'Still high': The surreal story behind the Doors guitarist jamming with the Black Moods
Josh Kennedy of Tempe’s Black Moods has been covering “Roadhouse Blues” for years.
“That opening lick, you light into that thing, everybody goes nuts,” he says.
But trading licks on “Roadhouse Blues” with Doors guitarist Robby Krieger — the man responsible for that iconic riff — in Krieger’s studio with Black Moods bassist Jordan Hoffman playing through the same Sunn bass amp Jerry Scheff used on the “L.A. Woman” album?
Now, that was a special occasion.
“I’m still high off just getting to jam with him,” Kennedy says. “It brought out all the feels.”
More than once in the course of a 15-minute Zoom call with the Doors guitarist and a writer for The Arizona Republic, Kennedy refers to that recording session as “the best thing I have ever done.”
He’s something of a Doors fan.
“We just catch ourselves once in a while, like, 'Holy (expletive), this is happening!" Kennedy says with a laugh.
The Black Moods and Krieger were joined on the recording date by L.A. rocker Diamante, a charismatic singer best known for her feature on the Bad Wolves single “Hear Me Now.”
Robby Krieger shares his memories of the Doors recording 'Roadhouse Blues'
Krieger says he’s feeling pretty good about the way the new recording of the song turned out.
“I mean, it's pretty hard to beat the original, of course,” he says. “But I think we came pretty close.”
He remembers the Doors having fun in the studio with that one.
“We didn't have a bass player,” he says.
“The guy we were using was sick that day or something. And Lonnie Mack happened to show up. You know Lonnie Mack? He had a big hit with 'Memphis' a long time ago. He said, 'Hey, man, I'll play bass.’ And that bass part he did is just perfect.”
John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful dropped by the session and added that classic harmonica part.
As for Krieger’s guitar riff? Jim Morrison loved it.
“I remember Jim saying at one point. 'Hey, Robby, yeah, keep doing that (mimics guitar riff).’ It was just a stroke of luck."
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The Black Moods have a history with Robby Krieger
This isn’t the first time Kennedy has jammed with Krieger. The Black Moods opened a handful of shows for the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer years ago. There’s even video on YouTube of Kennedy singing “Roadhouse Blues” with Krieger at the Marquee Theatre in Phoenix in 2017.
The first time he and Krieger shared a stage was at a Krieger show in Flagstaff.
The guitarist’s son Waylon was fronting the band on that tour and got too sick to go on with the show in Flagstaff, which the Black Moods opened.
“He came to me backstage and, I mean, he was hurting pretty bad,” Kennedy recalls. “He asked if I knew any Doors songs. I was already onstage by the time he finished his sentence.”
How the 'L.A. Woman' bass amp got involved in this recording
The “L.A. Woman” bass amp just happened to be in the studio when the Black Moods showed up to record.
“Jerry's son Jason owns the amp now,” Krieger says. “And he happened to leave it at the studio. It's still there actually.”
The Black Moods had been struggling with getting the bass tone they wanted when Krieger suggested the Sunn.
As Kennedy recalls, “Robby was like, 'Why don't we just use the bass amp? There it is.' It's like, the light was shining on it. We plugged that thing in and it was boom, right there.”
Trading guitar licks with Krieger was like “getting schooled” for Kennedy.
“It was just this total education, because I didn't realize we were gonna do it like that,” he recalls. “He just all of a sudden pointed at me, and I'm like, '(Expletive)!' He’d take it back. And then he'd point at me again. So it was a cool kind of exercise. A kind of guitar conversation.”
Kennedy and Diamante overdubbed their vocals, but the basic tracks, including those guitar leads, were recorded live without a net.
“It was pretty live,” Krieger says. “It sounds that way, doesn't it?”
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Steven Tyler couldn't make the session. Krieger says the door is always open
As to how they ended up with Diamante on guest vocals, Kennedy says they’d done some shows and festivals together.
“We were just thinking of adding a female element,” he says. “And she's really talented in her own right.”
Steven Tyler was supposed to step in for Sebastian on harmonica, but then he got too sick to make the session.
“Maybe we'll get him to do it one of these days,” Krieger says. “We could always add it.”
Krieger has a mostly instrumental album coming out on Jan. 19.
“It's called Robby Krieger and the Soul Savages,” he says. “It's kind of jazz but kind of blues. It's not like your old-timey jazz thing. It's more … I don't know who I could compare it to, but hopefully nobody. That's what we're shooting for is something new.”
In the meantime, you can hear him on the latest Black Moods single.
“It was quite the experience,” Kennedy says.
“I mean, the Doors and just his style alone has been such an influence on me personally, that getting to stand right next to him and trade licks, that was the highlight of everything I've ever done so far.”
Krieger laughs and says, "Dayum.”
Then, he laughs again and says, “I should have charged you money for that.”
How one of the Doors' best songs inspired another Black Moods record
A different Doors song inspired the groove of the Black Moods breakthrough single, “Bella Donna,” a mainstream-rock radio hit from 2018.
They were working on the songs that would become the “Sunshine” album in their Tempe studio with Johnny K, a Chicago-based producer.
“Every time he'd leave to go back to Chicago, he'd give me a Song of the Day,” the guitarist recalls.
“As he was getting in his Uber, going to the airport, he was like 'Kennedy, "Love Me Two Times," it's the Song of the Day.’ So I listened to that song over and over again. And I wound up at home by myself and came up with that lick that was kind of in the same groove.”
Krieger shouts, “You stole my lick!” inspiring a laugh from Kennedy.
“Yeah, I did," he says. "I'm busted."
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EdMasley.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How the Doors' guitarist joined the Black Moods on 'Roadhouse Blues'
