've never had one), especially with a celebrity (doubly not), we've blown up flings into "love" only to realize they were a big old nothing-burger.
But at some point, you grow up. At some point, you have a conversation with yourself and you realize that YOU are worth more than being some rocker's plaything, especially when he's little more than community property (seriously, HOW many women did JM bed in his lifetime?) , and you look for someone who can love you the way YOU NEED to be loved and in the way YOU DESERVE to be loved.
PK hasn't done that. She's forever remained stuck at the age of 27, bragging about being the editor of a long-defunct magazine that not even the journalists of today remember or cite (it wasn't Rolling Stone or The Village Voice - it was the equivalent of NYC Record or The Aquarian, for those old enough to remember), with no other credits to her name. Yes, it's impressive that she was the first woman editor of a major rock magazine, and she's to be commended for blazing that path for women like me - but really, as anyone in the industry knows, you're only as good as your last "hit."
Sure, she's written books and advertising copy - but she lost the contracts for BOTH for the same reason: her obsession with a rock star who made clear, with his actions and his words, that she was at best a fling, and at worst a stalker and a groupie.
It seems her life began, and ended, with that affair with JM.
And for me, THAT is the true tragedy of PK's story: that at 74 years old, she has nothing to show for her talent and her groundbreaking career but the same studio apartment she was living in when she first met JM, filled with the same memorabilia from the 1960s and 1970s that is yellowed and withering and gathering dust, dying her hair the same color that allegedly turned JM on, and repeating the false allegations of being married to him when you were little more than a problematic groupie during his lifetime (face it, she wouldn't have been able to make those claims of being his 'widow' if he, or Pamela, were alive today).
She's a rock'n'roll Miss Havisham, dancing around her studio apartment in her handfasting dress to "The Soft Parade," furiously hurling rage-fueled missives at long-dead rock stars and their long-dead dearly beloveds, and trying to claim a life that was never hers to claim in the first place.
April 28, 2015
I-slept-with-a-rock-star stories are a dime a dozen in the rock bio world, and it takes something unusual to make the storyteller seem like anything but a groupie. Patricia Kennealy-Morrison has something all right, but her obnoxious attitude and sketchy details make it hard to regard "Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison" as much more than a curiosity.
Kennealy-Morrison was a journalist/editor working for Jazz'n'Pop magazine in the late 1960s. She was sent in to interview legendary rock bad boy Jim Morrison of the Doors, and was immediately impressed by him (the feeling was mutual, she says). They soon struck up a friendship, then became lovers while remaining on opposite sides of the United States.
Morrison and Kennealy-Morrison wed in a witch handfasting some months later, despite the fact that Morrison was still with his longtime lover Pamela Courson. Kennealy-Morrison chronicles the remainder of their increasingly volatile relationship, her abortion, Morrison's mysterious death in Paris, and the production of the distorted movie adaptation by Oliver Stone.
Never has so much been written over so little. Not very often, anyway. Morrison's brief involvement with Kennealy-Morrison is blown up into an affair to rival Guinevere and Lancelot -- and yes, that's her own comparison. What an unbiased reader sees is a rather average rock romance, full of the necessary sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. And lots and lots of Kennealy-Morrison's everyday life.
Kennealy-Morrison has a curiously self-centered view of the world: whenever anybody is less than friendly to her, they must be upset over her gender, brains, religion or relationship with Morrison. Her attitude (a bull getting ready to charge at a matador) wears thin quickly. She heaps scorn on almost all rock'n'roll stars, on any girl who slept (or wanted to) with Jim, on any friend of Pamela Courson's, on Doors fans, on rock audiences... pretty much everybody. Special vitriol is reserved for Pam. Rather than take Morrison to task for his behavior, Kennealy-Morrison vents on the pleasant, clueless Courson.
While Kennealy-Morrison is clearly knowledgeable, she seems to use her IQ solely to set herself above the groupies. She lacks the class, wisdom and vibrance of other rock paramours like Marianne Faithfull, or the sweetness of Bebe Buell. If this book is anything to go by, her intellect is stagnant and unsophisticated, and her personality is childish (she beats a groupie for coming on to Jim). In fact, her claims that she's a strong, decisive, take-no-guff woman becomes funny when you see that she was allowing a ridiculous amount of guff from Morrison.
There's no denying that Kennealy-Morrison is a talented writer. At times her lyrical, detailed writing makes this seem almost like a novel. It's especially vibrant during scenes like Doors concerts and the famous Woodstock. But too often her words are used as arrows rather than paintbrushes.
"Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison" is a weird read. In the end, it's hard to see it as anything but Kennealy-Morrison's side of the story, but without any wisdom brought by time and thought. This is not the place to look for the "real" Jim Morrison.
Kennealy-Morrison was a journalist/editor working for Jazz'n'Pop magazine in the late 1960s. She was sent in to interview legendary rock bad boy Jim Morrison of the Doors, and was immediately impressed by him (the feeling was mutual, she says). They soon struck up a friendship, then became lovers while remaining on opposite sides of the United States.
Morrison and Kennealy-Morrison wed in a witch handfasting some months later, despite the fact that Morrison was still with his longtime lover Pamela Courson. Kennealy-Morrison chronicles the remainder of their increasingly volatile relationship, her abortion, Morrison's mysterious death in Paris, and the production of the distorted movie adaptation by Oliver Stone.
Never has so much been written over so little. Not very often, anyway. Morrison's brief involvement with Kennealy-Morrison is blown up into an affair to rival Guinevere and Lancelot -- and yes, that's her own comparison. What an unbiased reader sees is a rather average rock romance, full of the necessary sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. And lots and lots of Kennealy-Morrison's everyday life.
Kennealy-Morrison has a curiously self-centered view of the world: whenever anybody is less than friendly to her, they must be upset over her gender, brains, religion or relationship with Morrison. Her attitude (a bull getting ready to charge at a matador) wears thin quickly. She heaps scorn on almost all rock'n'roll stars, on any girl who slept (or wanted to) with Jim, on any friend of Pamela Courson's, on Doors fans, on rock audiences... pretty much everybody. Special vitriol is reserved for Pam. Rather than take Morrison to task for his behavior, Kennealy-Morrison vents on the pleasant, clueless Courson.
While Kennealy-Morrison is clearly knowledgeable, she seems to use her IQ solely to set herself above the groupies. She lacks the class, wisdom and vibrance of other rock paramours like Marianne Faithfull, or the sweetness of Bebe Buell. If this book is anything to go by, her intellect is stagnant and unsophisticated, and her personality is childish (she beats a groupie for coming on to Jim). In fact, her claims that she's a strong, decisive, take-no-guff woman becomes funny when you see that she was allowing a ridiculous amount of guff from Morrison.
There's no denying that Kennealy-Morrison is a talented writer. At times her lyrical, detailed writing makes this seem almost like a novel. It's especially vibrant during scenes like Doors concerts and the famous Woodstock. But too often her words are used as arrows rather than paintbrushes.
"Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison" is a weird read. In the end, it's hard to see it as anything but Kennealy-Morrison's side of the story, but without any wisdom brought by time and thought. This is not the place to look for the "real" Jim Morrison.
July 4, 2015
Doors biopics are their own subgenre by now, and this one was penned by the so-called Wiccan wife of Jim Morrison. Kennealy is an able writer, but I feel like this memoir was tinged with desperation to prove to the world that SHE was Jim's biggest big squeeze and not a groupie/stalker/star fucker. Quite frankly, the tone of the book vacillates between sounding like she's making a court case and engaging in all-out rant, neither of which sparks my interest or adds much to the Morrison legacy. How much Morrison cared about this woman versus the dozens of others he poked is really a matter that can only be clarified by Jim, and he's dead, and even if he was alive, I still wouldn't care about who "wins" that contest. Beyond this bias, it really seems like she pulls out all the stops to convince the reader that she had an egalitarian relationship with Morrison, that she was able to put him in his place. Come on, seriously? I don't think so. Kennealy is very clearly the hero of her biased narrative. Looking beyond her bitterness, I found Kennealy and her own story much more compelling reading than her time with Jim. Her fantasy books have been on my radar for years. I should check 'em out.
