Jim Morrison's Final Concert With the Doors Was 50 Years Ago in New Orleans. It Didn't Go Well
- by Keith Spera
Fifty years ago in New Orleans, Jim Morrison snuffed out the Lizard King once and for all.
On Dec. 12, 1970, at the fabled Warehouse concert hall on Tchoupitoulas Street, the Doors played what turned out to be the band’s final concert with Morrison. It was, in short, a mess, courtesy of the drunk and disillusioned singer.
But that show has passed into rock ‘n’ roll legend, much like Morrison himself.
He, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore broke out of Los Angeles with 1967’s “Light My Fire.” The son of a Navy rear admiral, Morrison cultivated his own mystique. He was the leather pants-wearing Lizard King, a charismatic counterculture sex symbol shaman who incited audiences and irritated police.
