Born on December 8th 1943 in Florida, in a traditional and rather uptight family (his father was in the army), he was the least likely candidate for being a world famous rock star. Jim Morrison was actually a quiet child, with good and the remarcable school results, and later his IQ was measured to be around 146. In his highschool and college years he was a voracious reader, passionate about art (mainly paintings) and philosophy, interested in movies and also directing (he would make two shorts in that period), and often would put to shame his teachers with the authors and books that he quoted. Jim Morrison was also a rather gifted artist and in the beginning was drawn to the idea of becoming a graphic artist, even if his first drawings were rather macabre. Fortunatelly for music he would abandon this idea rather quickly.
Later he would mesmerize his audience on stage, with his charisma and voice, but at the very first The Doors gigs, mainly in pubs, Morrison was so shy that he sang with his back turned to the audience. A shocking change for sure, from Jim to the Lizard King.
He used the name of Lizard King and also Mr Mojo Risin during his fame years. Morrison even thought about using the name of James Phoenix on stage. But Ray Manzarek was against it, even horrified by the simple idea, so Lizard King it was.
Even if he wasn't really into cars, he had a small 1967 Shelby GT 500 Ford Mustang, which he liked and nick-named The Blue Lady.
Much to the band's surprise, Morrison turned down the chance of playing at the legendary Woodstock, in no small part due to his distaste for such an event, but mainly because he was sure that somebody would try to shoot him down while he was on stage.
After leaving The Doors Morrison left for Paris, where he would die at just 27 years of age. In the last part of his life, angry at his former band mates, he wanted to do a solo LP or more. But Morrison was thinking more and more about a literary career, maybe as a new and original poet.
The last album recorded together with The Doors was L.A. Woman.
He died on July 3rd 1971 in Paris and the sudden demise started a whole array of conspiracy theories.
Photo: wikipedia.org