March 11, 2018
I would say this "memoir" is at least amusing but Miss Kennealy's, minus the Morrison, constant attacks on the late Pamela Courson and a version of events that are only backed by Kennealy herself make this "memoir" an offensive and enraging book to read. This is just a bad, hateful Harlequin Romance novel based on the fantasies an aggressive, jealous, vindictive, rage-fueled, lying stalker who is out for an obvious money grab and who redefines the term "self-serving"
Miss Kennealy, minus the Morrison,
I read a very interesting article about you. It is entitled "Stuff Patricia Kennealy Wants Forgotten". (Potential scam victims who may be interested in purchasing this book can easily find the article online, just Google the article's title.) Here is a sample of the article that should give you an idea of why I am about to say what I am about to say:
"But she has reasons for not wanting people to read this (Rock Wives), this book was published five or six years before 'Strange Days' and the DRASTIC revision of her role in Jim Morrison’s life. Kennealy seemed to have been content to simply be the second-string girlfriend. So she says a LOT of things that are completely opposite what she would later allege about the relationship."
In interviews you talk about the "life" you had with Jim Morrison. Turns out you MAY have been a one-night stand, but given the many, many, many self-serving lies you have been caught in I even doubt you had any kind of romantic relationship with Jim Morrison AT ALL. You unsuccessfully to elbow her way into Morrison's and to get him to take you on as his legitimate partner through sheer aggression. (Sitting his long-time live-in girlfriend and companion to tell her that you had just aborted Jim Morrison's baby? That is straight out of the "Aggressive, Psychotic Stalker Handbook". Oh, many of your former acquaintances have helpfully pointed out that you were not sure who the father of the baby really was since your "soul-mate" wasn't the only man you had been with.)
You like to tell people that Jim Morrison showered you with love letters, poems and jewelry during your "relationship" with him. I do not believe you have ever produced any of these letters for anyone to authenticate them. (Hell, I'd even demand you turn over the jewelry he bought you so I could track down the merchant and then I would probably only come to find out that you purchased the jewelry yourself.)
About that marriage certificate. I couldn't help but come across it online and in your "memoir". What is with all of the redacted information? What are you hiding?
Caught your online rant regarding "Angels Dance & Angels Die". It appears if one value's one's personal safety they will not even attempt to say anything positive about Pamela Courson or even, for a second, look at her in any kind of sympathetic light. So many years later and you can go home and sleep at night after trashing an addicted, unhinged 27 year-old young woman who spent that last few years of her short and unhappy life dealing with the trauma and circumstances of Morrison's death and basically dying of grief and guilt feelings. I knew you were about go full-on nasty when I read your demand for people to use your LEGAL SURNAME - your caps, not mine - and when you said about Pamela Courson, "Oh, and what did the poor baby die of?" You are enough to make anyone's stomach turn.
Like her, love her or hate her, the truth is that Pamela Courson loved Jim Morrison before he became a famous rock star and remained by his side until the terrible, bitter end. Jim Morrison dedicated his poetry books to Pam, not you. Jim Morrison lived with Pam, not you. Jim Morrison took Pam to Doors-related functions and outings, not you. Jim Morrison wrote songs about Pam, not you. Jim Morrison wrote letters and poems to Pam, not you. Jim Morrison bought jewelry for Pam, not you. Jim Morrison turned to Pam in his darkest hours and darkest days, not you. (Morrison's final will and testament reads: "To whom it may concern I bequeath all of my worldly possessions to my only companion in life, Pamela Susan Courson..." In case you didn't hear that, "my only companion in life". Sorry, I know that's gotta sting.)
In print you have loudly and publicly accused Pamela Courson of murdering Jim Morrison because you were convinced that he was going to leave her at any moment (every stalker's favorite fantasy). Miss Kennealy? If you knew your "husband" as well as you claim you did then you would know that up until the final months of his life Jim Morrison was vehemently opposed to Heroin use. You would know that the biggest fights he and Pam would have were over her dabbling in the drug and that he routinely lectured Danny Sugerman on the evils of becoming a Heroin addict. No one "got" Jim Morrison to start dabbling in Heroin, he did on his on free will because that's where he was mentally and emotionally at that time, in a state of despair. Not because someone else told him to. (It's obvious to every Doors fan out so I am surprised it is not obvious to his "wife" that Jim Morrison did not take kindly to being told what to do and had an incredibly strong will when he wanted to.)
Like smelling a milk that has gone bad before you pour it down the drain I read the interview you did with Mongrel Patriot Review. In it you claim to have "been with" Jim Morrison during his trial in Miami. "With him". Really? That's funny because Jim Morrison's good friend and body guard, Tony Funches, who was also with Morrison at the trial, tells a very different story. You were harassing Jim, coming into the courtroom to give him a hard time because he did not want you as his girlfriend. Aggressively pursuing him, stalking him and harassing him during the most humiliating, painful and frightening times of his life. Yeah, I can see how much you "loved" Jim Morrison.
Funches goes on to say that Jim Morrison did not want you there and was not happy to have you there (Funches also uses some blunt, ungentlemanly language to describe how he and every single person Jim's and The Doors' circle felt about you and I don't blame him one bit.) For those who wish to read this interview just Google "tony funches interview Miami kennealy".
In the same interview you chuckled about Jim's "dry humor" during his testimony and laugh about how he knew he was doomed and decided to have as much "fun" as possible during the proceedings. Really? Hmmmm. From I, and any one who actually knew Jim Morrison, can gather, this case hung over Morrison's head for about two years, screwed up professional opportunities for he and the band and had him contemplating suicide at one point. So my feeling is that he was desperately hoping for a not guilty verdict. Him fleeing the U.S. to France with whom the U.S. has extradition treaty with didn't tell you anything Miss Kennealy?
I don't think you knew your "husband" very well at all. No, you are just a mentally unhealthy, aggressive, vindictive, self-serving, deluded would-be groupie, parasitic, opportunistic, compulsive liar and a fame seeking, vindictive stalker.
Anyone thinking of spending so much as a penny on this, or even accepting for free as gift I strongly advise you not to. Miss Kennealy is a dismal, nasty person and has a very, very bad relationship with reality and with the truth.
For a truthful and accurate telling of what actually went on between Miss Kennealy and Jim Morrison you can find a VERY revealing article entitled "Your Ballroom Days Are Over Baby" by Janet Erwin (keep in mind Erwin considered Kennealy a friend at one point). Google "patricia kennealy tiffany talks your ballroom days are over baby" and you should find it. Quote:
"In any case it's been decades now since I've felt any sympathy for her at all. Those tender feelings died a very quick death when 'No One Here Gets Out Alive' was published in 1980 and I saw the real Patricia in all her dubious glory, and when in 1986's Rock Wives (subtitled 'The Wives, Girlfriends and Groupies of Rock'n'Roll') she not only expanded her earlier tall tales but 'borrowed' my dream and grafted it onto her own.
I haven't read Strange Days, nor do I intend to, but I've had parts of it read to me, enough to know it's simply a further and ever more spiteful rearranging of reality. Since its publication in 1992 Patricia has continued to demonstrate what seems to me to be her utter lack of pride, her lack of love for anyone but her sorry self, and most of all, her truly vicious, vengeful and greedy nature."
I would wish you luck Miss Kennealy but at this point you are beyond all hope. People I know personally have described how...how shall I put this?....unsatisfying your life is now. Can't say I'm surprised as you come across as a consummate bully who likes to try and intimidate people if you don't get what you want. You appear to be a good example of "what goes around, comes around".
Save your time and money Jim Morrison/Doors fans. Stop bothering people Miss Kennealy. Minus the Morrison.
Miss Kennealy, minus the Morrison,
I read a very interesting article about you. It is entitled "Stuff Patricia Kennealy Wants Forgotten". (Potential scam victims who may be interested in purchasing this book can easily find the article online, just Google the article's title.) Here is a sample of the article that should give you an idea of why I am about to say what I am about to say:
"But she has reasons for not wanting people to read this (Rock Wives), this book was published five or six years before 'Strange Days' and the DRASTIC revision of her role in Jim Morrison’s life. Kennealy seemed to have been content to simply be the second-string girlfriend. So she says a LOT of things that are completely opposite what she would later allege about the relationship."
