Micky Dolenz Remembers Davy Jones - Says "Glee" is the New "Monkees" Phenomenon

[JamesG]

"Monkees" Micky Dolenz Says "Glee" is the New "Monkees" Phenomenon (VIDEO)
3/01/12


When "The Monkees" premiered in 1966, the made-for-TV band turned into an overnight sensensation. They had all the elements of a pop culture phenomenon in the making, including a dashing Davy Jones.

Sadly, Jones recently passed away at the age of 66.



"The Monkees" Micky Dolenz appeared on both "Today" and "Good Morning America" to remember his late friend and bandmate and look back on "The Monkees" phenomenon.







You and Davy hit it off right from the start, huh?

I remember him really early on from our early auditions and I think it's because we both had similar backgrounds, he was on Broadway as Oliver and I had a series called 'Circus Boys', so we knew the film and stage sides of the business.

We just kind of hit it off and I remember when the producers were switching up the different combos. of the guys they were looking to make "The Monkees" with at the auditions, they tended to put us together and we just kind of hit it off.





You stood together for so long, you were touring up until last year.

Yeah, up until last year, and it was a huge tour last year and it got great reviews... even from ROLLING STONE!





Any hint at all about any health problems?

No, none at all. I was thinking about this... he was vegetarian, he was always outdoors with his horses, his passion was training.





He started out as a jockey very young, right?

Yes, he was going to be a jockey. He wasn't doing as much riding nowadays, but he was always outdoors.

I remember that his mother died when he was very young, and then his father also had passed on. This was during the very early day of "The Monkees" and they both had heart attacks... so I'm thinking maybe there was some genetic thing going on, but nothing that we ever knew about.

I don't know if he was under any care or not, I really don't know.





What's your favorite memory of Dave, the moment that makes you go "This is who he really was"?

Oh there's many... I do remember that we didn't really have much control over the music, the show, and the production. We shared a house together and we were driving up to and parking in front of our house and we happened to be listening to the radio on "Monkee Day".

I never forgot this and then all of a sudden 'Last Train to Clarksville' came on and he went "WHOAH, THAT'S US!!!!" We were never told when we were going to be on the air.

Also our families grew up together, his ex-wife and my ex-wife and they had children around the same time. We had similar paths in terms of families and they were always over at the house.





"The Monkees" are such a phenomenon, you guys sort of skyrocketed right to the top. Do you get now what that was all about?

In retrospect I do, but at the time of course I didn't.

I would say that the most important element was that it was a television show about this band that was not successful and they wanted to be The Beatles. It was about the struggle for success and it spoke to all of the garage bands and all of the kids around the world trying to be successful because, on the show, we were never successful.

That endeared us and made us appear real to a lot of people. I think that the only thing that has really come down the pike since "The Monkees" is "Glee". It's a show about an imaginary glee club, but they really are good and can actually do it.

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