Former members of The Doors have marked the 40th anniversary of Jim Morrison’s death in Paris. On Sunday, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger lit candles at Morrison’s grave in the city’s Pere Lachaise cemetery. Morrison, the band’s lead singer, died of heart failure in a bath in Paris on 2 July 1971. He was 27. Hundreds of Morrison fans, some wearing T-shirts bearing the words 40th Anniversary, left flowers at the grave. Some sang and others read poems to mark the day.
Morrison moved to Paris in 1971 to write. He was found dead in the bath by his girlfriend, Pamela Courson. A doctor’s report stated the cause of death was heart failure aggravated by heavy drinking. Morrison, the son of a US Navy admiral, was born in 1943 in Florida.
He formed The Doors with Manzarek in 1965 in Los Angeles. The band name was inspired by Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, about the author’s drug use.
