DOORS: Morrison Arrested for Indecency 50 Years Ago

The Doors' most infamous performance took place 50 years ago today (Friday). 

Onstage at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, singer Jim Morrison, who was audibly drunk,nearly -- but never really fully -- exposed himself. On purpose. More suggestive than blatant, the action during "Love Me Two Times" led to warrants being issued for his arrest.

The editor of The Doors Quarterly Magazine, using eyewitness accounts and bootleg recordings, found no evidence Morrison actually exposed himself -- in fact, the band's road manager stopped him when Jim toyed with his belt.

There's a video about the event, but it contains a fair bit of the drunken profanity that got Morrison in trouble.

And drummer John Densmore told The Hollywood Reporter that "there were hundreds of pictures taken [of this show] and no evidence." Densmore says, "Yeah, Jim was a drunk and a sensational, crazy guy, but he also was a great artist and I want him to be remembered for the art as well as the craziness." 

Morrison later surrendered to face charges of “lewd and lascivious behavior in public by exposing his private parts and by simulating masturbation and oral copulation," indecent exposure, open profanity and public drunkenness." When the case went to trial the following year, he was convicted on indecency charges. The case was on appeal when he died in Paris the following summer.

In December 2010, just before leaving office, Florida governor Charlie Crist pardoned Morrison, calling the arrest a "blot" on the record of an accomplished artist for "something he may or may not have done." Noting that Morrison died before he was able to present his appeal, the outgoing governor did it for him.


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