The crazy idea

The Doors' journey came to an end in the summer of 1971, with the tragic death of Jim Morrison. Even before "L.A. Woman", the last album the band made with its frontman, hit stores on April 19, 1971, Morrison had decided to fly to France with his wife Pamela, seeking solace in the cultural atmosphere of the French capital, a shrine to his favorite poets: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine. In Paris, however, Morrison would meet his end: on July 3, 1971, at just 27 years old, he was found dead in the bathtub of his apartment on Rue Beautreillis. The official cause was heart failure, but the absence of an autopsy — not mandatory under French law — would fuel alternative theories over the years, including that of an accidental heroin overdose, never confirmed.

Devastated by the loss of their bandmate, the remaining members found themselves not only grieving but also having to make practical decisions about how to move forward without their charismatic frontman. After Jim Morrison's death, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore decided to go ahead and finish the material they had in the works, releasing "Other Voices" in 1971, followed the next year by "Full Circle" - a choice also driven by pressure from their label, Elektra. Krieger would later recall those days: "It was a difficult time, obviously. When Jim was gone, we just kept going. The three of us kept rehearsing, writing new material. When Jim died, we said to ourselves: 'Damn, what do we do? We can either give it all up, or, since we've got all these songs, go into the studio, record them and see what happens.' We probably shouldn't have put it out so soon after Jim died. We felt it was the only thing we could do."

But the experience without Morrison would prove short-lived, and the legendary Californian band would ultimately break up.

Despite their commitment, the attempt to carry on without Morrison would prove to be a failure. Manzarek and Krieger's alternating lead vocals only made the absence of the frontman more glaring. Against this backdrop, a more radical idea began to take shape: bringing in a new musician capable of redefining the band's dynamics. The remaining members thus considered adding a new voice, going so far as to weigh a truly astonishing name: Paul McCartney.

The idea, which never went beyond an early stage, was confirmed years later by Ray Manzarek himself. Asked whether the Doors had genuinely considered the former Beatle after Morrison's death, the keyboardist replied: "Yes. Paul would have played bass. It would have worked great. Who knows what direction we would have gone in if it had actually happened."

The project, however, never got off the ground, and no one in the band ever went so far as to make an actual proposal to the Liverpool musician. At the time, after all, McCartney was busy building Wings, formed together with Linda McCartney and Denny Laine, and the idea of running two bands at once was simply not feasible.

It thus remains one of rock history's great what-ifs: a collaboration that would have meant a profound transformation of the Californian band's sound and identity, and an intriguing - and slightly mad - gamble for the former Beatle.

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26/04/2026