Ray Manzarek lives in an Omaha suburb working part-time as the organ player at the Skate World roller rink.  Manzarek, of course, is old school and is trying to come to grips with the in-line skaters who dominate the rink. 

“Whatever happened to the 4-wheel roller skates, man?” he asks no one in particular, stubbing out another cigarette, announcing a reverse skate into the microphone and starts playing, I’ve got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates (You’ve Got a Brand New Key).

A kid, maybe 7 or 8 years of age, skates over and tells Ray, “You suck, mister.”

Frantically, Ray slams the keys of his organ like he did at the Fillmore East in 1969, stops suddenly and says to the kid, “I was with The Doors. I don’t suck.” 

The Manager, overhearing the last bit of the exchange says, “Ray, knock it off, will you?” 

Ray knocks it off.  This would never be happening had Jim lived longer.  Jim Morrison promised revolution, but delivered only an early death. 

“The kids don’t get it.  None of them get it.  Our society has bred two successive generations of complete ignorance.  The Doors are timeless.  We wrote Moonlight Drive and People Are Strange and The End, for Christ sake…those compositions are timeless, like the philosophy of Nietzsche and the poetry of Rimbaud. We changed the world.  We were, and this is truth not ego, we were Gods.”

Manzarek landed this job after various attempts at Doors revivals proved commercially unsuccessful.  With little more than a continuing desire to fuel his organ art, Manzarek traveled the country looking for gigs, finally ending up at this suburban Omaha rink. 

“I still have trouble with authority, man.  Nobody will alter or change or dissuade my art, man.  Nobody can move me away from my raison d’ etre.  Now it’s all about Britney Spears and 50 Cent and Clay Aiken and people like that.  But, I told management when I started here there are a lot of Doors fans out there, even 10-year olds love us once they understand us.  I play a lot of Doors, a lot of Big Brother and the Holding Company and Jefferson Airplane in my sets. Jim said, ‘Once you make peace with authority, you become authority.’ I’ll never accept total authority, man. Not now, not ever, you know. At first when I got here and started this gig, man, The Man hassled me, but like all true artists they’re coming to accept my genius.” 

Assistant Manager, Chuck Tracy, said Ray was on the verge of being let go by management until he noticed the owner’s daughter choking on a chicken bone in the rink’s eating area.  Ray - a devout follower of Zen Buddhism, the Maharashi, and Shamanism, also has his life-saving badge and first-aid certification earned at a Los Angeles YMCA - saved the owner’s daughter with the Heimlich Maneuver.

“The owner is always saying, like, ‘My daughter is the apple of my eye’…more like the apple pie with a double scoop of ice-cream with a chocolate shake of his eye. She’s big, dude. Are you going to print my name? Ray was gone until he saved her life.  The kids are sick of hearing Doors songs.  It’s really bad.  I mean it’s no different than making the kids study for and take a test about the Pilgrims.  This is supposed to be fun.” 

Ray views his current job as a test of his resolve and as suffering for his art, 30 years removed from his success with The Doors.

“What I really want is to find someone to replace Jim as a lead vocalist, man, that is my ultimate goal. I’m applying with various NHL and NBA and MLB teams to play the organ at their games.  I could be good with the Sabres, or the Suns, or the Dodgers or any of those teams. The Lakers, man, that would be ideal. I’d be back in the city where it all began for Jim and me. Kobe Bryant, I’m sure he gets it. Can you imagine?  What a more fitting tune than Light My Fire, to get a team fired up. People are always saying that The Doors were done after Jim died, but that’s not true, man. All of us, me, Robbie and John…we’re all out there perfecting our art.”

After two more songs – Break on Through and LA Woman (which Ray also sings) – it will be time for him to clean the urinals.