Given the amount of mail I received about the piece, and how many times it was reposted, re-tweeted, re-whatever-else-you-can-do-to-a-link these days, I thought I’d address the piece here.

Originally, I’d pitched AOL on the idea of a visit to the aforementioned restaurant bathroom on the anniversary of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison’s death (I’m a regular contributor to AOL News and that’s basically how it works–each week or so I pitch a series of new ideas and then go write the ones they choose). 

Why visit the bathroom? Well, it was also the vocal booth where Morrison recorded the “L.A. Woman” album. See, the building once served as Doors headquarters back in the early 70s-functioning as a crash pad/office/recording studios.

Well, in the course of interviewing the folks who own/run the restaurant today, some of the focus of the story shifted. That’s because to a person, they all described the strange sensations they feel in the place–the feeling that the restaurant (“Mexico”) still holds some restless spiritual component of Jim Morrison.

Some of the mail I started receiving accused the owners of contriving the story as a means of attracting customers. That’s why I wanted to write this piece – to say that based on my experiences as a journalist, interviewing hundreds of people each year, that these folks were completely earnest, honest and genuine. 

They spoke independent of each other, and again, it’s not the story I set out to cover. 

But over the course of my questions they all sort of delicately broached the subject and so I explored the topic further, resulting the story.

That said, much of the mail I received also reflected a genuine interest in the possible spiritual presence of Morrison–and the satisfying fact that the bathroom had been honored with a gold record and hand-written lyric sheet.

Anyway, just thought I’d clarify that –  the people in Mexico believe what they believe and I believe they believe what they believe.

Make sense? ?:)

… do you believe? 

(p.s. – if you’d like to listen to this week’s Pop Culture Road Trip radio show, it’s here)