Top 55 John Densmore Quotes

The fossil fuel industry has made advocating alternative energy sources a liberal/conservative thing, and an ideological battle, when it should really be about a healthier, less toxic world.

Every new generation seems to have to go through its Doors rite of passage.

Jim Morrison wrote the words for ‘Hello, I Love You’ when we were still in a band called Rick & the Ravens.

One has to be always be on guard, because mega-success comes up behind you when you’re high from all the attention, and sucks the vitality out of one’s creativity.

In the 1950s, my family first lived in West Los Angeles. Dad was studying architecture at USC and we didn’t have a lot of money. He’d buy crumbling fixer-uppers, make repairs and sell them for a small profit. Then we’d move on. My early childhood image of him is standing on a ladder and sanding the front door.

Certainly, we are all on the shoulders of those who fought for our country. But the first peoples of this land justifiably might feel bitterness.

The Doors are etched on my forehead and always will be.

You know, another jazz drummer, Ed Thigpen, who played with Oscar Peterson way back – it was the first time I ever heard rivets in a cymbal. And then I heard that Chico Hamilton had them too, and I went, ‘Oh, that’s it. I’m taking that for my sound.’ And it worked well on ‘Riders On The Storm,’ so that’s one thing.

I knew Jim was going down, but was very pleased that somehow, despite his self-destruction, when we rehearsed, wrote songs and recorded, he showed up. He pulled it together.

Sound is everything to a musician.

I like to drum for various theatrical things.

In my old age, I’ve learned that if I put the right cymbal crash in the very right spot, exactly, it can be as powerful as all my showoff drum rolls in my 20s.

The Doors are Ray, Robby, Jim and John.

When I was in my 20s I went through my testosterone phase and had a Mercedes to show that I’m rich, and they used to call me ‘Jaguar John.’ I’m older now, and I’m concerned about the environment and… appreciate a car that doesn’t pollute.

The Stones without Mick. The Police without Sting. The Doors without Jim. It doesn’t work.

I grew up listening to my parents’ albums. Many of them were either classical – Bach, Beethoven and Brahms – or easy listening, like Mantovani. I loved the spectrum of emotions in classical music, from fortissimo to pianissimo. My early passion for classical made my drumming more musical later on.

I stumbled onto Peggy Feury in the ’80s. I recognized her brilliance immediately; it took her awhile to recognize mine.

When I do a press roll, I use the traditional grip. Sometimes I flip it around; for a louder crack on the two and four, I use the new grip.

In the ’60s, the Sunset Strip became insane. The sidewalks and the traffic were jammed. It was a renaissance.

We were not folk-rock. We would scare people.

The one constant thread through my life so far is that I have been constantly fed and nourished by music.

We drummers all know that our mother’s heartbeat was the first instrument we heard. As a race, we’ve all been trying to get back to that womb. That’s why rhythm makes us move… dance.

Legislating morality doesn’t work (see: Prohibition). It produced the Mafia.

The whole world is hopefully heading toward democracy.

Writing is looking for music between sentences.

I’m not the fastest drummer in the world, but I’m very into dynamics and knowing that there’s space in between the notes and you got to breathe.

I had the first XJ6 and then they became real popular with lawyers so I had to move on. The only problem with Jaguar is that you have to go to the gas station every couple blocks, and a mechanic once told me that if you don’t have the right attitude when you walk up to a Jag, it won’t start.

I am of the Vietnam generation; therefore, I feel mistrustful of the military.

Anyone can play Doors songs, unless it’s for an ad for some product.

First of all, Turtle Island is the name of this continent we live on… that’s right, not ‘America… as in North America,’ but the name given by the first peoples of this land.

I do think if we had a draft again, the United States would embark on fewer wars.

Well, I’ve discovered that I really like writing, and I feel that I’m good at it.

I like connecting new synapses. Like Jim Morrison did.

Some genres of rock ‘n’ roll attract more of the party animals. I guess the Stones partied a bit. I think The Doors were more like The Beatles backstage – friends hanging out and whatever. It wasn’t crazy. Everything was pretty subdued.

Sometimes I’ll be in an elevator and I’ll hear a corny instrumental version of ‘Light My Fire.’

Eddie Vedder? My God, there’s a singer.

If you surrender to the communal vision, sometimes, certainly in our case, you become more than the sum of your parts.

It’s your inner life that’s the most important.

I sometimes joke that I’m half Jewish, because I was raised Catholic… and we share ‘the guilt.’

Painters ‘see’ the world; musicians ‘hear’ it.

Ulcers come from not dealing with something.

Ravi Shankar was an incredible teacher. I sat on stage with Robby Krieger and studied at his school of Indian music here in L.A., so at Royce Hall we were sitting next to him watching his hands bleed while he got possessed. This is the highest level you can get.

In the end, I have a nice house and groovy cars, and so do my bandmates. It’s not like they’re starving.

Why is there such passion for any sort of gossipy, provocative sensual stuff? It sells!

Robby had a flamenco and folk music background. I was so enamored with watching Robby’s fingers crawl across the flamenco guitar strings like a crab.

We used to build our cities and towns around churches. Now banks are at the centers of our densely populated areas.

Some kids went to the movies for escape. We found it with jazz. This is where we got religion. It was a kind of raw spiritual anarchy.

I’m not against a new band doing commercials to pay the rent.

I used to say, if Jim were alive today he’d never be clean and sober but I’m changing that answer because Eminem – angry, creative, just like Jim; a real talent – and Clapton, of course. It’s a different time so he would have learned something, I think, but I don’t protect what he did.

When Dudamel is up on the podium, he truly is ‘inside’ the music. It courses in his veins, mixing with his blood.

Yes, the ’60s went too far, but we were trying to find new ways, better ways, to do things. And great seeds were planted: civil rights, the peace movement, the environmental movement, feminism. They’re big seeds. They take a long time to come to fruition. Please, let’s stop fighting, and get out our water cans.

I like myself being a survivor.

The ’50s were so lame they produced the ’60s!

I got Cs in English at school. I hated it. But now I want to be a writer and I’m voracious for new vocabulary and new ideas.

I don’t like totally free jazz, unless it’s done by somebody like Coltrane, who did bebop and cool jazz, so he was allowed to go out there.