The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison Book

Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors, has achieved a bizarre cult status since his death in 1971. Morrison was, and is, one of the most popular and controversial figures to emerge during the sixties. He was described as an erotic politician, poet, shaman, and Dionysian debaucher, and his style and influence have grown steadily in the decades since his death, so that the real man has gradually disappeared behind the legend. Now in The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison, Morrison's biographer Jerry Hopkins, coauthor of No One Here Gets Out Alive, reassesses the rock idol's life; his extensive new research provides fresh insights into Morrison as a human being rather than the mythical beast some say he was. But this reappraisal is only part of this remarkable book. At its heart Jim Morrison speaks. In a series of interviews with Morrison, carried out by journalists including Jerry Hopkins himself, Ben Fong-Torres, John Tobler, Bob Chorush, Salli Stevenson, Richard Goldstein, and the late John Carpenter, Morrison shows himself to be articulate, intelligent, and witty. Published uncut, these interviews provide a unique insight into a man whom Jerry Hopkins reveals as a clever boy from a middle-class background who consciously created his own myth, then lived to regret it. Separating the facts from the fantasies regarding Jim's death in Paris in 1971, Hopkins solves the mystery of Morrison's death and takes a long, hard look at what has happened since to the people Jim Morrison left behind. The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison brings sharply into focus the broken dreams and unattainable ideals of one of the sixties' most enduring icons.