Some stories in musical history are lost amidst the drama. With countless big moments, small interactions, and strange goings-ons, some of the most interesting incidents fade away over time. One of them is from a fateful night in New York City, when Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin shared a stage.
The 1960s were a period of intense creativity. As counterculture exploded, new artists rose weekly, achieving godlike status as they made history. Jim Morrison, the frontman of The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the legendary guitarist and singer, and Janis Joplin, the powerhouse vocalist, were among the gods. All three had tragically short lives, but they burned brightly, even if quickly. Their powerful legacies have helped them endure as three of the most influential names in music.
The 1960s were also intended to be a period of peace, love, and unity. You might think that’s the vibe that would have permeated the room during this spontaneous jam session. No, the air was thick with fighting as the night descended into chaos.
It was spring of 1968. New York was bustling with a thriving music scene, and Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix were having a night on the tiles at one of its most beloved musical establishments, Steve Paul’s The Scene. The Scene was also a popular hangout for the new music elite. The regulars included John Lennon, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, and Sammy Davis Jr.
It became well-known for hosting late-night jam sessions where the best musicians in town could let loose. “When the late shows finished, the waitresses would begin their clean-ups, and the participants of that night’s jams would gather in the dressing rooms,” Al Kooper recalled of those days. “The unknowing, paying customers would pay their bills and leave for the suburbs, and then the action would begin. We’d slowly emerge, like bats in the night, and take over the stage. Little did those ordinary customers know that the leaders of the music industry would take to the stage moments after the doors closed.
Morrison and Hendrix were among those present that evening. Hendrix was a regular, as Kooper recalls: “Hendrix loved this. He would frequently show up, always carrying his guitar and his trusty Nagra [reel-to-reel tape recorder]. He would also meticulously set up the Nagra next to him and record each jam he took part in.”
Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company frequented The Scene when they were in New York. On this fateful night, Hendrix and Joplin were taking in the sights and sounds of their favourite pub when the wild Jim Morrison walked in. Usually found haunting the California crowd, his appearance in the East Coast was somewhat surprising.
It felt as if something was about to go wrong. One audience member recalled: “When Morrison arrived, he was very intoxicated, God knows what, and slurring, very stoned. When Jim felt like it, he could be an ornery character. He was direct and confrontational. But everyone was at that time.” However, it was a clear clash of personalities rather than an issue of intoxication. As Morrison climbed on stage with Hendrix and Joplin watched from the audience, there was an immediate disconnect.
“Jimi was very different from Morrison,” one audience member observed. “He had a lovely aura about him and he was extremely shy and reserved. He was the same soft-spoken man when he spoke to women. Morrison was very abrupt and said whatever he wanted. Morrison quickly demonstrated his aggressive nature, as he appeared to make a beeline for Joplin. Her guitarist remembered, “Jim swaggered over to where Janis and I were sitting and, without any provocation at all, he just yanked her hair down to the floor,” describing it as “almost like a Vaudeville act” as Joplin retaliated by smashing a glass bottle over his head.
Who knows what happened first, but Joplin and Morrison had a long history of animosity. A label publicist recalled, “If you mentioned Jim’s name, she would say, ‘That asshole’. She was not going to put up with his childish, disgusting, and rude behaviour wherever she saw it. It irritated her. She was done giving him a chance.” It appears that in a world that has heralded Morrison as a kind of mythical figure, Joplin may have been the only one to try to cut him down to size, seeing right through his messiah act to simply see him as the bad guy.
Morrison refused to settle for making just one enemy that night, so he continued his tirade. According to Lesley Chambers, he returned to the stage and made a couple of ‘Oh-wow-wooooh’ noises. He was so drunk that he had to hold on to the mic stand, and every now and then, he’d say, “Oooooooh!” Waughhhhhh! Awoweee!'” Wailing and flailing around, it wasn’t the kind of lighthearted yet inspiring jam sessions The Scene is known for. As a regular at the pub, Hendrix wasn’t there for that. He remarked passive-aggressively, “Ladies and gentlemen, you have heard the sound of Jim Morrison”. Clearly, he was not a Doors fan either.
However, it did not end there. Morrison then dropped to his knees and essentially sexually assaulted Hendrix, as if on a mission to make music stars despise him. “So Morrison has his arms wrapped around Jimi’s legs and he’s still screaming: ‘I wanna suck your cock!'” one audience member recalled. “He was extremely loud. And Hendrix was still trying to play. Morrison would not let go. “It was a tasteless display of scene-stealing, which Morrison enjoyed.”
Then Joplin appeared as a vengeful vigilante to protect the guitarist. With a bottle in one hand and a drink in the other, she smashed him with the glass and poured the booze all over him. Unsurprisingly, chaos ensued.
“The three of them began grabbing and rolling across the floor in a writhing heap of hysteria. I swear there was fur flying and a cloud of dust surrounding them, as if they were in a dry river bed. They were entangled in a mess of broken glass, dust, and guitars. “A lot of dust, feathers, leathers, and satins went flying around,” the audience recalls. It was such a wild scene that the bar staff stepped in to protect Hendrix, who was part of the family.
Following the incident, they closed their doors for a few months. So, while a jam night between Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin may sound like a musical dream, it was actually a fun ending things of nightmare.
