The first time Jim Morrison yelled at his Doors bandmates, it was in 1968, and the other three musicians committed what to Morrison amounted to a cardinal sin.

They had arranged for one of their songs, “Light My Fire,” to be used in a Buick commercial.

“I can’t trust you anymore!” Morrison screamed at keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore, as Densmore, 78, recalls in his new book, “The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison’s Legacy Goes On Trial” (Akashic Books, November 7).

“We always agreed that our music would never be used in commercials,” Morrison continued. “You guys just made a pact with the devil.”

It was this tirade — along with Morrison’s insistence that The Doors should be an equal partnership, with each member having veto power over any idea — that eventually led to an ugly series of lawsuits decades after Morrison died in 1971 with Densmore on one side and Krieger and Manzarek on the other.

As he describes in his book, Densmore became the defender of Morrison’s principles, vetoing every offer for commercial usage of their songs including a $15 million offer from Cadillac.

In the book, Densmore uses Bruce Springsteen’s $550 million sale of his music catalog in 2021 to explain his views.

“Those songs were soundtracks for people’s lives, and it would be weird for them to hear, ‘Born to Run…to Walmart,’” Densmore writes. 

“I would only sell The Doors’ catalog if we could abide by Jim Morrison’s wishes to not allow any of the songs to be used in commercials. Ever. In perpetuity.”

While commercial may have been verboten, in 2003, Krieger, now 77, and Manzarek, who died in 2013 at age 74, recruited Police drummer Stewart Copeland and Cult vocalist Ian Astbury to tour with them as “The Doors of the 21st Century” just over two decades ago.

Even here commercial considerations could not supersede artistic integrity.

Densmore told Krieger that touring as something like “The New Doors” would be fine, but a distinction had to be made between the original band and the new one. And so, once again, litigation ensued.

After Densmore saw ads for The Doors of the 21st Century that featured the band’s original logo and Morrison’s picture, he filed suit, seeking to prevent them from using the band’s name and image.

In response, Krieger and Manzarek countersued for $40 million, a figure that had Densmore fearing for his future. 

“My new attorney reassured me that I wasn’t really vulnerable to being wiped out financially,” Densmore writes, “but the feeling that my family was being terrorized wouldn’t go away.”

Densmore’s book features extensive trial excerpts making it clear that Manzarek and Krieger were willing to forego the civility one might expect from former friends and bandmates. 

Their lawyer, William Briggs, referenced what he called Densmore’s need for his “usual toke” — trying to paint him as a drug addict to the jury, in Densmore’s eyes.  

But the harshest moment came when Briggs asked Densmore if he was “a supporter of Al Qaeda.”

Briggs was referring to a post-9/11 conversation between Densmore and Krieger, where Densmore said something like, “Maybe as a country, we should look at why this happened.”

“‘You said it, you said it,’ Krieger blurts out defensively,” writes Densmore when he ultimately confronted his former bandmate over the outrageous allegation.

But the testimony of Manzarek — who Densmore portrays as relentlessly greedy and referred to as his “nemesis” — took the animosity to another level.

On the stand, Manzarek said that Densmore bragged about having stopped the Cadillac deal to make himself look important to far-left colleagues, and tried to paint Densmore as a supporter of political violence.

“All of that had to do with John’s political agenda,” Manzarek said, according to the book. “And the fact that he said, ‘I support those people up in the state of Washington who smash windows and all of that, the anarchists, the terrorists.’”

“I feel sick to my stomach,” writes Densmore, who denies this in the book. “Now my old bandmate has called me a terrorist.”

In response, Densmore’s lawyer told the jury during closing arguments, “I think Ray Manzarek is totally, completely, absolutely, unequivocally unbelievable and a liar.”

The jury failed to reach a verdict. Soon after, in 2005, the judge ruled in Densmore’s favor.

Manzarek and Krieger appealed, and the case dragged on for five years before they lost for good in August of 2008.  

Densmore writes that the stress of the trial cost him his third marriage. Still, given the principles he was upholding, he believes he did the right thing.

“When Jim suggested a four-way split on everything…the solidarity turned out to be ironclad,” Densmore writes. “I rest in the knowledge that I haven’t sabotaged Jim.”