For decades, the late-Ray Manzarek always hinted that Doors frontman Jim Morrison might still be alive. As the myth surrounding the band's “Lizard King” only grew due to a steady influx of books, new releases, and movies, many fans took to believing that Morrison — who died at the age of 27 in 1971 — possibly faked his death in Paris.
Robby Krieger, who wrote such legendary Doors tunes as “Light My Fire,” “Love Me Two Times,” “Touch Me,” and “Love Her Madly,” revealed that both he and John Densmore were never happy with Manzarek playing the public with such a serious issue as Morrison's death. Krieger told Classic Rock magazine, “Ray became kind of the spokesman of the Doors, all the stuff he used to say about trying to make it like Jim wasn’t dead and stuff. It was kind of creepy, because he was obviously just doing it to try to keep the sales up or something. I think that’s what John was thinking. But after really talking about it with Ray, he just loved the Doors and he didn’t want people to forget. Maybe he went too far.”
Regarding the possibility that Manzarek actually believed that Jim Morrison was truly alive, Krieger said, “That was pretty much bulls***. Yeah, he didn’t have to do that, and that I think really got him and John in a bad (way).”