Former The Doors star John Densmore desperately wanted to save his tragic bandmate Jim Morrison before he went too far - but was locked out from his inner circle of friends and enablers.
Morrison died in a Paris, France hotel room in 1971 after years of drug and alcohol abuse, and Densmore admits it pained him to watch his friend spiral into a self-destructive hell.
The drummer tried his best to warn Morrison of the fate that awaited him if he didn't change his ways, but, by the time Morrison moved to France, he could no longer reach him.
Promoting new Tom DiCillo Doors documentary When You're Strange, Densmore says, "No one could get to him. It was like Elvis. In fact, Jerry Scheff - the bass player for Elvis, who did L.A. Woman with The Doors - said he was friends with Raquel Welch and she wanted to do a movie with Elvis and he told Elvis it would be a great idea, but she never got through his people to talk to him about it.
"That was what it was like with Jim; Jim was Dionysus (Greek god of wine, who inspires ritual madness and ecstasy) personified and that was his road.
"In the film, you see me throw my sticks down at one point in the movie. Back then, I thought, 'OK, maybe we'll have one less album but the guy's gonna live.' I couldn't articulate it. We didn't have substance abuse clinics."
But Densmore and Morrison's former bandmate Robby Krieger has revealed he once staged an intervention in an effort to prevent his pal from killing himself with drugs and drink - and it worked for a week.
The guitarist called on his father, a psychologist, to help him win over the out-of-control rock star.
He tells WENN, "I brought him over to my dad's house. My dad took Freudian psychology and stuff and it kind of worked. Jim agreed that he was a drunk and he should stop, but, about a week later, he was back to it. It's the toughest thing in the world."
But Krieger admits he and his bandmates could have "tried harder" to stop Morrison from spiralling into self-destruction: "If you knew Jim Morrison, you'd know there was no way of stopping him from doing anything. That was his type of personality and you know how hard it is to stop your own kid from doing something bad. Jim was like your kid on steroids."