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Artist News
Doors drummer hoping for live reunion with surviving bandmate
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 21 June 2013
Doors drummer John Densmore has not performed live with his former bandmates since the 1970s, and spent much of the last decade in legal battles over keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger’s attempts to perform under the Doors name. However, following the death of Manzarek earlier this year, he’s now softened his attitude to playing the band’s songs live.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Densmore explained: “I said to Robby a few weeks ago in an email: ‘Let’s have our musical reunion for Ray. Let’s play some Doors songs at the Whisky [A Go Go] or Wiltern – there’s a lot of great musicians in LA that we know and love and admire the band. I’d like to break the ice that way’. It should happen pretty soon”.
Densmore did already reunite with Manzarek and Krieger last year, when the trio worked on a new recording with Skrillex.
Of that, Densmore said: “That was fun. At first, I was like, drum machines? When drum machines were first invented, Ringo said, ‘I’m the drum machine!’ We pride ourselves on the groove. But I was into electronic music in high school – Stockhausen, Stravinsky, Schoenberg. I met [Skrillex] and he’s a musician and plays guitar and piano. I needed to hear the stuff before I committed. It’s got to feel right, and it did. In fact, I called him a month or two ago, and said, ‘I’ve got a beat that I think would fit with you'”.
