MIAMI (LNS)—Jim Morrison, erotic magician and lead singer for the Doors, is in big trouble in Florida.
On March 2, as John Burks of Rolling Stone puts it, Morrison “finally let it all hang out” during a rock concert before 10,000 people here. And now, local authorities want to zip him up in the pen.
Six warrants have been issued for Morrison. One, a felony rap, charges him with “lewd and lascivious behavior in public by exposing his private parts and by simulating masturbation and oral copulation.”
The other warrants, misdemeanor counts, are for variations on indecent exposure, public profanity and drunkenness.
Morrison could get a total of nearly three and a half years in the tough Raiford State Pen if convicted on all counts. Larry Mahoney of the Miami Herald says, “They’d crucify him if they could, they’re so worked up.” According to Rolling Stone, it’s Mahoney’s articles in the Herald that have worked everyone up.
What actually happened is unclear. Morrison’s performances are never calm.
He has caused riots of sorts in Phoenix and on New York’s Long Island. And in New Haven, they once filed charges against him.
Morrison calls himself an “erotic politician” and his politics showed in Miami.
Doors manager Bill Siddons said it was “just another dirty Doors show…You know, shitfuckpiss and the rest of them.”
Siddon said that if Morrison exposed himself, it was offstage. “Like he’d been tucking in his shirt or something and he might have slipped a little.”
Ken Collier, proprietor of the dance hall, didn’t catch sight of Morrison’s prick. But he did have a lot to say. Like that Morrison whipped off his shirt, and began exhorting the audience to come on the stage and touch him.
About 60 people took up his offer and climbed to the stage. Then, according to Collier, Morrison asked, “Do you wanna see my cock?” At this point Collier freaked, grabbed the mike, flashed the V sign to the audience and tried to calm everything down.
Meanwhile, Morrison was jiving around the stage and yelling at the crowd about revolution. (Somewhere around this time Morrison supposedly pulled out his prick). The cops claim to have pictures they got from the Miami Herald.)
Collier kept trying to cool the scene, ripping out amp cords and kicking in drum heads. Morrison meanwhile pushed Collier’s brother off-stage, but then made the mistake of hitting a cat who holds a black belt in karate: Morrison was flipped, head over heels, into the audience. Morrison scrambled backstage, Collier got the house lights on, and the audience “began to get to their feet and file out, slowly and quietly, flashing V signs.”
Morrison surrendered to Florida “officials” after a brief vacation in the Bahamas and is free on $4,500 bond.
Several other Doors’ concerts scheduled for later dates have been canceled as a result of the bust.
The group was to have appeared in Detroit at the Olympia last month, but that too was canceled.