In interviews you talk about the "life" you had with Jim Morrison. Turns out you MAY have been a one-night stand, but given the many, many, many self-serving lies you have been caught in I even doubt you had any kind of romantic relationship with Jim Morrison AT ALL. You unsuccessfully to elbow her way into Morrison's and to get him to take you on as his legitimate partner through sheer aggression. (Sitting his long-time live-in girlfriend and companion to tell her that you had just aborted Jim Morrison's baby? That is straight out of the "Aggressive, Psychotic Stalker Handbook". Oh, many of your former acquaintances have helpfully pointed out that you were not sure who the father of the baby really was since your "soul-mate" wasn't the only man you had been with.)
You like to tell people that Jim Morrison showered you with love letters, poems and jewelry during your "relationship" with him. I do not believe you have ever produced any of these letters for anyone to authenticate them. (Hell, I'd even demand you turn over the jewelry he bought you so I could track down the merchant and then I would probably only come to find out that you purchased the jewelry yourself.)
About that marriage certificate. I couldn't help but come across it online and in your "memoir". What is with all of the redacted information? What are you hiding?
Caught your online rant regarding "Angels Dance & Angels Die". It appears if one value's one's personal safety they will not even attempt to say anything positive about Pamela Courson or even, for a second, look at her in any kind of sympathetic light. So many years later and you can go home and sleep at night after trashing an addicted, unhinged 27 year-old young woman who spent that last few years of her short and unhappy life dealing with the trauma and circumstances of Morrison's death and basically dying of grief and guilt feelings. I knew you were about go full-on nasty when I read your demand for people to use your LEGAL SURNAME - your caps, not mine - and when you said about Pamela Courson, "Oh, and what did the poor baby die of?" You are enough to make anyone's stomach turn.
Like her, love her or hate her, the truth is that Pamela Courson loved Jim Morrison before he became a famous rock star and remained by his side until the terrible, bitter end. Jim Morrison dedicated his poetry books to Pam, not you. Jim Morrison lived with Pam, not you. Jim Morrison took Pam to Doors-related functions and outings, not you. Jim Morrison wrote songs about Pam, not you. Jim Morrison wrote letters and poems to Pam, not you. Jim Morrison bought jewelry for Pam, not you. Jim Morrison turned to Pam in his darkest hours and darkest days, not you. (Morrison's final will and testament reads: "To whom it may concern I bequeath all of my worldly possessions to my only companion in life, Pamela Susan Courson..." In case you didn't hear that, "my only companion in life". Sorry, I know that's gotta sting.)
In print you have loudly and publicly accused Pamela Courson of murdering Jim Morrison because you were convinced that he was going to leave her at any moment (every stalker's favorite fantasy). Miss Kennealy? If you knew your "husband" as well as you claim you did then you would know that up until the final months of his life Jim Morrison was vehemently opposed to Heroin use. You would know that the biggest fights he and Pam would have were over her dabbling in the drug and that he routinely lectured Danny Sugerman on the evils of becoming a Heroin addict. No one "got" Jim Morrison to start dabbling in Heroin, he did on his on free will because that's where he was mentally and emotionally at that time, in a state of despair. Not because someone else told him to. (It's obvious to every Doors fan out so I am surprised it is not obvious to his "wife" that Jim Morrison did not take kindly to being told what to do and had an incredibly strong will when he wanted to.)
Like smelling a milk that has gone bad before you pour it down the drain I read the interview you did with Mongrel Patriot Review. In it you claim to have "been with" Jim Morrison during his trial in Miami. "With him". Really? That's funny because Jim Morrison's good friend and body guard, Tony Funches, who was also with Morrison at the trial, tells a very different story. You were harassing Jim, coming into the courtroom to give him a hard time because he did not want you as his girlfriend. Aggressively pursuing him, stalking him and harassing him during the most humiliating, painful and frightening times of his life. Yeah, I can see how much you "loved" Jim Morrison.
Funches goes on to say that Jim Morrison did not want you there and was not happy to have you there (Funches also uses some blunt, ungentlemanly language to describe how he and every single person Jim's and The Doors' circle felt about you and I don't blame him one bit.) For those who wish to read this interview just Google "tony funches interview Miami kennealy".
In the same interview you chuckled about Jim's "dry humor" during his testimony and laugh about how he knew he was doomed and decided to have as much "fun" as possible during the proceedings. Really? Hmmmm. From I, and any one who actually knew Jim Morrison, can gather, this case hung over Morrison's head for about two years, screwed up professional opportunities for he and the band and had him contemplating suicide at one point. So my feeling is that he was desperately hoping for a not guilty verdict. Him fleeing the U.S. to France with whom the U.S. has extradition treaty with didn't tell you anything Miss Kennealy?
I don't think you knew your "husband" very well at all. No, you are just a mentally unhealthy, aggressive, vindictive, self-serving, deluded would-be groupie, parasitic, opportunistic, compulsive liar and a fame seeking, vindictive stalker.
Anyone thinking of spending so much as a penny on this, or even accepting for free as gift I strongly advise you not to. Miss Kennealy is a dismal, nasty person and has a very, very bad relationship with reality and with the truth.
For a truthful and accurate telling of what actually went on between Miss Kennealy and Jim Morrison you can find a VERY revealing article entitled "Your Ballroom Days Are Over Baby" by Janet Erwin (keep in mind Erwin considered Kennealy a friend at one point). Google "patricia kennealy tiffany talks your ballroom days are over baby" and you should find it. Quote:
"In any case it's been decades now since I've felt any sympathy for her at all. Those tender feelings died a very quick death when 'No One Here Gets Out Alive' was published in 1980 and I saw the real Patricia in all her dubious glory, and when in 1986's Rock Wives (subtitled 'The Wives, Girlfriends and Groupies of Rock'n'Roll') she not only expanded her earlier tall tales but 'borrowed' my dream and grafted it onto her own.
I haven't read Strange Days, nor do I intend to, but I've had parts of it read to me, enough to know it's simply a further and ever more spiteful rearranging of reality. Since its publication in 1992 Patricia has continued to demonstrate what seems to me to be her utter lack of pride, her lack of love for anyone but her sorry self, and most of all, her truly vicious, vengeful and greedy nature."
I would wish you luck Miss Kennealy but at this point you are beyond all hope. People I know personally have described how...how shall I put this?....unsatisfying your life is now. Can't say I'm surprised as you come across as a consummate bully who likes to try and intimidate people if you don't get what you want. You appear to be a good example of "what goes around, comes around".
Save your time and money Jim Morrison/Doors fans. Stop bothering people Miss Kennealy. Minus the Morrison.
November 11, 2009
How could anyone aport his child? Tsk...tsk. Plus, she has the nerve to actually put his name hyphenated onto hers. I don't know...she's a good writer, but, a little strange--hence the title.
July 8, 2018
Patricia Kennealy is a great writer. And this story is an intimately written account about her version of events which involved a brief but important love affair with a Rock God. She paints an entirely different picture of Jim Morrison from the ones pushed by publicists, band-mates promoting records, or Hollywood looking to sensationalize a person into myth. Patricia however, shows a fully dimensional human being - loving, caring, thoughtful, but also at times highly self-destructive and even sadistic. It is one of the few emotionally analytical portraits of Morrison ever written and without question is done with genuinely caring, albeit romanticized tenderness. And even the cruel, abrasive side of Morrison shown here does not compare in depravity with the violent cinematic portrayal on screen or former band mates calling him psychotic.
I have no literary criticisms to note, how much of this book is true is up for grabs. But no more than most other tales about Jim Morrison. Some events, such as the Pagan Marriage ceremony is not falsified - Patricia played a significant part in Jim's later life. To what significance is up to the reader. Accusations towards Patricia of seeking fame is hypocritical - she wrote the book in response of being in a feature film. As did several other Morrison associates (like Ray Manzerak or John Densmore) who felt compelled to write their own version of events to counteract Oliver Stone's own vision of Jim Morrison.
