11 Surprising Facts About Jim Morrison
- by Kenneth Partridge
Jim Morrison was the self-styled Lizard King: A leather-pants-loving rock deity who fronted The Doors and represented the dark and druggy flipside of the utopian ’60s dream. Thanks largely to Morrison’s brooding voice and mystical poetry, The Doors' music freaked out squares and thrilled millions of teenagers looking to break on through to the other side of consciousness.
Morrison lived fast, died young, and left behind a catalog of songs that continue to inspire. Here are 11 strange facts about the music legend.
1. Jim Morrison’s father commanded the U.S. Naval fleet at a crucial moment in history.
As a counterculture icon, Jim Morrison couldn’t have been less like his father, George S. Morrison, a high-ranking U.S. Navy officer who flew missions during World War II and the Korean War and retired a rear admiral. In August 1964, George Morrison was in command of the Navy’s fleet during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the controversial episode that became the justification for increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
