Jim Morrison Interview: Doors Singer Says 'Fat Is Beautiful'

In case Adele is looking for inspiration from a music legend in the wake of Joan Rivers' continued jabs about her weight, a new video excerpt from a 1969 interview with Doors frontman Jim Morrison finds the singer emphasizing that "fat is beautiful."

The video was released by Blank on Blank, a new online PBS series that animates old interviews between journalists and their famous subjects. This one finds Morrison talking about his experiences gaining weight and how "great" he felt when he packed on additional pounds while in college.

Here's the transcript of Morrison's portion of the interview, in which he sits down with legendary Village Voice writer Howard Smith, whose weekly columns and reporting on the 1969 Stonewall riots were associated with the advent of New Journalism in the 1960s and '70s. Watch the full interview above.

"You know, that's something that really bothers me. What's wrong with being fat? That's what I want to know. Why is it so onerous to be fat? I don't see anything wrong with fat. You know? I remember when I used to weigh 185 pounds. I was the same height that I now am: 185 pounds.

And I was going to college, and I had this food ticket at the cafeteria. And the cafeteria food is mainly all based on starch. You know, it's cheap food, right? And so I don't know what it was -- I just felt like if you missed your meal, I figured, well, I was getting screwed, right? if I missed a meal, I just blew it. So I'd get up at 6:30 every morning just to make breakfast. Eggs and grits and sausages and toast. Milk. Then I'd go do a few classes and I'd make it in there for lunch. Mashed potatoes, ahh. Every now and then, they'd put a little piece of meat in something, you know? And then I'd go to a few more classes and then I'd go to dinner and it was more mashed potatoes.

And so about three months later, I was 185 pounds, and you know what? I felt so great. I felt like a tank, you know? I felt like a large mammal, a big beast. When I'd move through the corridors or across the lawn, I just feel like I could knock anybody out of my way. I was solid, man. It's terrible to be thin and wispy because, you know, you'd get knocked over by a strong wind or something. Fat is beautiful."