People speak of Morrison's other romances as if he was a middle-aged man. He was a mere 27 when he died... barely a man. It is perfectly plausible and reasonable he would move on from a girl he met in college. Morrison lived an eccentric and dysfunctional life and he attracted many similar people in his circle. If one finds Patricia strange - consider the suitor. She was not an ordinary person even if you do not believe their relationship meant as much to Jim as it did to her you should realize her story is well worth hearing
I have no literary criticisms to note, how much of this book is true is up for grabs. But no more than most other tales about Jim Morrison. Some events, such as the Pagan Marriage ceremony is not falsified - Patricia played a significant part in Jim's later life. To what significance is up to the reader. Accusations towards Patricia of seeking fame is hypocritical - she wrote the book in response of being in a feature film. As did several other Morrison associates (like Ray Manzerak or John Densmore) who felt compelled to write their own version of events to counteract Oliver Stone's own vision of Jim Morrison.
People speak of Morrison's other romances as if he was a middle-aged man. He was a mere 27 when he died... barely a man. It is perfectly plausible and reasonable he would move on from a girl he met in college. Morrison lived an eccentric and dysfunctional life and he attracted many similar people in his circle. If one finds Patricia strange - consider the suitor. She was not an ordinary person even if you do not believe their relationship meant as much to Jim as it did to her you should realize her story is well worth hearing
February 12, 2009
This is another side of the story of fairly well known rock mythology-Jim Morrison and his relationships with women. Kennealy is a great writer with a very sardonic sense of humor that carries this book. It's interesting and unusual to hear the perspective of "the other woman". Obviously Jim Morrison was very important to her and she loved him deeply. It's hard to say whether he considered her as important to him. After all, he was in a long term relationship with someone else through their whole affair. This book shows Morrison's vulnerability, but also his cruelty and indifference at times. She does not sugar coat it although she does rationalize some things about his behavior like his relationship with Pam. Certainly this is not an unbiased account of history but it is an interesting perspective.
July 9, 2008
This is about Patricia, and her life...not about The Doors or Jim by himself...this is a true love story! This is about Patricia and how Jim and her fell in love and became man and wife, but it is also a journey by a woman who is her own, and her life and how Jim's life WITH her intertwined together. I recommend this book, not only to learn the truth about Patricia's and Jim's life together, but about two people who deeply loved one another, not only on this earthly plane, but thru time. Also, it is a great insight into the author's life, feelings and world, privately and public; her writings, and the twists and turns of life that has shaped her and her literary work.
April 28, 2019
I really enjoyed this book written by Patricia Kennealy, Morrison's wife. I found it be just enthralling.
I know she was a journalist and maybe that is what makes her writing so beautiful. In any event, I have read many a music Bio and this is by far one of the better ones.
I know there has been much question about whether what she wrote was actually true. I had no problem believing that it was. Maybe that is because there was a ring of truth about everything she wrote, she had the ability to remember very finite details plus she was featured in the Morrison movie. I've no doubt she was telling the truth.
She did not always paint herself in the most flattering light nor Jim.At any rate, it was so nice to read a book that did not focus on the drugs, the more seedy aspects of his life..although there is that, there is also alot of joy.
So I would recommend this to any Doors or music fan in general. It was quite a read.
I know she was a journalist and maybe that is what makes her writing so beautiful. In any event, I have read many a music Bio and this is by far one of the better ones.
I know there has been much question about whether what she wrote was actually true. I had no problem believing that it was. Maybe that is because there was a ring of truth about everything she wrote, she had the ability to remember very finite details plus she was featured in the Morrison movie. I've no doubt she was telling the truth.
She did not always paint herself in the most flattering light nor Jim.At any rate, it was so nice to read a book that did not focus on the drugs, the more seedy aspects of his life..although there is that, there is also alot of joy.
So I would recommend this to any Doors or music fan in general. It was quite a read.
January 16, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. Patricia Kennealy has the most sharp, wicked sense of humor and obviously intelligent. She loves her rock and roll and has lived a charmed life (no pun intended). Patricia has been unfairly slammed and harshly criticized for her marriage and relationship with Jim Morrison. Why it was not publicly accepted just goes to show how discriminating society still is.
June 12, 2026
I have, many times in my life, in fact, wanted something to be true, even when my gut says it isn't. Spanning from when I first figured out Santa Claus to when I unearthed the truth about most "miracles' by saints of the Catholic church I grew up in, learning cold, hard facts hurts, and we often would rather believe the narrative we're used to and more comfortable with. Sometimes, we desperately want it to be true, because everything surrounding the idea or "fact" is pleasant. But, unless you manage cognitive dissonance, the truth will pretty much always win out.
This is what happened to me in the course of 20+ years of reading this book, learning more about The Doors/Jim Morrison in general, and having a Facebook/online acquaintanceship wth Patricia Kennealy (henceforth, "Patricia", for brevity.).
I became really fascinated with The Doors as a young teenager. I grew up with my Mom playing the music and always enjoyed it, but didn't get truly "into" it til I was older. I was born after Jim had died, so I, admittedly, remember nothing of the enigmatic 60's.
Like most people (I suspect) I was first "introduced" to Patricia via the Oliver Stone movie, "The Doors". I remember thinking she was cool (bear in mind, again, I was about 14) but there was something dark and creepy about her. Still, enough of an interesting character that I sought to know more.
I'm a voracious researcher by nature. In my late teens, I became interested in witchcraft, and when I discovered Jim Morrison's "wife" Patricia was a bona fide witch, well, I was thrilled and even more excited to find out that she'd written a book: "Strange Days", the book in question.
I was absolutely fascinated by this book as a young woman in my 20s. Patricia reminded me a lot of myself, and of the self I wanted to be: smart, independent, takes no crap, yet also loves fiercely and has a deep spirituality. The dizzying story of Patricia and Jim's relationship was, to me, as she had compared it to other famous couples: Tristan and Isolde, Heloise and Abelard. It's never a picture-perfect story , but an intense one, marked by portent, deep psychic connection, and trauma/tragedy. It was the sort of love most young girls swoon over, often not thinking about the terrible cost and horrors that go along with it.
Patricia is a journalist, an editor of a music magazine that grants her entry into the hollywood scene most people never get to see. She meets lots of famous people and their names are dropped throughout the memoir, somewhat understandably, given that this was her job. At age 22, she has a college degree and is independent, which was still somewhat rare for young women at the time. She's from an Irish Catholic background and grew up in New York, and has since embraced Celtic Pagan spirituality. She is incredibly well- read, a member of MENSA, and experiments with the drugs of her day, somewhat more temperately compared to rock and roll status quo. She also has an amazing wardrobe and speaks often of her long, "red setter coloured" hair and alludes to the fact she has a great body, in particular several references she makes about being large-breasted.
According to the story, Patricia meets Jim while he is staying in New York and she scores an interview with him for her magazine, Jazz and Pop. To make a long story short, sparks fly (literally), Patricia feels they've made a deep connection, and they agree to correspond. They exchange letters here and there, and Jim finally comes to NYC, to her apartment, and you can guess the rest.
Patricia describes in beautiful detail how Jim proposes to her, under a flowering tree in Central Park, to have a handfasting (traditional Pagan) wedding ceremony with her. She says it's perfect as she doesn't want a legal wedding, anyway. She's aware that Jim sees other women, and that he has one particular women he's been with a long time and keeps going back to, Pamela Courson, but she's convinced she and Jim connect on a different and deeper level.
About Pamela Courson..in the book, Patricia has little good to say about her except that she's extremely pretty (and photos from that time clearly show this is true), "by no means charmless", but also "parasitical", dumb, and a gold-digger whose only "job" is to be Jim's girlfriend, even down to the boutique he finances for her. Jim says they're not married and that he kind of feels responsible for her, but doesn't really love her.
After the very dramatic and beautiful handfasting, Patricia finds out she is pregnant, due to Jim throwing her diaphragm across the room like a frisbee, as she describes it. Jim is at his infamous trial in Miami for alleged obscenity and indecent exposure at the time. He tells her to come down and they'd talk. Patricia is adamant that she doesn't want a kid and never did.
