Making connections in the music industry is a delicate dance that can oscillate between being too complimentary and brown-nosing to being too arrogant and smug, the latter of which described a cantankerous rock icon who snubbed folk duo Simon & Garfunkel while performing with them in 1967. Unfortunately for the bandmates of this indignant rock icon, their association with their frontman inherently linked them to his behavior.
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That’s probably why, decades later, one of those bandmates still felt the need to apologize to Paul Simon.
This Rock Icon Snubbed Simon & Garfunkel At Late 1960s Show
The late 1960s were an interesting time in popular music. Rock ‘n’ roll was certainly riding high in the charts, but the folk revival was going strong, too. These seemingly opposing genres often went hand-in-hand onstage as concert promoters and record labels tried to capitalize on as big of an audience as they could. This clever promotional technique is ultimately how the Doors landed an opening slot for Simon & Garfunkel, a popular folk act that really didn’t sound anything like the L.A. rock band.
The Doors opened for Simon & Garfunkel on August 12, 1967, in Forest Hills, New York. “Ten thousand people!” Doors drummer John Densmore wrote in his book, Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors. “You could feel our nervousness backstage when Paul came in to wish us luck. He was very friendly. I don’t know whether it was nervousness, or just that Jim hated folk music, but he gave Simon the worst vibes, in short of saying, ‘Get the f*** out of our dressing room.’”
“Then we went out onstage, and Jim didn’t give an inch,” Densmore continued. “He didn’t try to connect to the audience in any way. At the end of our set, during the “Father, I want to kill you” section, Jim put all the bottled-up hatred and rage and whatever was bothering him into slamming the mike down and screaming. It lasted about one minute. The audience woke up a bit and started thinking about what they were seeing. After intermission, Paul and Artie [Garfunkel] walked out onstage to thunderous applause.”
John Densmore Apologized For Jim Morrison Decades Later
As anyone who has been in a band can attest, what one bandmate does inevitably affects the rest of the group by association. So, even though Jim Morrison was the only member of the Doors being outwardly rude to Paul Simon, the rest of the band felt a sense of responsibility for their bandmate’s actions. This is likely why, fifty years after the incident (and, for that matter, Morrison’s untimely death), drummer John Densmore felt compelled to apologize to Simon on behalf of his late colleague.
During an appearance on the It’s Only Rock and Roll podcast, Densmore recalled seeing Simon perform in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2016. After the show, the drummer went backstage to talk to Simon. Densmore told Simon, “The last time I saw you was at Forest Hills with Artie, and we opened for you. And I have to say, I gotta apologize fifty years later at how rude Jim was to you. Paul says, ‘I remember that!’”
“Then, we sort of figured out that maybe Jim was insecure or something, you know. But that was a funny story and kind of healing. He accepted my apology,” Densmore laughed. It just goes to show: when it comes to apologies, it’s better late than never.
Photo by David Redfern/Redferns
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