Micky Dolenz Remembers When The Monkees Went Bananas

Micky Dolenz looks back on his career, the television origins of The Monkees, and their enduring legacy.

Key takeaways

• Micky Dolenz explains The Monkees began as a TV comedy, not a band.
• He learned drums after casting, shaped by roles built from their personalities.
• Touring later proved them live, turning a TV idea into real musicianship.

Summary

Micky Dolenz reflects on The Monkees, recalling how the group began as a musical comedy television series rather than a traditional band. He shares early experiences, from meeting at a wardrobe fitting to balancing school and acting, and learning drums after being cast in a role that fit the show’s needs.

He describes how each member’s persona drew from real traits, and how their transition to live touring validated their abilities as performers. Dolenz also reflects on loss and legacy, noting how the group’s music and footage keep his bandmates present, while the show’s focus on striving rather than success helped connect with audiences.

The key takeaways and summary were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Full transcript

[0:00:00] A lot of misconceptions about The Monkees over the decades.
[0:00:06] The main one being that it was a group
[0:00:10] It was a musical comedy television series, uh, about these four guys that wanted to be a band.
[0:00:20] We met at, uh, a wardrobe fitting for the pilot
[0:00:30] I was going to school at the time in Los Angeles studying to be an architect, and my plan was if I couldn’t make it as an architect, I could always fall back on showbiz.
[0:00:43] When I got Pilot, I didn’t even quit school.
[0:00:46] I just took a couple weeks off, and I went back to college.
[0:00:49] When I was cast, they said, “Okay, you’re the drummer.”
[0:00:53] I said, “Well, you know, I, I play guitar,” and they said, “Yeah, we know, but we have enough guitar players.” So I said, “Great. Fine. Where do I start?”
[0:01:00] So I started learning the drums, and I worked very hard at it.
[0:01:06] Mike and, and David and I were kind of extrapolations of ourselves.
[0:01:12] I was the wacky drummer bouncing off the walls.
[0:01:15] Davey, of course, was just frigging so cute.
[0:01:19] I think Mike, he did kind of take a bit of a leadership role, but Peter actually had to play a part.
[0:01:23] It was, he played the dummy, and he was not like that at all
[0:01:40] Eventually we did go on the road and we performed live, just the four of us in front of thousands of, of kids.
[0:01:45] And Mike Nesmith had the greatest observation about that.
[0:01:53] He said, “When we went on stage for the first time and played live, it was like Pinocchio becoming a real little boy.” Isn’t that great?
[0:02:09] The shows are incredibly fun.
[0:02:12] That’s why we call it playing.
[0:02:15] You know, the travel is the tough thing.
[0:02:17] They pay me to travel.
[0:02:19] I sing for free.
[0:02:20] And how do I keep doing it? Well, it’s what I do.
[0:02:23] I make sure that my tour manager has booked hotels that have fitness rooms.
[0:02:29] Uh, and I’m in the fitness room every morning.
[0:02:31] It’s that consistency that I find is, is very, very helpful at my age especially, you know.
[0:02:40] I do feel a little melancholy sometimes.
[0:02:43] In the early days after David passed, and Peter, then Mike a couple of years ago, I did find it difficult to turn around and look at some of the video.
[0:02:52] But over the years, you know, like I say, you just gotta move on.
[0:02:57] There’s so much video of them and so many songs that we covered that, that David or Peter or Mike sang, so in a way it’s like they’re still there.
[0:03:09] It’s important to note that on The Monkees television show, we never made it.
[0:03:13] It was the struggle for success that was important, and I think helped endear it to all these kids around the world, but we never made it on the show, which does of course beg the question of how we could afford a Malibu beach house.
[0:03:28] But that’s Hollywood!