Bill Siddons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bill Siddons was the original manager of the Los Angeles based rock band The Doors. After the death of The Doors' lead singer Jim Morrison he managed the remaining three members for 2 records. He was the one person in the United States Pamela Courson contacted from Paris after Morrison had died. He arranged the funeral and burial with Pamela, but never saw Jim's body due to the closed casket and his aversion to seeing his friend dead. “We buried Jim correctly,” says Siddons, “and that perhaps was my greatest achievement: making sure we kept it quiet until it was done the right way. Nothing to hide, but we knew what was going to happen because we’d just been through it with Jimi and Janis.”

Siddons began his career with The Doors as a teenage roadie, road manager, and eventually was tapped as the salaried manager of the band. He and the band parted ways when he suggested moving to a standard 15% commission arrangement. His character appears in the Oliver Stone movie on The Doors.

Siddons had this to say about his initial meeting with Jim Morrison:

"So what was my first impression of Jim? He scared me to death."

Post-Doors, Bill Siddons continued his career as a manager in the music industry. He managed such groups as Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Poco, and, in more recent times, was a co-founder of Core Entertainment, a professional management firm representing Alice in Chains, another band which dealt with the death of its frontman, and others.