“A Hundred Years from Now, They’ll Study His Mythology”: Deep Purple’s Jon Lord Reflects on the Poetic Genius of Jim Morrison and the Timeless Influence of The Doors
In a rare and moving tribute to one of rock’s most enigmatic figures, Deep Purple’s legendary keyboardist Jon Lord once opened up about his admiration for Jim Morrison—not just as a frontman of The Doors, but as a poet whose words still ripple through the soul of modern music. For Lord, Morrison was not merely a singer or a lyricist—he was, as he puts it, “a myth in motion.”
“A hundred years from now,” Lord once mused in an interview, “when scholars unravel the poetry of popular music, they will not merely study Jim Morrison’s melody—they will parse his mythology. His poetry carried weight. It carried danger, mystery, longing… and most of all, a vision.”
The late Jon Lord, known for fusing classical and rock music in Deep Purple, had long been a student of the written word and melody. With a deep respect for composers and poets alike, he found in Morrison something more layered than the image of a leather-clad rebel. To Lord, Morrison’s lyrics were closer to Rimbaud or Blake than typical rock fare. “He wasn’t just writing songs. He was crafting spells,” Lord said.
While Deep Purple and The Doors stood on different ends of the rock spectrum—Purple with their thunderous riffs and classically infused arrangements, and The Doors with their psychedelic, bluesy hypnotism—Lord revealed that he and his bandmates would occasionally spin Doors records backstage or in the tour van during long nights on the road.
“There were times we’d just sit, a few of us, glass in hand, and let ‘Riders on the Storm’ or ‘The End’ play through the speakers,” he recalled. “You don’t just listen to The Doors. You get pulled into their world. And Jim’s voice—it was like he was narrating a dream, or sometimes a nightmare. But either way, it was poetry.”
Lord also expressed that Morrison’s gift lay in his ability to cloak philosophy in darkness and desire, weaving themes of death, transformation, love, and rebellion into verses that still haunt listeners. “I think Jim Morrison was never chasing fame,” Lord said. “He was chasing the truth, no matter how ugly or beautiful. And he wrote it all down like a poet who knew the flames were closing in.”
The admiration wasn’t just private, either. Lord shared that he once attempted to incorporate Morrison’s influence into his own solo compositions, especially during his orchestral collaborations. “There’s something about the cadence of his words,” he explained. “They have a rhythm that lives even when the music stops.”
While Jim Morrison’s life was cut tragically short at 27, Jon Lord’s reflections offer a glimpse into how deeply Morrison’s words resonated—not just with fans, but with fellow musicians and creators. In Lord’s eyes, Morrison’s art transcended the boundaries of rock and roll, etching itself into the literary and emotional fabric of an entire generation.
“He wasn’t just a rock star,” Lord concluded. “He was a poet who chose to howl his verses through a microphone. And that howl will echo for centuries.”
