Throughout my life, there are four people I've met who were truly original people. The other three were Groucho Marx, Jim Morrison and Pablo Picasso.
My heroes, growing up, were people like Andy Kaufman and Groucho Marx and people that very rarely drop the persona.
The Doors were successful. It was Jim Morrison as the centre and the figure and the spokesman, the figurehead, but we were all into the same thing. That's why we were a band.
Pablo Picasso, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, Mel Gibson, Lou Reed, Norman Mailer, Vanessa Redgrave, Van Morrison - each is distinguished by controversies unrelated to his or her art; by many accounts, some of them are not nice people at all.
When I met Groucho Marx, I had butterflies in my stomach. And I met him at a Led Zeppelin party, which is ironic.
What I wanted to do in rock'n'roll was merge poetry with sonic scapes, and the two people who had contributed so much to that were Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.
What I wanted to do in rock 'n roll was merge poetry with sonic scapes, and the two people who had contributed so much to that were Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.
To write an autobiography of Groucho Marx would be as asinine as to read an autobiography of Groucho Marx.
Look at all the stuff the Existentialists did. You can start with [Pablo] Picasso, you know, and then Francis Bacon and other guys like that. What they were doing is depicting suffering. And that's exactly what a demon is, he's pretending that he isn't. So he can get more people down there. You know, misery loves company, that's the whole thing. So that's basically the pitch that I'm working on.
Two of the guys that were honorary Vampires - Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix - had already died at 27. And they were certainly archangels in our group.
In refugee camps around the world, I met people who were gone. They were still walking around but had lost so much that they were unable to claim any sort of identity. Others I met found who they truly were, and they generally found it through service to others. They became teachers when there was no school, books or pencils.
I've met some real talents that were...real talents and I've met some real talents that were incredible people.People like Al Williamson, Gray Morrow, to a certain extent Jim Steranko, who is an institution all to himself. What a talent. What a genius talent.
Jim Jones used highly-edited videos and photos of Jonestown, showing what a supposed Eden it was. People were interviewed smiling and working in the fields, telling other church members to hurry down and join them. These interviews were staged; the people were told exactly what to say. Truth is, Jonestown never even produced enough food to feed everyone, and people were going hungry.
Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met.
One of the reasons that the Ramones were so unique and original was that they were four original, unique people.
I went through a big Jim Morrison phase where I grew my hair and wore those black leather pants. I even tried to get the boots, the chains, and I was full into getting that Jim Morrison vibe... but I didn't go overboard or try the mascara.