Doors drummer John Densmore to host Hollywood book signing Saturday

Doors drummer John Densmore recounted his roller coaster ride through the legal system on the opposite side of the courtroom from his former bandmates in his lively 2013 book “The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison’s Legacy Goes on Trial,” and Saturday he’ll be signing copies in Hollywood.

The Mr. Musichead Gallery also will have copies of a Shepard Fairey poster, “Occupy Joe Strummer,” signed by Fairey and Densmore, proceeds from which will go to the Joe Strummer Foundation supporting musicians and projects around the world “that create social mobility through music.”

“The Doors Unhinged” gives an insider’s freewheeling look at the lawsuit Densmore brought against Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Krieger after they started touring again in the 2000s as the Doors of the 21st Century, without Densmore and with the Cult singer Ian Astbury subbing for Morrison, who died in 1971.

Densmore argued that the new incarnation tarnished the band’s reputation, and violated their long-held all-for-one-and-one-for-all credo about business matters. Densmore eventually prevailed, but there were times he wondered whether he’d be financially ruined by the proceedings, which included a countersuit that Manzarek and Krieger filed when Densmore refused to give his permission for the Doors’ music to be used in an automobile commercial.

Because Morrison had rejected another offer to use “Light My Fire” in a Buick commercial decades ago, Densmore held to the belief that the singer-songwriter wouldn’t have wanted his lyrics or the band’s music used in such a way.

“I just kept thinking about Jim,” Densmore told The Times when the book was published, “and how he blew up over [the proposed lyric revision] ‘Come on, Buick, light my fire.’ And he didn’t write it. What does that mean? That the whole catalog meant a lot to him. He’s our ancestor … and I wasn’t going to forget that.”

Saturday’s signing event takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. at Mr. Musichead Gallery, 7420 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood.

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