Former islander Jerry Hopkins, biographer of Jim Morrison, dead at 82
THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BY RICHARD SANDOMIR AND PUBLISHED BY STAR ADVERTISER ON JUNE 11, 2018.
Jerry Hopkins, an early music writer for Rolling Stone magazine whose many books included biographies of Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix—as well as a memoir of his affair with a Polynesian transsexual prostitute in Honolulu’s Chinatown—died June 3 in a hospital in Bangkok. He was 82.
His son, Nick, said the cause was heart failure.
Hopkins, who lived in Hawaii from 1976 to 1993, produced an eclectic range of work that was largely about rock music but also included books and articles about exotic food, sex and travel. He wrote at least a dozen Hawaii-related books, including autobiographies about entertainer Don Ho and music promoter Tom Moffatt.
But his most notorious subject was undoubtedly Jim Morrison, who rose to fame as the charismatic lead singer of the Doors and was only 27 when he died in Paris in 1971.
