Bill Siddons
Acting
Biography
Bill Siddons (born 1948) is an American music manager. He is best known for managing the Doors from 1968 to 1972. Siddons began his career as a teenage roadie with the Doors while attending Cal State Long Beach and six months later was asked to be the manager of the band in 1968. Siddons said in response about his initial meeting with singer Jim Morrison: "So what was my first impression of Jim? He scared me to death." When Morrison died in Paris on July 3, 1971, Pamela Courson (Morrison's girlfriend) immediately contacted Siddons. He flew to Paris and arranged the funeral and burial with Courson. However, he never saw Morrison's body due to there being a closed casket and his aversion to seeing his friend dead. “We buried Jim correctly,” says Siddons, “and that perhaps was my greatest achievement: making sure we kept it quiet until it was done the right way. Nothing to hide, but we knew what was going to happen because we'd just been through it with Jimi and Janis." After Morrison's death, Siddons continued to manage the remaining members of the Doors as they released two albums and toured. In 1972 he parted company with the Doors. He reunited with the remaining Doors in 1978 for the release and marketing of the Jim Morrison's poetry record, An American Prayer which reawakened interest in the Doors and their musical significance. His character appears in Oliver Stone's movie The Doors, in which Josh Evans plays him. After working with the Doors, Siddons continued his career as a manager in the music industry. He managed or co-managed acts including Crosby, Stills, and Nash; Poco, America, Van Morrison, Pat Benatar, Jerry Cantrell, Robert Palmer, John Klemmer and in more recent times was a co-founder of Core Entertainment. Core Entertainment was a professional management firm representing Alice in Chains, another band which has dealt with the death of its front man, and others. Siddons co-managed Alice in Chains along with the band's original manager, Susan Silver, from 2005 to 2007. He currently runs Core Entertainment Org., and is partners with Jeremy Rosen Esq. in RoxCore Management, representing Ace of Base, Ozomatli, and Matisyahu.
Known For
A documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.
Classic Albums
Paris, Rue Beautreillis, July 3, 1971. The corpse of rock star Jim Morrison is found in a bathtub, in the apartment of his girlfriend Pamela Courson. The chronicle of the last months of the life of the poet, singer and charismatic leader of the American band The Doors, one of the most influential in the history of rock.
Jim Morrison: The End
“Mr Mojo Risin’” is the story of the making of the Doors’ last album with Jim Morrison “L.A. Woman”. 2011 is the 40th anniversary both of the album’s release and of the death of Jim Morrison and this programme goes into detail of how the album came about, its recording and what was happening to the band at the time. The story is told through new interviews with the three surviving Doors: Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore plus contributions from Jac Holzman, founder of their label Elektra Records, Bill Siddons, who was their manager, Bruce Botnick, engineer and co-producer of the album and others associated with the Doors at this time. The show includes archive footage of the Doors performing both live and in the studio, classic photographs and new musical demonstrations from the Doors.