James Morrison On Sharing A Name With The Doors’ Jim

Yahoo! Music’s ‘Who’s Next’ features James Morrison, where the English singer songwriter talked about getting to the top of the charts with his debut album, busking before he got a record deal to perfect his craft, and not feeling too bad about using his name despite its confusion with the late frontman of The Doors, Jim Morrison.

“I was quite surprised that my album went to #1, definitely,” James confessed. “It happened really quickly as well. I released my album, I think after about two weeks it was #1. To be quite honest, it’s a lot easier to get to #1, nowadays, in England, have a #1 album. Last year, there was nine artists that had a #1 album. It’s the best year for #1 albums for debut artists. I guess I was part of that.”

“I’ve been playing gigs and busking and playing all over the place doing covers,” James said of his earlier musical efforts. “I got my experience live by doing other people’s songs and I started to get a feel for my own stuff. I think I wrote all together about 70 songs. Every time I got one I felt good about, I’d just notch it off and add it to the collection.”

As for that other guy who shares his name, who went by Jim, he said, “I just stuck with my name, James Morrison. I thought at least if it’s my name, I know I might get compared to Jim Morrison or whatever, or the Australian trumpet player James Morrison, but I thought screw it, it’s my name. I don’t care. If my music is different, that’s what will make it different. I’m not trying to be like The Doors, who it’s not too bad.”

Video of a performance of ‘You Give Me Something’ and an interview at Yahoo.com has since been removed.