This is where things take an odd turn. Jim is extremely cold about her pregnancy, saying if she has it,it will be her kid, and he won't be responsible for it, and deny paternity. Patricia mentions she could take it to court and Jim says he'd still deny it all and she'd just embarrass herself. (this was well before DNA paternity tests existed.). They get in a huge fight but begrudgingly make up..sort of, Jim promising to be there for the abortion and to pay for it. Jim keeps eluding her in Miami and she is struggling to get to meet with him in the first place.
Patricia finds out she's a week too late for the standard abortion procedure (this is in 1970), so has to wait til the 20th week for a saline procedure which renders her understandably hysterical. Jim's funds arrive in time to pay for the procedure (the only time she says she took money from him, and then,only because she couldn't afford it herself), but , not surprisingly at this point, Jim never shows up. She goes through an absolutely horrific experience she describes in detail, and sends Jim a telegram quoting one of his poems. He doesn't respond. He doesn't respond, either, to her long letter describing the abortion and the aftermath in detail.
She mentions one time finally reaching him by phone, she screams at him, but he stays remote, and she thinks he's with someone.
Jumping ahead, Patricia has to go to LA for work, and decides to stay with Doors publicist and her friend, Diane Gardiner. Diane's upstairs neighbour happens to be Pam. Patricia announces her arrival by fixing a note with a dagger whomped into Jim's desk at the Doors office. Jim says he will come by and meet her later.
Patricia gets stoned with Pamela and tells her about the abortion, their relationship, etc. Pam is pretty indifferent, she just feels sorry for Patricia. She says; "I never met one of Jim's girlfriends before" which kind of takes the wind out of Patricia's sails. Jim and Patricia sleep together on the floor that night, and Pam catches them.
Patricia is then staying with a friend in LA at a later time she calls Tiffany. Jim is acting like a prize asshole. She claims Tiffany goes after Jim despite knowing how Patricia loves him, and she responds by beating Tiffany seemingly within an inch of her life and throwing her down some stairs. (Seriously). Patricia leaves in a huff for New York. This is the last time she ever sees Jim alive, and , shortly afterwards, he leaves for Paris, where he will die that July.
The letters start up again, supposedly very affectionate. She claims he sends her heartbreaking letters pining for her, saying he's lonely, that he will be back in the fall to live with her in NYC and that he's only in Paris to finally break it off with Pamela. He claims they will get legally married on his return.
Patricia has a vision of Jim before he dies one night, and is completely , understandably wrecked when she learns of his death.
The book then goes towards the prologue in the beginning, with Patricia making a dramatic (long black veil and all) visit to Jim's grave, finding it paltry and sad.
The story continues with Patricia's account of her being asked by Oliver Stone to be a consultant on the movie, despite her having "put a curse" on previous attempts, she believes this is a good idea. She agrees to play a cameo role as the priestess that handfasts them in the movie, and meets Kathleen Quinlan who will play her. She adores Kathleen and her portrayal, and they remain friends. Patricia is horrified and furious when she sees the movie, saying it's not the Jim she knew, that her character is pretty unrecognizable and they cut the handfasting down to nothing. She's disgusted by Oliver and continues to hate him for it, seemingly forever.
Like I said, the first time I read it, I was in my early twenties. The 60's, the crazy love affair with a gorgeous rock star, all the literary references, Patricia's smart as a whip attitude and what I saw then as bravery and toughness really impressed me.
As it often happens with time and maturity, when I re read it later, I saw it in quite a different light. I also read Patricia's now-defunct website and blog, and it seemed that some things were out of order. Patricia was now blaming Pam for Jim's death and calling Pam a "junkie and a whore". She claims to have stacks of love letters, poetry, expensive gifts and jewellery from Jim and that she'll publish these things when the copyright statute runs out, that these prove her status as Jim's wife. In spite of my raising an eyebrow at some of Patricia's statements, I still gave her the benefit of the doubt, and to my delight, we became Facebook friends. She was smart, engaging, charming and witty.She refused to discuss Jim unless she brought him up herself, usually on his birthday or their anniversary.She seemed like a fascinating woman. I still think she is, may she rest in peace.But that doesn't change the fact that I think her perspective was rather skewed and whether she did it willingly or not, a lot of her claims don't really hold water.
One seemingly small thing that led me down the rabbit hole was how she always talked about her long, red hair that Jim loved. All her past photos are in black and white, except one, where she claims to have dyed her hair, and she tells Jim she had dyed her hair in her book as well- once. Patricia mentions a panel she was on called "Critique" at the time she knew Jim. A color video of this surfaced and Patricia's hair was decidedly dark brown, not in the least red. At all. Hmm. It was not at all retouched or colourized and was definitely the same panel she described in the book.
Numerous people, including "Tiffany" (really, Janet Irwin) wrote articles and were quoted as saying things such as: she knew Jim hadn't taken the handfasting seriously. She stalked Jim while in LA, leaving a huge valentine that was a pic of herself and Jim's high school girlfriend, under his windshield wipers, among other things to "make him crazy". She wasn't entirely sure the baby was his, and wanted to get pregnant again by him. She had long dark brown hair. She basically "tapped" Janet on the back during the so called ".fight" Jim was not happy to see her in Miami or LA, in the least. His bodyguard said " no one could stand the bitch (speaking of Patricia)". Ray Manzarek wrote her off as crazy. Jim's friends, at best, said she was never mentioned (something she claimed was just how Jim handled his life.) . One or two "sour grapes" accounts I could understand, but when piles of people keep saying these similar things, you start to see who the common denominator is. One of the biggest smoking guns was Victoria Balfour's book, "Rock Wives". Patricia, in the book, says Jim likely didn't take the handfasting seriously at all, the whole narrative surrounding the proposal is different, and she clearly says she'd never put up with Jim today as you never knew where you were with him. Patricia claimed Victoria got it all wrong, and according to Victoria, left her threatening messages when the book came out. Victoria was baffled as it was all verbatim, and said she'd met Patricia briefly through a mutual friend and she seemed odd and very sad. That she seemed stuck in the past.
There were glimpses that the detractors may be on to something when interacting with Patricia via Facebook. She had intricate rules for how to interact with her, such as not using certain words, having proper grammar, not tagging her in anything, not ever mentioning Jim, etc . She could be scathing and nasty to people that she disagreed with, and absolutely lovely to most of her friends, as confirmed by those that met her in person. I honestly enjoyed interacting with her, which made it all the more difficult for me to admit that I wasn't entirely buying her story, for these reasons: 1) the narrative kept changing. 2) Her letters, poems, etc were never published, not even (so far) after her death. 3) She claimed she and Jim would have been legally married and he was coming "home" to her in NYC after he broke it off with Pamela-after insisting before she never wanted a legal marriage. I've seen pics and footage and heard accounts of Jim in Paris- he hardly seemed like he was on the brink of dumping Pamela and most said he was quite content there with no plans of leaving. 4) How Jim's attitude toward her went a full 360 from being deeply in love with her at the handfasting to turning into an entirely different person when she announced her pregnancy (not unheard of, especially for Morrison, but it was as if we were seeing a glimpse of how things really were by his reaction). 5) She had, for years, said the alcohol addiction Jim had killed him. Then, it turned into a vicious campaign painting Pamela as a murderer. 6) She claims no one had really heard of Pamela, and that Pamela was unfailingly dumb. Every single Doors memorialist and even those that vaguely knew Jim knew of Pamela. Most described her as sweet, funny, and with a fierce temper that matched Jim's own, as well as a sense of adventure. There are tons of photos of them together. Pam is the only constant among 100s of women Jim was with. Most say that while she may not have been an intellectual, she was far from dumb and quite bright, and Jim providing for her wasn't odd in the 60's- and they were together long before he made any money. Everyone I read of ,except Patricia, really liked Pamela. There's zero evidence she was ever a "whore" after Jim's death as Patricia claims. Even if she was, that should give way to sympathy, not hate. 7) Some very odd and disturbing details came about in Patricia's interviews/postings: she kept some of the mattress and sheets Jim slept on and still had them. (cue the "Psycho" theme). She had fan art of pictures if her and Jim spliced together and had a friend make an answering machine message for her featuring his voice. (when before she said she couldn't listen to his voice for 20 years, too painful). She posted pics of his youth and during his fame that anyone can get on the internet as if they were a personal scrapbook. The one photo that exists of her and Jim is of her standing in the background with a wry expression and huge dark glasses, Jim sitting in front of her looking angry. There's also one of her in profile at the Miami trial. That's it. 8) She claimed Jim said he was going to change his will to make her the beneficiary when he came back, not Pam. There's no evidence of this at all. Patricia also claimed she didn't want his money. 9) Patricia has written some sci-fi books, the Keltiad. One of them, "Blackmantle", is a fantasy story admittedly about her and Jim. In the story, she : murders all the Doors, Pamela, and any detractors in a gruesome way. Is part fairy. Saves Jim (aka "Morric Douglas" ) from the underworld. Rides a mythical horse. Pamela's character is a prostitute. Her and Morric are crowned king and queen. I know it's poetic license, but yikes..it's extremely disturbing to read knowing the backstory. Sci fi isn't my thing, but she is a decent writer..this book is just really, really bad. It reads like the revenge fantasies a teenager might have, only if the teenager were also a sociopath. 10) Patricia carried a tremendous amount of bitterness and hate. Hate towards Jim's fans ("doorzoids" and "pamheads" were the more charitable descriptives she uses) , Oliver Stone, various biographers of his, Pam and Jim's parents, Pamela (still), Val Kilmer, nameless posters on the internet, etc etc. She had a raging temper and need for vengeance that someone typically outgrows once they have some retro and introspection that comes with age. There's none of that. She claims to pray for Pamela , as if this negates everything else. It's confusing, I'll give her that.
