Frank Lisciandro: Did Jim drink much then?

Phil O'Leno: No. I sometimes think it’s a little bit of hanging out with Felix…. I mean Felix always had to have his bottle. We’d go out driving in the night and Felix would always have a pint with him. He’d always try to have us take one, but neither Morrison nor I were interested. And I don’t know at what point that changed. I wouldn’t say Felix made him an alcoholic, but I would say that he was a model, so to speak, even though Felix was so many more years older than us.

Frank Lisciandro: By late ‘65, Jim and Ray had formed a band. Did this cause a change between you, Felix and Jim?

Phi O'Lenol: Felix, Jim and I, yeah. See we were getting a little bit crazy, the three of us; too crazy. So it was difficult for the band to rehearse really. Jim would rather get fucked up.

Friends Gathered Together

Felix was the spirit of human darkness: power and manipulation, selfishness, mendacity, greed.

Alcohol brought out these negative traits in Felix and, once unleashed, they completely dominated his personality. At school or when he was sober, Felix was a good guy. He was bright, relatively hip, and older than everyone else. He had a lot of experience under his belt.

And Jim liked him as a much older brother or perhaps even a father figure. And what Felix was selling would eventually insinuate itself into Jim’s psyche, where it would germinate, take root, and breed a tiny monster. Jimbo.

After all, Jim and Felix were of the same ethnic lineage, the same tribe, the same bloodstock, they had the same southern frame of reference and shared a penchant for alcohol. Of course they hit it off. And when Felix spoke, Jim listened.

But when Jim drank, in those days, he just got silly. When Felix drank, however, the devil came out. Fortunately, Jim... made his break from that reprobate and never saw Felix again once we started at the London

Felix died November 14th, 1970 at the age of 39 from pancreatic cancer.

Light My Fire