What Made Columbia Drop The Doors Like a “Hot Potato,” According to Guitarist Robbie Krieger

The romanticization of drugs in the rock ‘n’ roll world has almost always led to conflict, strife, and in some cases, tragedy. The Doors would experience the first two consequences in the mid-1960s. By 1971, they had experienced all three.

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But first, the conflict and strife.

How Drugs Impeded The Doors’ First Record Deal With Columbia

The relationship between an artist and a record label is a tenuous one at best. Record labels are, at their core, money-making businesses. If an artist doesn’t help reach that goal—or, worse, straight-up hampers it—then the label is liable to drop the artist from its roster. Such was the case for The Doors, who had just developed a working relationship with Columbia Records.

As The Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger recalled to Uncut decades later, LSD, a psychedelic drug also known by its nickname, acid, was what “screwed up our development deal with Columbia. They used to have a monthly meeting where they’d decide who to get rid of and who to keep. The guy who signed us was Billy James, who signed Dylan, and he was going to the meeting. Jim said, ‘Hey, can I go, too?’”

James agreed, but that’s likely because he didn’t know Morrison had just taken “probably 10,000 micrograms of acid,” Krieger explained. “After that meeting, we were dropped like a hot potato.” Although Krieger admitted that the whole band was into acid, “especially when we first started,” it was, unsurprisingly, the notoriously raucous behavior of Morrison that proved professionally damaging to the band.

There Was a Silver Lining for the Band, Until There Wasn’t

Fresh from getting booted from Columbia, The Doors eventually struck a deal with the then-small label, Elektra. Both entities would help the other achieve greater fame and success. Eventually, Elektra was no longer a small label. The Doors were one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Sadly, drugs harder than acid would play yet another role in damaging The Doors’ success. This time, in a far more tragic way.

In 1971, Morrison was living in Paris, taking a break from the States and The Doors. His girlfriend, Pam Courson, found the rock ‘n’ roll singer dead in the bathtub of his Parisian apartment in the early hours of July 3, 1971. No autopsy was performed. So, no official cause of death was determined. Still, many believe Morrison died of an accidental drug overdose. This theory would fall in line with other members of the infamous 27 Club, which included several other rock stars of that era who died from overdosing on drugs or alcohol or both.

Photo by Electra Records/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images