I could wax on at length. I feel somewhat badly about it, as Patricia has passed away. Also, as I used to be one of the people that vehemently defended her. When I started to take a hard look at all the actual facts, not Patricia's account, it surfaces that: she and Jim likely spent less than 2 weeks actually together. He seemed to view her and treat her the same as he did his numerous other dalliances- Pam was the only one he treated differently. No one that "knew her then" has spoken out definitively in her defence or to verify anything, the closest I can think of being Kathleen Quinlan, who was her friend and described her as a Celtic historian (and she was), and Phyllis Curott, a now famous witch and lawyer who was friends with Patricia, but at the time of her death, said they had become estranged. No one from her coven has ever come out and said they were at the handfasting. No one she worked with talks about her relationship with Jim in the positive. She insists she could have gone to the courts and petitioned the wedding to be made legal, as the presiding Celtic Priest was also an ordained Presbyterian minister, and there were witnesses. As per her book's recall, there was her, Jim and the Priestess and Priest. To friends, she alluded to them being alone. I'm fairly sure she'd need a marriage license , 2 witnesses, and a legal marriage certificate in NY. The Presbyterian minister would also have to have his credentials current (and he very well may not have, unless his congregation knew nothing of him being a Witch, which is pretty odd.). The biggest standout to me was that suddenly she wanted to talk about making it legal, when before she was adamant she never wanted that.
Patricia once said she didn't want to be a Rock and Roll Ms. Haversham, living in the past with her Filmore East posters and memories of Jim. Sadly, I think that's pretty much exactly what happened. Whether she orchestrated a lie or came to believe one, I don't think she ever came to grips with reality. If she did, she played those cards close to her and didn't let on. I sincerely hope she has found peace at last.
This is what happened to me in the course of 20+ years of reading this book, learning more about The Doors/Jim Morrison in general, and having a Facebook/online acquaintanceship wth Patricia Kennealy (henceforth, "Patricia", for brevity.).
I became really fascinated with The Doors as a young teenager. I grew up with my Mom playing the music and always enjoyed it, but didn't get truly "into" it til I was older. I was born after Jim had died, so I, admittedly, remember nothing of the enigmatic 60's.
Like most people (I suspect) I was first "introduced" to Patricia via the Oliver Stone movie, "The Doors". I remember thinking she was cool (bear in mind, again, I was about 14) but there was something dark and creepy about her. Still, enough of an interesting character that I sought to know more.
I'm a voracious researcher by nature. In my late teens, I became interested in witchcraft, and when I discovered Jim Morrison's "wife" Patricia was a bona fide witch, well, I was thrilled and even more excited to find out that she'd written a book: "Strange Days", the book in question.
I was absolutely fascinated by this book as a young woman in my 20s. Patricia reminded me a lot of myself, and of the self I wanted to be: smart, independent, takes no crap, yet also loves fiercely and has a deep spirituality. The dizzying story of Patricia and Jim's relationship was, to me, as she had compared it to other famous couples: Tristan and Isolde, Heloise and Abelard. It's never a picture-perfect story , but an intense one, marked by portent, deep psychic connection, and trauma/tragedy. It was the sort of love most young girls swoon over, often not thinking about the terrible cost and horrors that go along with it.
Patricia is a journalist, an editor of a music magazine that grants her entry into the hollywood scene most people never get to see. She meets lots of famous people and their names are dropped throughout the memoir, somewhat understandably, given that this was her job. At age 22, she has a college degree and is independent, which was still somewhat rare for young women at the time. She's from an Irish Catholic background and grew up in New York, and has since embraced Celtic Pagan spirituality. She is incredibly well- read, a member of MENSA, and experiments with the drugs of her day, somewhat more temperately compared to rock and roll status quo. She also has an amazing wardrobe and speaks often of her long, "red setter coloured" hair and alludes to the fact she has a great body, in particular several references she makes about being large-breasted.
According to the story, Patricia meets Jim while he is staying in New York and she scores an interview with him for her magazine, Jazz and Pop. To make a long story short, sparks fly (literally), Patricia feels they've made a deep connection, and they agree to correspond. They exchange letters here and there, and Jim finally comes to NYC, to her apartment, and you can guess the rest.
Patricia describes in beautiful detail how Jim proposes to her, under a flowering tree in Central Park, to have a handfasting (traditional Pagan) wedding ceremony with her. She says it's perfect as she doesn't want a legal wedding, anyway. She's aware that Jim sees other women, and that he has one particular women he's been with a long time and keeps going back to, Pamela Courson, but she's convinced she and Jim connect on a different and deeper level.
About Pamela Courson..in the book, Patricia has little good to say about her except that she's extremely pretty (and photos from that time clearly show this is true), "by no means charmless", but also "parasitical", dumb, and a gold-digger whose only "job" is to be Jim's girlfriend, even down to the boutique he finances for her. Jim says they're not married and that he kind of feels responsible for her, but doesn't really love her.
After the very dramatic and beautiful handfasting, Patricia finds out she is pregnant, due to Jim throwing her diaphragm across the room like a frisbee, as she describes it. Jim is at his infamous trial in Miami for alleged obscenity and indecent exposure at the time. He tells her to come down and they'd talk. Patricia is adamant that she doesn't want a kid and never did.
This is where things take an odd turn. Jim is extremely cold about her pregnancy, saying if she has it,it will be her kid, and he won't be responsible for it, and deny paternity. Patricia mentions she could take it to court and Jim says he'd still deny it all and she'd just embarrass herself. (this was well before DNA paternity tests existed.). They get in a huge fight but begrudgingly make up..sort of, Jim promising to be there for the abortion and to pay for it. Jim keeps eluding her in Miami and she is struggling to get to meet with him in the first place.
Patricia finds out she's a week too late for the standard abortion procedure (this is in 1970), so has to wait til the 20th week for a saline procedure which renders her understandably hysterical. Jim's funds arrive in time to pay for the procedure (the only time she says she took money from him, and then,only because she couldn't afford it herself), but , not surprisingly at this point, Jim never shows up. She goes through an absolutely horrific experience she describes in detail, and sends Jim a telegram quoting one of his poems. He doesn't respond. He doesn't respond, either, to her long letter describing the abortion and the aftermath in detail.
She mentions one time finally reaching him by phone, she screams at him, but he stays remote, and she thinks he's with someone.
