COURTESY OF RON MONTANARO Ron Montanaro performs as Jim Morrison, above.

Tribute band marks legend's
death with Waikiki show

By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

What would you do if someone said you sounded just like a legendary rock star? It happened to Ron Montanaro and changed his life forever.

"I was doing original music in Florida, and -- my talking voice is kind of high, but when I sing, I sing from my diaphragm -- and people said I sounded like Jim (Morrison)," Montanaro said.

"When I was working with my original band in Florida (in 1986) and people said that ... I would get mad at them. 'I'm doing something original here,' but then they started bringing all the cassettes and stuff for me to hear and I started listening. It was like listening to a new band."

Montanaro's band, East of Sixty, was "doing really good in Florida" with original music, but decided to move to Los Angeles in search of a record deal that didn't happen. But Montanaro made connections that drew him closer to the Doors. His wife-to-be, Solé, introduced him to one of her good friends, guitarist Lawrence Smith, who was also a Doors fan. She also introduced him to Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek.

Montanaro says Manzarek told them he didn't think the surviving Doors members -- Robby Krieger (guitar), John Densmore (drums) and himself -- would ever try to put the group back together. He encouraged Montanaro to cover Doors songs as a way of getting on the map.

"He said, 'Your voice is so awesomely like Jim's, why don't you try putting together a Doors tribute band and then get your originals heard through the Doors' fans?' "

Montanaro, who is a part-time Hawaii resident, brings his tribute to Jim Morrison and the Doors to the Waikiki Shell this weekend with "The Unknown Soldier: A Celebration of the Lizard King," a big-scale production that will commemorate the 31st anniversary of Jim Morrison's death in Paris (on July 3, 1971), honor America's military personnel and remember indigenous people with Native American dance and Hawaiian chant.

On stage What: "The Unknown Soldier: A Celebration of the Lizard King" Where: Waikiki Shell When: 7 p.m. tomorrow Tickets: $17.50 pool, $12.50 terrace, $10 grass Call: 591-2211 Note: Coolers up to 18 inches allowed; no alcohol

"We've created a cemetery on stage like ... in Paris where Jim is buried, and that's going to set the theme of the 31st anniversary of Jim's passing," Montanaro said. I'm going to do some of his poetry, too, in between the songs -- about 30 songs and probably between 10 and 15 poems ."

Hawaii "hog" riders also are involved. Groups will depart from three Harley Davidson dealerships at noon Saturday for a "Riders on the Storm" run that will circle Oahu and finish at the Shell at 6.

Montanaro said he wasn't totally oblivious to the Doors before people noticed his voice.

"When I was learning how surf, I was about 9 years old, in 1971, that was the year Jim died and 'L.A. Woman' came out. That was the first 8-track I ever purchased with my own money 'cause my surfing coach was into the Doors. So I listened heavily to that album at a young age, and I guess it kind of influenced me in a subliminal way."

He said he was a little too young to remember "Light My Fire" and other classic Doors songs. How many other 5-year-olds would have been listening to that kind of music in 1967? He's since become well acquainted with all of them but doesn't claim to have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything Jim Morrison wrote and recorded. There are always a few audience members obsessed with the Doors, but most just show up to enjoy the music and Montanaro's performance.

"I never saw Jim perform except in videos ... but when we do the Doors I kind of lose control of myself. It's almost like you get taken over, almost in a spiritual sense, but with my original music I always had that connection or feeling (with the music), so it's like an extension of what I do anyway."

In addition to performing in Hawaii, Montanaro has taken his act to California, Florida and "up and down the East Coast," while still writing and recording original music. "Morrison Underground," released in Hawaii in 1999, contained a single Doors song -- an imaginative rearrangement of "Break On Through" -- but otherwise was original. Some songs were similar in style to what Morrison had done while he was a member of the Doors. Others made it clear that sound-alike or not, Montanaro wants to get his own musical identity out there. He'll be doing that this weekend too.

"We're going to do a couple of our originals near the end of the show, so we'll see how that goes."

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