Rosemont, who interviewed many in Morrison’s Paris circle, says his unique personality and talent are reasons he is still worshipped half a century on. “The fact remains that people still keep visiting his tomb – and I think this is to do with the replacement of institutionalised religion by idol culture, especially in the 60s.” According to Bernett, two dealers who sold Morrison the heroin took him back to his apartment and put him in the bath.Īna Leorne, a longtime Morrison fan and pop-culture writer, said: “Personally, I don’t think the circumstances of his death matter, especially 50 years later. For me it’s a very bad memory,” he told AFP. “The flamboyant singer of the Doors, the beautiful California boy, had become an inert lump crumpled in the toilet of a nightclub. In 2007, Bernett, who later became a radio presenter and vice-president of Disneyland Paris, wrote a book claiming the Doors singer had died of a drug overdose in a toilet at the club.īriton Michael Luke at Morrison’s graveside. He was sentenced to six months in prison and was posthumously pardoned.Ĭourson, who died of an overdose three years after Morrison, also at 27, told police she found him dead in the bath at about 6am on 3 July.Īt the time, Sam Bernett was the manager of the Rock’n’Roll Circus, a trendy nightclub on Paris’s Left Bank, frequented by Morrison and other stars including Mick Jagger. The previous year he had been convicted of indecent exposure and profanity after a concert in Miami during which he was accused of exposing himself to the audience. He was overweight and battling his own drug and alcohol addictions, and moved to the French capital to reportedly get clean. He arrived in Paris in March 1971 and lived with girlfriend Pamela Courson, a heroin addict, in the now chic Marais area near Bastille. In his short-lived career, Morrison became a worldwide figure not just for his music and provocative performances but also the poetry of his lyrics, his anti-establishment stance and the off-stage excesses. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images “The important thing is that he died, whether it was in a bath or a bar in Paris where he was living.”Īs no postmortem examination was carried out on Morrison’s body – it was not required in France at the time – the mystery is likely to endure. “Obviously it was better to say he died at home than in a club, which to me seems more probable, but everyone wanted to avoid a scandal and respect Jim Morrison’s discretion, so the story given to the police was a little opaque. Coroners, even in France, know their jobs,” he said.įrench rock critic Sophie Rosemont is persuaded otherwise. It was a heart attack, there’s no room for doubts. “The police inquiry has been closed for decades now, everybody knows the truth except hardcore fans who don’t accept it, but stupid theories are part of the great rock’n’roll history. In recent years, a different story has emerged: an alternative account has Morrison dying in the toilet of a Paris nightclub – of a suspected heroin overdose – and his body being transported back to his apartment by two drug dealers.īelkacem Bahlouli, editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone France magazine is sceptical about the overdose theory. On 2 July 1971, Morrison went to the cinema in Paris, returned to his flat after a restaurant dinner to listen to some music and died of a heart attack in the bath. “I think this reflects the interest in the music, which even now, 50 years on, still sells millions of copies.” “There’s a really special atmosphere here – and it attracts a certain kind of person – with a flow of weird and wonderful people,” he said. Jim Morrison fan Imelda Bogaard from Rotterdam on a pilgrimage to his graveside.
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