Jumping ahead, Patricia has to go to LA for work, and decides to stay with Doors publicist and her friend, Diane Gardiner. Diane's upstairs neighbour happens to be Pam. Patricia announces her arrival by fixing a note with a dagger whomped into Jim's desk at the Doors office. Jim says he will come by and meet her later.
Patricia gets stoned with Pamela and tells her about the abortion, their relationship, etc. Pam is pretty indifferent, she just feels sorry for Patricia. She says; "I never met one of Jim's girlfriends before" which kind of takes the wind out of Patricia's sails. Jim and Patricia sleep together on the floor that night, and Pam catches them.
Patricia is then staying with a friend in LA at a later time she calls Tiffany. Jim is acting like a prize asshole. She claims Tiffany goes after Jim despite knowing how Patricia loves him, and she responds by beating Tiffany seemingly within an inch of her life and throwing her down some stairs. (Seriously). Patricia leaves in a huff for New York. This is the last time she ever sees Jim alive, and , shortly afterwards, he leaves for Paris, where he will die that July.
The letters start up again, supposedly very affectionate. She claims he sends her heartbreaking letters pining for her, saying he's lonely, that he will be back in the fall to live with her in NYC and that he's only in Paris to finally break it off with Pamela. He claims they will get legally married on his return.
Patricia has a vision of Jim before he dies one night, and is completely , understandably wrecked when she learns of his death.
The book then goes towards the prologue in the beginning, with Patricia making a dramatic (long black veil and all) visit to Jim's grave, finding it paltry and sad.
The story continues with Patricia's account of her being asked by Oliver Stone to be a consultant on the movie, despite her having "put a curse" on previous attempts, she believes this is a good idea. She agrees to play a cameo role as the priestess that handfasts them in the movie, and meets Kathleen Quinlan who will play her. She adores Kathleen and her portrayal, and they remain friends. Patricia is horrified and furious when she sees the movie, saying it's not the Jim she knew, that her character is pretty unrecognizable and they cut the handfasting down to nothing. She's disgusted by Oliver and continues to hate him for it, seemingly forever.
Like I said, the first time I read it, I was in my early twenties. The 60's, the crazy love affair with a gorgeous rock star, all the literary references, Patricia's smart as a whip attitude and what I saw then as bravery and toughness really impressed me.
As it often happens with time and maturity, when I re read it later, I saw it in quite a different light. I also read Patricia's now-defunct website and blog, and it seemed that some things were out of order. Patricia was now blaming Pam for Jim's death and calling Pam a "junkie and a whore". She claims to have stacks of love letters, poetry, expensive gifts and jewellery from Jim and that she'll publish these things when the copyright statute runs out, that these prove her status as Jim's wife. In spite of my raising an eyebrow at some of Patricia's statements, I still gave her the benefit of the doubt, and to my delight, we became Facebook friends. She was smart, engaging, charming and witty.She refused to discuss Jim unless she brought him up herself, usually on his birthday or their anniversary.She seemed like a fascinating woman. I still think she is, may she rest in peace.But that doesn't change the fact that I think her perspective was rather skewed and whether she did it willingly or not, a lot of her claims don't really hold water.
One seemingly small thing that led me down the rabbit hole was how she always talked about her long, red hair that Jim loved. All her past photos are in black and white, except one, where she claims to have dyed her hair, and she tells Jim she had dyed her hair in her book as well- once. Patricia mentions a panel she was on called "Critique" at the time she knew Jim. A color video of this surfaced and Patricia's hair was decidedly dark brown, not in the least red. At all. Hmm. It was not at all retouched or colourized and was definitely the same panel she described in the book.
Numerous people, including "Tiffany" (really, Janet Irwin) wrote articles and were quoted as saying things such as: she knew Jim hadn't taken the handfasting seriously. She stalked Jim while in LA, leaving a huge valentine that was a pic of herself and Jim's high school girlfriend, under his windshield wipers, among other things to "make him crazy". She wasn't entirely sure the baby was his, and wanted to get pregnant again by him. She had long dark brown hair. She basically "tapped" Janet on the back during the so called ".fight" Jim was not happy to see her in Miami or LA, in the least. His bodyguard said " no one could stand the bitch (speaking of Patricia)". Ray Manzarek wrote her off as crazy. Jim's friends, at best, said she was never mentioned (something she claimed was just how Jim handled his life.) . One or two "sour grapes" accounts I could understand, but when piles of people keep saying these similar things, you start to see who the common denominator is. One of the biggest smoking guns was Victoria Balfour's book, "Rock Wives". Patricia, in the book, says Jim likely didn't take the handfasting seriously at all, the whole narrative surrounding the proposal is different, and she clearly says she'd never put up with Jim today as you never knew where you were with him. Patricia claimed Victoria got it all wrong, and according to Victoria, left her threatening messages when the book came out. Victoria was baffled as it was all verbatim, and said she'd met Patricia briefly through a mutual friend and she seemed odd and very sad. That she seemed stuck in the past.
There were glimpses that the detractors may be on to something when interacting with Patricia via Facebook. She had intricate rules for how to interact with her, such as not using certain words, having proper grammar, not tagging her in anything, not ever mentioning Jim, etc . She could be scathing and nasty to people that she disagreed with, and absolutely lovely to most of her friends, as confirmed by those that met her in person. I honestly enjoyed interacting with her, which made it all the more difficult for me to admit that I wasn't entirely buying her story, for these reasons: 1) the narrative kept changing. 2) Her letters, poems, etc were never published, not even (so far) after her death. 3) She claimed she and Jim would have been legally married and he was coming "home" to her in NYC after he broke it off with Pamela-after insisting before she never wanted a legal marriage. I've seen pics and footage and heard accounts of Jim in Paris- he hardly seemed like he was on the brink of dumping Pamela and most said he was quite content there with no plans of leaving. 4) How Jim's attitude toward her went a full 360 from being deeply in love with her at the handfasting to turning into an entirely different person when she announced her pregnancy (not unheard of, especially for Morrison, but it was as if we were seeing a glimpse of how things really were by his reaction). 5) She had, for years, said the alcohol addiction Jim had killed him. Then, it turned into a vicious campaign painting Pamela as a murderer. 6) She claims no one had really heard of Pamela, and that Pamela was unfailingly dumb. Every single Doors memorialist and even those that vaguely knew Jim knew of Pamela. Most described her as sweet, funny, and with a fierce temper that matched Jim's own, as well as a sense of adventure. There are tons of photos of them together. Pam is the only constant among 100s of women Jim was with. Most say that while she may not have been an intellectual, she was far from dumb and quite bright, and Jim providing for her wasn't odd in the 60's- and they were together long before he made any money. Everyone I read of ,except Patricia, really liked Pamela. There's zero evidence she was ever a "whore" after Jim's death as Patricia claims. Even if she was, that should give way to sympathy, not hate. 7) Some very odd and disturbing details came about in Patricia's interviews/postings: she kept some of the mattress and sheets Jim slept on and still had them. (cue the "Psycho" theme). She had fan art of pictures if her and Jim spliced together and had a friend make an answering machine message for her featuring his voice. (when before she said she couldn't listen to his voice for 20 years, too painful). She posted pics of his youth and during his fame that anyone can get on the internet as if they were a personal scrapbook. The one photo that exists of her and Jim is of her standing in the background with a wry expression and huge dark glasses, Jim sitting in front of her looking angry. There's also one of her in profile at the Miami trial. That's it. 8) She claimed Jim said he was going to change his will to make her the beneficiary when he came back, not Pam. There's no evidence of this at all. Patricia also claimed she didn't want his money. 9) Patricia has written some sci-fi books, the Keltiad. One of them, "Blackmantle", is a fantasy story admittedly about her and Jim. In the story, she : murders all the Doors, Pamela, and any detractors in a gruesome way. Is part fairy. Saves Jim (aka "Morric Douglas" ) from the underworld. Rides a mythical horse. Pamela's character is a prostitute. Her and Morric are crowned king and queen. I know it's poetic license, but yikes..it's extremely disturbing to read knowing the backstory. Sci fi isn't my thing, but she is a decent writer..this book is just really, really bad. It reads like the revenge fantasies a teenager might have, only if the teenager were also a sociopath. 10) Patricia carried a tremendous amount of bitterness and hate. Hate towards Jim's fans ("doorzoids" and "pamheads" were the more charitable descriptives she uses) , Oliver Stone, various biographers of his, Pam and Jim's parents, Pamela (still), Val Kilmer, nameless posters on the internet, etc etc. She had a raging temper and need for vengeance that someone typically outgrows once they have some retro and introspection that comes with age. There's none of that. She claims to pray for Pamela , as if this negates everything else. It's confusing, I'll give her that.
