In this candid conversation with Rock Cellar Magazine, Oliver Stone discusses On History, the new book he co-authored with Tariq Ali, the activist/intellectual who inspired Mick Jagger to write Street Fighting Man.

Stone also chats about his related TV documentary series, rock ’n’ roll, his preference in the current presidential race (Ron Paul?), and oh…the fall of the American empire…

Rock Cellar Magazine:  What drew you to make The Doors?

Oliver Stone:  I had to.  Jim Morrison was a poete maudit of my generation. He was ignored by many people. And the music spoke eloquently to me, moved me.

When he died young, I was very distraught – as I was with Jack Kennedy. And I just thought that given this chance – coming off of Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July and Wall Street - I was given an opportunity, because the project was around for several years, and nobody had moved ahead with it.

I got a chance to write the script and do it, pretty much, with free form – the way I envisaged the songs being the driving force of the movie. The songs would tell the story of the movie. So a new form of craft was required. It was more like the early MTV concept, that you’d put the action into the song.