Ray Manzarek, keyboardist and founding member of The Doors, has died at the age of 74 after a long battle with cancer.
A message released on the band’s official Facebook page states that Manzarek passed away yesterday (May 20th) at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany surrounded by his family.
“I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today,” his Doors bandmate and long-term touring partner Robby Krieger has said. “I’m just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him.”
Manzarek formed the Doors in 1965 with Jim Morrison, and soon began enjoying significant commercial and critical success, eventually selling over 100 million albums across the globe.
His post-Doors career as an author and musician was equally successful. In 2002 he resumed touring with Krieger, eventually settling on the banner ‘Manzarek–Krieger‘ after a series of legal issues.
Ray’s keyboards were a staple of The Doors. He’ll certainly be missed after such a long and fruitful career helping to create such haunting music. The Doors’ songs opened my mind to other realms of possibilities and cleansed my perception. I paid tribute to Ray when I heard of his passing by creating a new portrait of him and some melting doors which you can see on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2013/05/in-memoriam-ray-manzarek.html Drop by and let me know how The Doors influenced you too.