John Densmore

“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.”

“We all liked Elektra because it was a boutique label. 'Oh, my God, we can be on the same label as Paul Butterfield!'”

“I like myself being a survivor.”

“Jazz musicians are spiritual by nature.”

“The End' eventually became the encore at all of our big concerts. We would play 'Light My Fire,' and there would be this incredible Summer Of Love '60s thing, and then we'd come out and bludgeon them with 'The End.'”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Everything Bernie Sanders says in his speeches is based on facts and is about empowering people, not making them angry.”

“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.”

“My mom, Peggy, was a free spirit. She loved music and liked to paint. She had received her degree from Chouinard Art Institute in L.A.”

“Pete Townshend keeps fooling us again, selling Who songs to yuppies hungry for SUVs.”

“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.”

“It's your inner life that's the most important.”

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

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

“I like connecting new synapses. Like Jim Morrison did.”

“I sometimes joke that I'm half Jewish, because I was raised Catholic... and we share 'the guilt.'”

“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.”