Friday, Jan. 17, 2003 | 9:09 a.m.
The Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger?
Not possible.
Led Zeppelin minus Robert Plant?
No way.
And the Jimi Hendrix Experience sans Jimi Hendrix?
Try again.
The Doors without Jim Morrison?
Out of the question, right?
Wrong.
Sunday night, more than 31 years after the death of their legendary lead singer and chief songwriter, the Doors will indeed begin anew, at a sold-out 8 p.m. concert at Rain in the Desert at the Palms.
Along with Morrison, the band will be without original drummer John Densmore, who suffers from severe ear damage. Yet remaining founding members Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger are soldiering forward, with Cult singer Ian Astbury and one-time Police drummer Stewart Copeland in tow.
And Manzarek, for one, isn't concerned with the backlash certain to ensue when the Doors kick off their 2003 tour on Sunday.
"The band that you're going to see in Las Vegas is the Doors retooled for the 21st century," the 63-year-old keyboardist said in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home. "And you know, if the critics like it, God bless 'em. And if they don't like it ... what can I say?
"Jim Morrison is dead. If you want to hear Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger play Light My Fire' and all those other Doors hits with Stewart Copeland and Ian Astbury, come out to the show. We guarantee you a good time."
Aside from a 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction performance with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, the Doors had not played live since 1973, when Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore officially disbanded the group after a short-lived attempt to continue after Morrison's July 3, 1971, death.
In 2001 the trio teamed with various vocalists including Astbury, Creed's Scott Stapp and the Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland for an episode of VH1 "Storytellers." The seed for a full-fledged Doors reunion was planted.
"People were always saying, Get the Doors back together,' " Manzarek said. "But we didn't want anybody saying, You're trying to replace Jim Morrison.' That's a tough thing to live through.
"But now it's like, look, the man's been dead for 30 years. And we're not replacing him. We have a different singer singing Doors songs. If Jim were around, we'd play with Jim. But Jim's not around."
The new Doors unit played a pair of gigs in 2002, one in Los Angeles and another in Ontario, Canada, both celebrating Harley-Davidson's 100th anniversary.
The Las Vegas show was originally scheduled for Dec. 8 the anniversary of Morrison's birthday but Copeland broke an arm in a bicycle accident, forcing a postponement.
Thus far, the Doors have announced only one more date this year: a Feb. 7 show at the Universal Amphitheater in Universal City, Calif. But Manzarek said that a full slate of tour dates is in the works.
"We're definitely going out in the spring, and then off to Europe in the summer," he said. The band, which also includes bassist Angelo Barbera (formerly of the Robbie Krieger Band), even has plans to release a new Doors studio album, the first since 1972's "Full Circle," one of the band's two seldom-heard post-Morrison releases. "Other Voices," released in 1971, was the other.
"Ian will be adding lyrics to some songs Robbie and I have already put together," Manzarek said. "What we're trying to do with the new album is to carry on The Doors' poetic tradition, so we want to use different lyricists, different poets. Jim Carroll has already written some lyrics for us, and then we'll have John Doe do some lyrics, and Henry Rollins."
The album might even feature a contribution from singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, who was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer last year.
"Warren Zevon is also writing something right now, so hopefully he can get it in before he makes the big leap to the rock 'n' roll club in the sky," Manzarek said.
For now, however, the Doors' focus remains fixed on their live sound. And, Manzarek insists, if the upcoming shows are anything like last year's Los Angeles and Ontario comeback sets, Las Vegans should be in for quite a treat on Sunday.
"The shows were fabulous, man, fabulous, like the Doors had been onstage for the last 15 years," Manzarek said. "It was tight and hard and hot. It was, as they say, slamin'."
For the Los Angeles show, the announcer even borrowed a page from the band's past, kicking the concert off with the Doors' traditional opening.
"He said, "Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin,' " Manzarek said. "And the audience roared. Then, when he said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, from Los Angeles, California, the Doors,' Robbie hit the opening to 'Roadhouse Blues' and the place exploded.
"People were singing and dancing for every song in the set. Two great, great nights, and we're really looking forward to doing it again in Las Vegas."
Standing in for one of rock music's most mythical figures, Astbury figures to be in a no-win situation. In an interview before the Cult's Las Vegas appearance in October, the 40-year-old singer explained his approach to his newfound Doors' responsibilities.
"I think if anything, I'm not as energetic in terms of performance as I would be with the Cult," Astbury said. "I'm more mindful of focusing completely and utterly on the singing. I'm not showboating. I usually let Ray do most of the talking. I don't really interact with the audience that much."
That's quite a contrast to Morrison, whose on-stage diatribes -- several of which led to full-on riots -- are the stuff of legend. But Manzarek was quick to point out that Astbury and Morrison have more in common than similar vocal stylings.
"We've got a guy who is channeling not Jim Morrison, but the same shamanic power, and that's what I love about Ian," Manzarek said. "He's Ian Astbury doing his own thing, singing Doors songs but not doing a Jim Morrison imitation. He's himself, but he's got that touch of the shaman just like Jim did.
"They're both, in a way, coming from the same place, so you'll experience that same sort of energy when you see the Doors today. You're going to get the same sense of energy and a little bit of the danger and the drama that was there in the '60s."
That drama will not include the Doors' classic tale of incest and murder, "The End." Though the band plays virtually everything else from its early days, including such hits as "When the Music's Over," "Break on Through" and "Love Me Two Times," "The End" is officially off-limits.
"That's kind of sacred," Manzarek said. "Jim Morrison is always there with us, his energy is there. And there are some songs that belong exclusively to Jim, and we're not going to play them without Jim. We'll do that when we all get to heaven.""
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