The Los Angeles home where The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger penned the band’s hit psychedelic rock single “Light My Fire” was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.
Krieger — a founding member of the legendary genre-bending LA band — wrote the lyrics to the classic in the living room of his parents’ Pacific Palisades home in 1966.
The Alma Real Drive property, which has been owned by Claudio and Kathleen Boltiansky since 2000, is one of more than 5,000 structures consumed by the merciless Palisades Fire, which has carved a path of devastation through many of LA County’s most desirable neighborhoods.
The couple told the Los Angeles Times they’re devastated by the blaze’s widespread destruction.
“It would be one thing to just lose our house, but the biggest loss we’re feeling is our whole community,” Kathleen, 56, told the outlet. “It’s never going to be the same.”
The couple said they plan on rebuilding the house as their “forever home” and said they believe the community will also rise again.
“Pali Strong is about community, and community is not the houses or the shops. It’s the people. We pray that will come back,” Claudio said.
The Boltianskys also sought to set the record straight to the Times that the neighborhood — much of which has been reduced to ash by the ferocious blaze — is more than just an upper-crust enclave.
“The misconception people have about the Palisades is that they think that everybody’s rich,” Claudio said.
“People should know that this is not Beverly Hills, which has always been expensive. Before the 2000s, the Palisades was a very affordable neighborhood like any part of Los Angeles.”
“Light My Fire” was released in January 1967 on The Doors’ eponymous debut album and spent three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It is considered among the first and most essential examples of the psychedelic rock genre.
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