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“I don’t take myself too seriously—how
could you when you’re named Roy
Rogers?” says blues guitarist Roy Rogers
with a laugh by telephone from his
home in Nevada City. Named after the
famous cowboy crooner from the 1950s,
Rogers has chosen to enjoy his illustrious
name. “Life is too serious to not have
fun,” says Rogers, adding that he was
actually nominated for a Grammy the
same year (in a different category) as the
“other” Roy Rogers, so they met.
Rogers, is featured in the film Third Eye
Blues, a documentary about his musical
collaboration over several years with
pianist Roy Manzarek, keyboard player
from The Doors, (who passed away in
2013), that will premiere at the Mill
Valley Film Festival in October.
the Raven Theater in Healdsburg. “I
went and sat in, and it was copacetic
from the first note,” says Rogers. seemingly very different styles, would
make an interesting story. Thus, the
film’s title, Third Mind Blues.
So copacetic, in fact, not only musically,
but also personally, that they decided
to do it again—and again—and then
decided to start touring as a duo. Quite
an interesting combination—Roy Rogers,
slide, blues guitarist, and Ray Manzarek,
rock ‘n’ roll icon. But it really worked.
“He was a kick in the pants,” says Rogers
about Manzarek. “He had a great sense
of humor.” The film was made over a period of a
couple of years and includes footage of
them writing together, recording, and
performing live at concerts.
Rogers and Manzarek went on to make
three albums together. The first one,
Ballads Before the Rain, is completely
instrumental, and has a dreamy, kind
of new age sound to it—not what you
would expect from a blues guitarist and
a rock ‘n’ roll pianist. “Neither one of us
had recorded anything like that before,”
says Rogers.
The second album, Translucent Blues,
is much more of a driving blues and
rock ‘n’ roll collaboration, and they
toured to promote it. The third album,
Twisted Tales, their last together, “is a
very eclectic record, because we were
eclectic guys,” says Rogers. At that
time, Manzarek was suffering from the
symptoms of bile duct cancer.
Rogers, 67, who was born in Redding,
grew up in Vallejo, and lived for many
years in Marin, got bitten by the blues
bug early on. He started playing guitar
at age 12, listening to blues legends
like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, B.B.
King and John Lee Hooker, who he
started touring with in 1982. He also
became a producer, working with a
number of high profile artists, including
Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos
Santana and Van Morrison. His musical
collaboration with John Lee Hooker,
“The Healer,” won a Grammy in 1989.
So how did Rogers and Manzarek meet?
Turns out they had the same agent,
and around 10 years ago, his agent
suggested that he go and say hello t o
Ray and maybe sit in at his solo gig at
The last meeting they had was to
mutually agree on the cover, and then
Manzarek went to Germany for an
alternative treatment for his cancer. “I’m
going to put it this away and I’ll see you
when you get back,” says Rogers. “But
he didn’t come back.”
“It was important to me that the
friendship come across in the film,” says
Rogers. “It’s not just about the music,
but how Ray and I related to each other.
And that’s the fun part about the film
for me. Our interaction defined a lot
of it. There’s a lot of humor and the
music comes through—it was a great
collaboration.”
In addition to the premiere of the film
at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Rogers
will be performing at Sweetwater on
Thursday, October 12 in the Manzarek-
Rogers tribute band, which includes
original band members Kevin Hayes on
drums, Steve Evans on bass, and special
guest Jim Pugh on piano, filling in for
Manzarek.
Rogers says the evening will include
selections from Translucent Blues, and
also from Twisted Tales, which the
original band never performed live.
“It’s going to be a very up gig and we’re
just going to let it fly,” says Rogers. And
we will probably end with “Riders on
the Storm” [which is what they always
did]—and I’ll salute Ray with that.”
So how did the film come about?
Filmmaker William Tyler Smith was a
friend of Manzarek’s, and was fascinated
by third mind relationships. “The third
mind comes from the beat people—
Ginsberg in the ‘50s,” says Rogers.
“How collaborations work with
people or things that are seemingly
incongruous.” And Smith thought
that the collaboration between a rock
‘n’ roll icon and a blues guitarist, with
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