When Harrison Ford joined The Doors on tour: “I couldn’t keep up with those guys. It was too much”
When you’re a huge Hollywood star, with a career that spans decades, incorporates some of the most beloved films ever, and has some of the greatest credits La La Land can offer, then the public will know every grimy detail about your life. Yet somehow, the fact that the great Harrison Ford, who starred not only as Han Solo but also Indiana Jones in two of the greatest adventure characters of all time, once worked as a lowly roadie for The Doors has completely passed us by.
Harrison Ford’s place in the pantheon of cinema has long been confirmed. As well as starring in the aforementioned colossal franchises, Ford has routinely displayed himself as one of the more honest members of the Hollywood elite. It’s a unique skill considering the vast fame and fortune that has come his way since he began being recognised for his acting work. Remaining grounded is not a technique many have pulled off around him.
There is a good chance that part of this dirt-under-the-fingernail charm of Ford is his hardworking start in life. Rather than visiting salubrious acting schools, Ford began his legacy acting career in earnest with Columbia Pictures, starring in tiny roles before landing his big break with George Lucas in American Graffiti, a fortuitous role which would lead to his iconography wildly expanding. But, for a time, the star of Harrison Ford was resolutely dwarfed by his employers: The Doors.
The band’s huge counterculture presence in the 1960s had hordes of the grooving generation following them around the country. A tour may seem like an unattainable theme park of frivolity in today’s terms, but the truth is they need workers just like any other travelling function and, in the ’60s, those workers were picked up from the surrounding areas. One such tour saw Ford join the group in their escapade, it would, provide an untimely foray into on-screen life.
Everybody has to start somewhere in filmmaking and, for a young Harrison Ford, it was on Feast of Friends a 1968 concert film all about life on the road with the hottest band around at the time, The Doors. It would almost put Ford off show business for life after witnessing the drink, drugs and depravity that ensued on tour.
The soon-to-be Hollywood star was working as a carpenter when the band blew up, but gladly took the opportunity to ride with one of the hottest groups around with both hands. He got the gig after his friend from UCLA, Paul Ferrara, invited the heartthrob to work on the project as a second unit cameraman. The two had originally met after Ford did some work on Ferrara’s house but now the chippy, who was looking to find his way into the industry, would be working with a bonafide icon in Jim Morrison.
As such, Ford needed to learn how to operate a camera fast, and so, according to The Doors Guide, the actor took on a brief lesson in shooting at the Sixth Annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Agoura, CA on — ironically — May 4th, 1968, with band members John Densmore and Robby Krieger also in attendance.
The crash course would be enough to satisfy Ferrara and send Ford out into the wild of the Northern California Folk-Rock Festival to film the band in one of their more natural surroundings. While Ford would often say his camerawork was that of an amateur, much of what he shot that day made it to the final film, so we think he was a quick learner.
What did Harrison Ford do when working with The Doors?
Below Ford explains the experience via some vintage ’80s footage. The legendary actor says: “I worked on a road tour film of The Doors, we went around for about a week and a half. A concert tour.” He continues, “When it was over, I was one step away from joining a Jesuit monastery. I thought it was cool, I thought it was hip, but I couldn’t keep up with those guys. It was too much.”
“I was part of the camera crew, second camera. I don’t think any of it was in focus [laughs]. Not a bit of it. Those were the old days.”
In the clip below you can see Ford remembering the unforgettable week and a half he spent with The Doors. It also features snippets of Ford working with the band as he dons the clapperboard and passes by Jim Morrison.
It’s a moment in Hollywood history that will always make us smile and dream of Harrison Ford running as the roadie for other classic artists.
