you tend to look deeper and deeper inside yourself to find the music

Being a musician means-depending on how far you go-getting to the depths of where you are at. And most any musician would try anything to get to those depths, because playing music is an immediate thing-as opposed to putting paint on a canvas, which is a calculated thing. Your spirit flies when you are playing music. So, with music, you tend to look deeper and deeper inside yourself to find the music. That's why, I guess, grass was around those clubs. I know the whole scene has changed now; I mean, pot is almost a legal thing. But in the old days, it was just for a few people.

playboy interview - march 1966

but then "jimbo" would appear

In the beginning we were just college kids, you know. Driving around town, dreaming of being successful. There was some point when he coined the phrase ’I am the Lizard King, I can do anything’. I thought, ’Oh my God, what is he doing, he’s wearing a lizard suit now instead of the leather pants but is he buying his own creation or manipulating it? What is happening here, fuelled by the drink?'
First of all drugs is a very complicated subject. We did early experiments with psychedelics, which were actually legal at the time, and then you know, when the culture went on to cocaine... there’s a huge difference between pot and crack.
I’m not going to say that... well I will say it as Jim got into the legal drugs: Cigarettes and alcohol kills most people. That’s when we had to close the studio down, and the next morning when he was sober we’d get a good take.

- john densmore

I took LSD, too — it helped open the doors to perception. LSD could show you heaven, but it could also show you hell. A bad acid trip could take away all the swirling energy that makes you live. We really didn’t take it before shows, though. Well, maybe Jim did. Normally, John, Robby and I would smoke a joint and drink some beers before going onstage.
I think aggravating is the perfect word. We would sit there and hope the good Jim Morrison would show up. Sometimes he did and the studio sessions were fantastic. But then ‘Jimbo’ would appear, completely drunk and unable to string together a sentence without slurring. It was the height of his alcoholism.The guys in the band would try and help him, but it didn’t help. He was an Irish poet and what do they do? Drink and drink and drink.

- ray manzarek