Big companies would pay a fortune to use Doors’ songs in their adverts. But Jim Morrison swore that the band would never sell out, and drummer John Densmore is determined to keep the singer’s spirit alive
John Densmore
Guardian
Monday August 12, 2002
Dread ripples through me as I listen to a phone message from our manager, saying that we (the Doors) have another offer of huge amounts of money if we would just allow one of our songs to be used as the background for a commercial. They don’t give up! I guess it is hard to imagine that somebody doesn’t have a price.
Apple called – they already had the audacity to spend money to cut When the Music’s Over into an advert for their new cube computer software. They want to air it the following weekend, and will give us $1.5m (£985,000). Apple is a pretty hip company… we use computers… dammit! Why did Jim (Morrison) have to have such integrity?
I’m pretty clear that we shouldn’t do it. We don’t need the money. But I get such pressure from one particular bandmate (the one who wears glasses and plays keyboards).
“Commercials will give us more exposure,” he says. I ask him: “So you’re not for it because of the money?” He says “no”, but his first question is always, “How much?”, when we get one of these offers, and he always says that he’s for it. He never suggests that we play Robin Hood, either. If I learned anything from Jim, it’s respect for what we created. I have to pass. Thank God that back in 1965, Jim said that we should split everything, and everyone has veto power. Of course, every time I pass, they double the offer.
It all started in 1967, when Buick offered $75,000 to use Light My Fire to hawk its new, hot little offering – the Opel. As the story goes, Ray, Robby and I agreed to it while Jim was out of town. He came back and went nuts. In retrospect, his calling up Buick and saying that if they aired the ad, he would smash an Opel on television with a sledgehammer, was fantastic. I guess that is one of the reasons why I miss the guy.
Whoa! Here comes another one: “Dear John Densmore, This letter is an offer of up to $1m for your celebrity endorsement of our product. We have the best weight-loss, diet and exercise programme, far better than anything on the market. The problem is that the celebrity must be overweight. Then the celebrity must use our product for four weeks, which will take off up to 20 pounds of their excess body fat. If your endorsement works in the focus-group tests, you will immediately get $10,000 up front and more money will start rolling in every month after that – up to $1m or more.” Wow! Let’s see… I’ve weighed 130 pounds for 35 years (since my 20s)… I’ll have to gain quite a bit… sort of like a De Niro thing… he gained 50 pounds for Raging Bull – and won an Oscar. I’m an artist, too, like him…
We used to build our cities and towns around churches. Now banks are at their centres. The dollar is almighty, and ads are as cool as the coolest rock videos. Why did Jim have to say we were “erotic politicians”? If I had been the drummer for the Grassroots, it probably wouldn’t have cut me to the core when I heard John Lennon’s Revolution selling tennis shoes… and Nikes, to boot. That song was the soundtrack to part of my youth, when the streets were filled with passionate citizens expressing their first amendment right to free speech. Hey, the streets are filled again. And they’re protesting about what I’m waxing on about here: corporate greed.
Other impeccable English artists are falling prey as well. Pete Townshend keeps fooling us again, selling Who songs to yuppies hungry for SUVs. I hope Sting has given those shaman chiefs he hangs out with from the rainforest a ride in the back of that Jag he’s advertising, because as beautiful as the burlwood interiors are, the car – named after an animal possibly facing extinction – is a gas-guzzler.
TBC
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