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Creativity Quote by Ray Manzarek

"We went on stage with the Jefferson Airplane, Jim started singing with Grace Slick and hugging her. Then he danced off the stage, went back into the dressing room and passed out cold"

About this Quote

It reads like a rock-and-roll postcard from the late 60s: ecstatic communion, sudden collapse, no middle gear. Ray Manzarek isn’t myth-making in grand, poetic strokes here; he’s doing something more effective - reporting the absurd logistics of genius up close. The rhythm of the sentence mirrors the night itself: onstage high (Jefferson Airplane), ecstatic contact (Grace Slick), a blur of motion, then the hard stop of a body that’s spent.

The intent is almost clinical: to capture Jim Morrison as an instrument that overplays itself. “Hugging her” lands as both sweet and invasive, a tiny snapshot of how that era’s “freedom” often meant blurred boundaries, especially when charisma and substances were in the room. Manzarek names Grace Slick, a peer-icon, to show Morrison’s hunger for recognition and merger - not just performing near other legends but physically folding himself into their aura.

The subtext is darker: this isn’t merely a funny anecdote about a wild frontman; it’s a portrait of self-erasure. Morrison doesn’t exit the stage and come down like a normal person. He “danced off,” then disappears into the dressing room - the offstage space where the cost gets paid. “Passed out cold” punctures any remaining romance. It’s the language of a witness who has seen this pattern enough times to stop editorializing.

Context matters: Manzarek, the Doors’ steady architect, is framing Morrison’s volatility against a scene built on excess as currency. The quote works because it refuses to resolve into either celebration or condemnation. It leaves you with the whiplash - the performance as rapture, the aftermath as shutdown - which is exactly the Morrison story in miniature.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Manzarek, Ray. (2026, January 16). We went on stage with the Jefferson Airplane, Jim started singing with Grace Slick and hugging her. Then he danced off the stage, went back into the dressing room and passed out cold. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-went-on-stage-with-the-jefferson-airplane-jim-98151/

Chicago Style
Manzarek, Ray. "We went on stage with the Jefferson Airplane, Jim started singing with Grace Slick and hugging her. Then he danced off the stage, went back into the dressing room and passed out cold." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-went-on-stage-with-the-jefferson-airplane-jim-98151/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We went on stage with the Jefferson Airplane, Jim started singing with Grace Slick and hugging her. Then he danced off the stage, went back into the dressing room and passed out cold." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-went-on-stage-with-the-jefferson-airplane-jim-98151/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Jim Morrison Sings with Grace Slick and Passes Out - Ray Manzarek Quote
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About the Author

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Ray Manzarek (February 12, 1939 - May 20, 2013) was a Musician from USA.

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