Sixty years after Robby Krieger auditioned to join the Doors , the guitarist still marvels at the legacy of the band and the music he made with singer Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and drummer John Densmore .

“That’s kind of crazy,” Krieger , 79, says on a recent phone call. “I actually didn’t play Doors music for a while after Jim died [in 1971]. Probably 10 years, maybe 15. After Jim was gone, I figured, ‘It’s over.’”

The surviving Doors released a pair of albums as a trio before ending the band in January 1973. Krieger formed his own bands, often playing jazz fusion in addition to rock and roll starting in the ’70s, and continued playing through the decades that followed, even as he noticed a revival of interest in the Doors .

Robby Krieger of the Doors at the

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