I could wax on at length. I feel somewhat badly about it, as Patricia has passed away. Also, as I used to be one of the people that vehemently defended her. When I started to take a hard look at all the actual facts, not Patricia's account, it surfaces that: she and Jim likely spent less than 2 weeks actually together. He seemed to view her and treat her the same as he did his numerous other dalliances- Pam was the only one he treated differently. No one that "knew her then" has spoken out definitively in her defence or to verify anything, the closest I can think of being Kathleen Quinlan, who was her friend and described her as a Celtic historian (and she was), and Phyllis Curott, a now famous witch and lawyer who was friends with Patricia, but at the time of her death, said they had become estranged. No one from her coven has ever come out and said they were at the handfasting. No one she worked with talks about her relationship with Jim in the positive. She insists she could have gone to the courts and petitioned the wedding to be made legal, as the presiding Celtic Priest was also an ordained Presbyterian minister, and there were witnesses. As per her book's recall, there was her, Jim and the Priestess and Priest. To friends, she alluded to them being alone. I'm fairly sure she'd need a marriage license , 2 witnesses, and a legal marriage certificate in NY. The Presbyterian minister would also have to have his credentials current (and he very well may not have, unless his congregation knew nothing of him being a Witch, which is pretty odd.). The biggest standout to me was that suddenly she wanted to talk about making it legal, when before she was adamant she never wanted that.
Patricia once said she didn't want to be a Rock and Roll Ms. Haversham, living in the past with her Filmore East posters and memories of Jim. Sadly, I think that's pretty much exactly what happened. Whether she orchestrated a lie or came to believe one, I don't think she ever came to grips with reality. If she did, she played those cards close to her and didn't let on. I sincerely hope she has found peace at last.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2022
This is an astounding tale of what I am going to call “hysterical historical fiction”. None of the following things make sense: 1) the in-depth dialogue between her and Jim throughout the book; 2) her version of Jim vs. everyone else’s during the same time period (somehow I doubt Jim stayed sober and stayed in every night that he was with her to watch television); 3) the amount of sex she claims to have been having with him throughout the supposed “relationship” and the fact that he only time he couldn’t perform with her was right before he went to Paris and died; 4) is she a witch or Catholic? Why did she suddenly try to have a Catholic priest conduct a “funeral”? Why did she think she had to “send Jim on after his death” because no one else bothered to do it and exactly how did she do this?! 5) the rings 6) the claim that he was always taking her shopping and buying her expensive stuff without naming any of these things; 7) her blaming Jim for her decision to cancel an early abortion and then have a late stage abortion and being forced to sign a death certificate (thank YOU for helping me decide where my pro-choice limit is!) 8) her admission of a lengthy assault of a friend that she was staying with b/c the friend was allegedly trying to hookup with Jim in front of her face; 9) that she caused a CA earthquake; 10) changing your name to take the name of a dead man who never agreed to give it to you; 11) being totally cool about allegedly staying in Pam’s apartment with Jim for a week or more after Pam left for Paris; 12) that she only got pregnant because Jim insisted on taking her diaphragm out once before and once after the abortion (gross and unsexy in every way); 13) her extreme judgment of everyone else’s use of substances while freely admitting to her own; 14) why she went to Miami; 15) how there were no witnesses whatsoever to the “hand fasting” and Jim’s supposed desire to marry her. And I could go on.
September 29, 2013
I'm really enjoyed about this book:
- it's well written,
- Patricia Kennealy-Morrison is a very intelligent and sensitive woman,
- I 100% agree with many author's opinions (especially section Q&A).
No one can judge if the story is all true or not, we weren't there! But it's a great story and I can feel the passion, the doubts, the pain ... but above all the strong love of two young people that lived those "strange days".
Thank you Patricia, great work ;)
- it's well written,
- Patricia Kennealy-Morrison is a very intelligent and sensitive woman,
- I 100% agree with many author's opinions (especially section Q&A).
No one can judge if the story is all true or not, we weren't there! But it's a great story and I can feel the passion, the doubts, the pain ... but above all the strong love of two young people that lived those "strange days".
Thank you Patricia, great work ;)
April 6, 2017
1st Read: August 30, 1994 - September 7, 1994 (**** Rating)
I thought this was an interesting story about Jim Morrison from her perspective. Like any new story about the man, I label it as, "the best story so far", until the next book comes along. This was a good read, despite how deranged and psychotic people have judged her to be. Maybe she is, so what. In reality, none of us were there. This is her story, no matter how unbelievable it may be.
2nd Read: March 27, 2017 - April 3, 2017 (**** Rating)
I still believe this to be a truth that Patricia knows of the Jim Morrison she loves to this day. No holds barred in this book and that reinforces the truthfulness. For me, anyway.
For nearly thirty years or more, I've been a Doors fan and particularly, of Jim. I like to believe I honor James Douglas Morrison by forever learning, writing and not always having the answers, but instead to question everything.
I thought this was an interesting story about Jim Morrison from her perspective. Like any new story about the man, I label it as, "the best story so far", until the next book comes along. This was a good read, despite how deranged and psychotic people have judged her to be. Maybe she is, so what. In reality, none of us were there. This is her story, no matter how unbelievable it may be.
2nd Read: March 27, 2017 - April 3, 2017 (**** Rating)
I still believe this to be a truth that Patricia knows of the Jim Morrison she loves to this day. No holds barred in this book and that reinforces the truthfulness. For me, anyway.
For nearly thirty years or more, I've been a Doors fan and particularly, of Jim. I like to believe I honor James Douglas Morrison by forever learning, writing and not always having the answers, but instead to question everything.
August 11, 2021
An interesting read, but certainly a stretching of the truth (if any) to suit the author's agenda. Kennealy comes across as attention seeking and unstable (she is very proud that she wears a t shirt that says "I f**ked Jim Morrison" to the set of The Doors movie). Content warning: This book contains a horrific account of the author's abortion, supposedly pregnant with Jim Morrison's child. Pass on this and read something more reliable/factual.
June 30, 2009
If you loved the Doors, and/or Jim Morrison, or are just fascinated with that era in general, this book is a must-read. Ms. Kennealy-Morrison offers us a look at the man, his life and his writings from a very rare perspective, that of a trusted love, an integral part of his life, a mate, a wife in the sense that goes far beyond any legal union.
April 20, 2014
I enjoyed this book as I always felt that Jim had many sides to him. I think that his love for Patricia was just as strong as his love for Pam. Each woman brought out different things in Jim. I commend Patricia for telling her story. It really was time to hear her side of what happen with Jim. Her insight on the Oliver Stone film was interesting as well.
May 28, 2015
I read this book because I'm a fan of Patricia, and was long before I knew of her connection to Jim Morrison. It's her story, not anyone else's, and she tells it in an intelligent, no-holds-barred account. If you're looking for validation for your deeply-held views of Morrison, look elsewhere. If you want to know Patricia's story, and her point of view, be prepared to have your mind opened.
March 2, 2007
i love patricia kennealy- a celtic pisces witch who married jim morrison in a handfasting ceremony. this book was excellent and she totally trashes pam courson.
January 1, 2009
A great account of Jim from a woman who truly loved him, and one who is deeply intelligent and compassionate. I loved it and got a real glimpse of the man from the heart as well as the intellect.
June 19, 2013
An interesting look at an enigma through the eyes of the woman who loved him and claims to have married him in a Wiccan handfasting ceremony.
November 11, 2009
Thought this was a really interesting look at Jim Morrison's life told from a person who knew another side of him. As everyone does....
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