John Densmore - Later Career

Later Career

Densmore formed a band with fellow ex-Doors Robby Krieger in 1973 called The Butts Band but disbanded after two albums in 1975. Densmore left rock-and-roll in the 1980s, moving to the world of dance as he performed with Bess Snyder and Co., touring the United States for two years.

In 1984, at La Mama Theatre in New York, he made his stage acting debut in Skins, a one-act play he had written. In 1985, he won the LA Weekly Theater Award for music with Methusalem, directed by Tim Robbins. The play Rounds, which he co-produced, won the NAACP award for theatre in 1987. In 1988, he played a feature role in Band Dreams and Bebop at the Gene Dynarski Theatre. He developed and performed a one-man piece from the short story, The King of Jazz, at the Wallenboyd Theatre in 1989. With Adam Ant, he co-produced Be Bop A Lula at Theatre Theatre in 1992. He has acted in numerous TV shows, most memorably as himself in the show Square Pegs, working as a drummer for Johnny Slash's band Open 24 Hours. His film credits include: Get Crazy with Malcolm McDowell, Dudes directed by Penelope Spheeris, and The Doors directed by Oliver Stone.

Densmore wrote his best-selling autobiography, Riders On The Storm (1990), about his life and the time he spent with Morrison and The Doors. In the first chapter Densmore describes the solemn day on which he and the band finally visited Morrison's grave around three years after he had died. As the drummer and an influential member of The Doors, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He worked as a technical adviser on the 1991 film, The Doors, and was very impressed with Val Kilmer's performance as Morrison and overall was quite happy with the film.

In 2006, his band, Tribaljazz, released their first album of original work.

Densmore appears alongside Krieger and Manzarek in 2012's RE:GENERATION, a documentary directed by Amir Bar-Lev. It features Densmore collaborating on a new song with Skrillex.