| The Butts Band | |
|---|---|
| Origin | London, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | Rock |
| Years active | 1973–1975 |
| Associated acts | The Doors, Manzarek-Krieger |
| Past members | |
| Robby Krieger John Densmore Jess Roden Phil Chen Roy Davies Mick Weaver Michael Stull Karl Ruckner Mike Berkowitz Alex Richman |
|
The Butts Band was a British and American group formed by ex-Doors members John Densmore and Robby Krieger that was active from 1973-1975.
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The Butts Band came about as a consequence of The Doors trying to find a replacement for Jim Morrison. The remaining Doors were in London in 1973 had auditioned several British singers including Howard Werth (the singer with Audience), Kevin Coyne (from Siren) and Jess Roden (who was the leader of Bronco UK).
Howard Werth rehearsed with the band for a week with a view to stepping into Morrison's shoes. Elektra records founder Jac Holzman favoured Werth as he had at one stage foreseen Audience taking over The Doors' spot on Elektra - but Audience had fallen apart and he now saw Howard and The Doors merging as the new Doors. However, Ray Manzarek eventually called it off and went back to Los Angeles, leaving Densmore and Krieger in London. They began looking for a new project, linking up with Roden, Phil Chen and Roy Davies to form the Butts Band.
In an early interview in Melody Maker or NME Krieger explained the origin of the name: "'Butts Band' equalled a bunch of losers desperate for a gig, hence the tattered speaker on the front cover."
Their debut, the self titled album The Butts Band was released in 1974. After the pressure of two members living in California and three in London led the band to split (following a low key tour and the odd TV appearance), Krieger and Densmore recruited a second cast of musicians to produce a second album, titled Hear and Now in 1975.
"Before 'An American Prayer', we did two albums as the Doors, Full Circle and Other Voices, which were fairly well received albums. But the problem was after Jim had gone, the three of us couldn’t get along anymore. We did for a while but after a while, it got very strange. We all decided to go to England and maybe find a singer over there. So we all went over there, kind of moved over there. Then Dorothy, Ray’s wife, got pregnant and she had gone through some weird stuff. So Ray decided to go back home. John and I were stuck over in London, so we formed this group called the Butts Band with Phil Chen, who at that time was the hot bass player in England, like the James Jamerson of England. We had a singer named Jess Roden and a keyboard player named Roy Davis. It was really a good band. We recorded half of the record in the U.K. and half in Jamaica which Phil help with because he is from there and he was able to visit his mother and father for the first time in ten years. Then we came back to Los Angeles and we couldn’t hold the band together because half of them lived in England and half of us lived here. They got homesick and stuff didn’t happen as soon as we had hoped. The record got shuffled around to two or three record companies so then we did another album as the Butts Band with a whole different line up. Karl 'Slick' Rucker bass player, Mike Stull who is a great singer. He sounded like the Righteous Brothers and a Lady keyboard player named Alex Richman. We did an album called 'Here and Now'."