In hindsight, it seems obvious that there were no true replacements for the Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison following his tragic death in 1971. But for the surviving members of the Los Angeles rock band who had depended on the group for their livelihood and creative outlet, they felt compelled to at least try going on without him.
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The list of potential musicians the remaining Doors members had compiled as possible Morrison replacements is quite the star-studded affair. And while history would show that none of these possible stand-ins made the cut, it’s fascinating to imagine what rock music would have looked like had this wish list actually panned out.
The Doors Made a List of Possible Jim Morrison Replacements
As was the case for the most ubiquitous members of the infamous 27 Club, Jim Morrison and his band, the Doors, were at the height of their fame when the tempestuous lead singer died, officially of heart failure, in his Paris apartment in the summer of 1971. Morrison left for France in the middle of the preparation for Other Voices, the band’s follow-up to L.A. Woman. The rest of the Doors assumed his departure would be temporary until, of course, it wasn’t. Following his death, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore faced down an imposing question: how, if at all, will the Doors go on?
In a 1998 interview promoting his memoir, My Life with the Doors, keyboardist Manzarek confirmed they had a running list of potential replacements who could fill Morrison’s frontman role. The musicians were unafraid of swinging for the fences, adding notable musical giants like Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney of the Beatles to their list of possible new additions. While either option seems almost unfeasible today, it’s important to note the time that this transition was taking place. By 1971, the Beatles were effectively over. The Stones were still kicking, but perhaps the Doors thought Jagger would be in the mood for something different.
Ultimately, none of these superstar replacements panned out. The Doors continued without Morrison, with Krieger and Manzarek taking over vocal responsibilities. But something was lost without their original, tortured, trouble-making poet, and the band failed to replicate the success they had enjoyed up until Morrison’s death. The band officially broke up two years later in 1973 before reuniting in 1978 for An American Prayer, which featured the band playing instrumental accompaniment to Morrison’s spoken word poetry.
One Substitute Made More Sense Than The Rest Of Them
In addition to musical heroes like the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and the Beatles’ Paul McCartney, the Doors also briefly considered Iggy Pop to take over Jim Morrison’s frontman role. Out of everyone on their list of possible substitutes, Pop made the most sense. It was, after all, Morrison himself who inspired Pop to adopt his signature raucous stage persona. Pop had been in the audience at a particularly disastrous University of Michigan homecoming concert in 1967, during which Morrison was so belligerently drunk that he began berating and cussing at the audience.
“I was very excited,” Pop would later say, per Louder Sound. “I loved the antagonism; I loved that he was p***ing them off. Yes, yes, yes. It made a big impression on me. I thought, look how awful they are, and they’ve got the number one single in the country! If this guy can do it, I can do it. And I gotta do it now. I can’t wait any longer.”
Having Pop take up Morrison’s mantle would have been a poetic continuation of the rock ‘n’ roll cycle. But Pop wasn’t interested. With the exception of singing “Riders on the Storm” at Morrison’s memorial service, he had no interest in donning the skin of his dead idol. “I never had any interest in being that guy,” Pop said in Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell. “Basically, I really like the music. But I never had an unnatural, morbid fascination with that guy. He just did some great stuff that I was checking out. He was big for me. But I’m really not into all the rest of that stuff.”
Photo by Alan Messer/Shutterstock
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