John Densmore

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

“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.”

“You hear a Willie Nelson solo, he doesn't play real fast, but it's so melodic and beautiful. It's kind of, to be human is to have space and not show all your stuff all the time.”

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

“In the '50s, West L.A. was like Kansas.”

“I like driving at least a part-time electric car because there's nothing coming out of the tailpipe. That's very important to me.”

“I had no clue of Hollywood until I became a teenager. Then I got a fake ID in Tijuana and discovered Shelly's Manne-Hole, on Cahuenga and Selma, where I saw John Coltrane and his piano player, McCoy Tyner, and Elvin Jones, the drummer - my idol.”

“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.”

“Even though the white-haired politician has no colorful wardrobe, after he speaks... you want to hug him. Why? Because what Bernie Sanders says feels like the truth. The unbridled truth. And he says it loud.”

“Painters 'see' the world; musicians 'hear' it.”

“A major component of jazz is improvisation, which forces you to stay in the moment because you never know what will be coming up. There's a lot of freedom and space available as you improvise around the chord changes.”

“Most of what is said by candidates on the right is half-baked truths and fabrications coated in 'patriotism or family values.'”

“I'm not against a new band doing commercials to pay the rent.”

“President Obama should pardon Leonard Peltier, or at least commute his sentence, not just for humanitarian reasons, but also as a way of acknowledging the injustice suffered by Native Americans.”

“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.”

“Jim had a spirit that was incapable of compromise.”

“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 whole world is hopefully heading toward democracy.”

“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 really wanted to be in Love - they were making it. But I was in the demon Doors.”