Today (January 8th) is Doors guitarist Robby Krieger’s 73rd birthday. It seems obvious now but The Doors song “Riders on the Storm” was inspired by the cowboy song “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” The “Storm” version was on the album: L.A. Woman in 1971 and made it to number-14 on the Billboard Hot 100. Robby Krieger recalls what inspired it:
“Actually, the way that one started was one day we were just fooling around, we were playing ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky,’ right? And so Jim started thinking, ‘Oh, OK, ghost riders.– ‘Riders on the Storm.’ That’s how that came. And you know there is a few licks in that song from ‘Ghost Riders…’ [sings] Right? I wanted to get sort of a Duane Eddy-ish type of feel on it, so I used the old Fender tremolo.”
Photo Credit: Billy Bennight / PRPhotos.com
