Robby Krieger Interview

© by Rainer Moddemann.

During my first visit to Los Angeles it was rather difficult to get an interview date with Robby Krieger. Robby and his band were working on two albums simultaneously in the studio, and he was also busy doing the final mixing of already finished tracks in another studio.

Eventually, however, we were able to agree a date one afternoon, when a studio appointment for the band was cancelled.

Robby Krieger lives in the Benedict Canyon, through which runs a small winding asphalt road. On one of the numerous hills which line the road on both sides and hiding the houses behind from view, a narrow dusty alley leads to a large green gate, which vividly reminded me of Elvis's gate at Graceland. Linda Kyriazi, Robby's PR manageress, who drove me to this interview in her car, did not need to ring the bell, and the gate opened with a quiet squeak. Our arrival had obviously been watched.

The car stopped next to a few American veteran cars parked underneath shady magnolia trees adjacent to a two-storey house. Robby emerged from the front door with a friendly "Hello, how are you?". He was wearing one of those kitschy, but comfortable Hawaiian shirts, corduroy trousers and no shoes. His hair had got thinner and more reddish, than I had remembered from my earlier meeting with The Doors.

He invited us into his comfortably cool, air-conditioned house and told us to make ourselves at home. This was, however, made impossible for me by Robby's dog, Teddy, a huge shaggy gray monster, who tried to knock me over to the ground, despite his master's calling to him not to do this. Only after I grabbed a sock that was lying on the floor with which I managed to lure Teddy out of the front door, we got the desirable coziness - apart from Robby now running outside to rescue his precious sock!

Rainer testing Robby's Dobro guitar. Photo © Linda Kyriazi.

In the meantime I got the opportunity to take a look around family Krieger's living room (Robby lives here with his wife, Lynn, and his son, Waylon). There seemed to be a homely kind of chaos in this huge room. Numerous platinum and gold records were standing on the floor or hanging on the walls. Above the gray fireplace ledge a Nastassja Kinski poster graced the wall, which showed her naked apart from a fully grown boa constrictor being wrapped around her. Next to this stood a quietly sounding television set and a sinfully expensive music tower with black speakers built into the wall. An enormous wall of shelves was overflowing with records, reels, books and cassettes. A very old Dobro guitar was leaning in front of the large round window with a view onto large oaks and smaller shrubbery. Amongst the freshly ironed clothes on the living room table was a brown Persian tomcat, who watched me suspiciously.

Linda was putting some cans of beer into the fridge in the adjoining kitchen, remarking that "... Robby always forgets to buy any drinks when he gets guests!", when Robby returned and asked me to follow him. He turned towards a glass door and hurried up a few stairs to his home studio. Here I also find numerous platinum and gold records on the walls of a room which is otherwise filled with countless musical instruments and other musical equipment.

My eyes immediately turned to a black 1955 Gibson Les Paul with golden metal attachments that was leaning against a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier. Robby, who had noticed my interest, smiled. "This is my original Doors guitar which I always used when playing the slide, either at concerts or in the studio, during Moonlight Drive', Who Do You Love' or Wild Child'. I think you can also see it in the video Dance On Fire'.""And where is the red Gibson SG, which is better known to Doors Fans from the photos?", I asked. Robby pulled a face. "Somebody stole that one of me towards the end of the Doors era. It is probably hanging somewhere on a fan's wall right now. It was my favorite guitar which I had right from the beginning. Really, this was my very first electric guitar and I had used it during the whole time I spent with The Doors." He picked up a red Gibson 335 and plugged the other end of the lead into an amplifier. A few more little lamps lit up on other electronic equipment, and the rich sound of a trombone filled the studio. "With these Computers I have millions of possibilities of changing a guitar's sound," he said, pushing further buttons. Now the guitar sounded like a harp. "So this is Robby's hobby", I added, hinting at the 12" single with the same title. He smiled. "Actually, I only record demos and try out new sounds in this studio. For records I rather prefer real guitar sounds and, of course, a real band. I don't like these drum computers."

Following the push of a button, the drum computer just mentioned released a heavy rhythm, to which Robby started playing a faster-than-the-speed-of light solo. In the meantime, I looked at the Doors' first gold single for "Light My Fire", having already been stripped of color by the constant light from the sun, which hung from a beam above the mess of cables.

We later returned downstairs to the living room, where Teddy was already resting underneath the table. Armed with an ice cold beer, Robby walked over to the music system and put on one of his tapes. "You must listen to this," he said. "A track for the new album." Deafeningly, a funk jazz song penetrates the room. "This thing is called Strut A-Various'!" he shouted into my ear. "A pun of to strut' and Stradivarius'." "A strange title for a song without any violins in it", I shouted back.

Rainer testing Robby's Dobro guitar. Note the Nastassja Kinski poster! Photo © Linda Kyriazi.

Suddenly something cold was pushed into my hands - the Dobro. I played a few chords on it, which, of course, were drowned out totally by the volume of "Strut A-Various". Robby inserted a second cassette, playing a curious comedy tune called "The Black Beatles", which he had taped from the radio. We had a good giggle over this. Eventually Robby switched on several of his Tiffany lamps, took the freshly ironed clothes off the table and was ready for the interview.

(Later added to this conversation of June 1988 were excerpts from other interviews I held with Robby in April and June 1989)