Behind the Music

Episode Synopsis

A look at the life of a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer whose music career would be challenged by drug abuse, depression, bad business deals and failed marriages. Burdon discusses his early career as leader of the Animals, the band's break-up after a few short years and how he re-invented himself in the mid-'60s as a chronicler and participant in the West Coast psychedelic scene, writing hits (i.e. "When I Was Young," "San Francisco Nights," "Sky Pilot") and befriending such legends as Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix-whose own life Eric vainly tried to save after receiving a frightened phone call from Jimi's girlfriend on the morning that he died. At the end of the '60's Eric re-defined his music yet again by teaming up with the street band, War. But the same restless spirit which provided so many of Eric's creative breakthroughs turned out to be his undoing, resulting in a trail of broken marriages, bouts with drug-laced depression and two decades of commercial obscurity. However, through all of this hardship, Eric has never lost faith in his music. Includes interviews with Burdon's biographer, Brian Auger, Robbie Krieger (The Doors), and members of the original Animals and of War.