MUMBAI: Founding member of legendary rock group The Doors Ray Manzarek, has died. He was 74.
Manzarek died Monday 20 May in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family publicist Heidi Robinson Fitzgerald said. He was suffering from bile duct cancer.
Born in Chicago in 1939, Manzarek formed The Doors with Jim Morrison while studying in film in UCLA in 1965 and the original lineup included drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robbie Krieger.
The Manzarek’s surreal keyboard work along with fluid but grounded basslines complemented the band’s dark and moody psychedelic music and lyrics and Morrison’s dark baritone.
Manzarek’s contributed hugely to the band’s classics like ‘Light My Fire’ ‘Break On Through To The Other Side’ and ‘Riders On The Storm’.
The Doors have sold over 100 million copies though the band made only six albums. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Their legacy was strengthened by their biography “No One Here Gets Out Alive” in 1980 and Oliver Stone’s ‘The Doors’ in 1991.
After the band’s break up, Manzarek released two albums with the rock band “Nite City” in the late 1970s and six solo albums, most recently “Translucent Blues” in 2011 with blues-rock guitarist Roy Rogers.
Manzarek and Krieger became locked in a legal battle with drummer John Densmore in 2003 after the two reunited under The Doors name and later “The Doors of the 21st Century,” but were finally forced to tour as Manzarek-Krieger.
In an interview with a news agency Manzarek said: “We occupy these bodies for 70, 80, 90 years, and it’s so much fun being alive on planet Earth that you want to keep this thing as fresh as you possibly can. The spirit, the mind, the soul, what’s inside of you just gets hipper and hipper as you get older. … You get a whole broadened outlook on things. That just naturally keeps going, but the damn body slows down.”
Manzarek is also the author of two novels and most notably the 1998 memoir, “Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors.”
“I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today,” I’m just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him,” The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger said in a statement.
Manzarek is survived by his wife, Dorothy; his son Pablo and two brothers, Rick and James.