First time The Doors played Tucson, and then the encore
THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BY CATHALENA E. BURCH AND PUBLISHED BY TUCSON.COM ON MAY 23, 2017.
One of the biggest concerts of 1967 took place at Hi Corbett Field in early May.
The audience of mostly teens and young 20-somethings filled the infield and the bleachers of Hi Corbett long before Jim Morrison and The Doors took the stage. Among the audience was Bill Buckmaster, then a 19-year-old University of Arizona broadcast student on a first date with classmate Ann Burch.
Illinois native Buckmaster was “the long haired, free-spirit type who loved rock music and still do,” he said. His date, Ann, was a sorority girl from Tennessee who grew up in Phoenix. For 24 hours before the concert, Tucson radio station KTKT played The Doors’ breakthrough single “Light My Fire” over and over again, so everyone was pumped up for the show, Buckmaster recalled.
Buckmaster, who went on to become a Hall of Fame Tucson broadcaster, said The Doors played every song off their eponymous debut album, released in early 1967. And for the most part, the concert was relatively uneventful — a far cry from what happened the following summer when The Doors returned to Hi Corbett.
