Did Charles Manson really try out for The Monkees?
Towards the end of the 1960s, the entire rock scene was still the Wild West in many respects. A lot of people may have tried their hand at making fine art throughout every one of their records, but there was always a bit of unknown that came with picking up a record from someone who wasn’t getting played on the radio. Although The Monkees may have been as commercial as it got, they will forever have pieces of one of the most despicable murderers of all time hanging over their heads.
Because as much as the band looked like the corporate American answer to The Beatles, they did have a slight connection to Charles Manson before they truly got going. Before he started talking about the coming Armageddon and getting his followers to commit some of the most heinous acts that someone could ever do, he was a humble rock and roll fan and managed to get close to some of the biggest names in music when in California.
While much has been made about Manson’s connection to Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, there had been a long-running theory that he was also one of the few who auditioned to be one of The Monkees. Although the thought had existed as folklore for a long time, the theory is a bit more accurate than what most people speculate on in books about his work.
It was clear that Manson had the ability to write music since he had cowritten The Beach Boys’ ‘Never Learn Not to Love’, so he certainly had enough musical chops to audition to join the band if he wanted to. But as much as the cold case would have been interesting for true crime buffs, Manson was a little bit too occupied to have had anything to do with the lighthearted rock and rollers.
So, did Charles Manson actually try to join The Monkees?
Since most of the auditions for the fictitious band started in the early 1960s, Manson would have never had the chance to try out for the group. The band had already been working on finalising the cast in 1965, which, when added up on the timeline, means that Manson was still serving serious jail time during that timeframe, having been incarcerated from 1961 to 1967.
That didn’t mean that Manson wasn’t done menacing the rock and roll community. Despite not having a hand in The Monkees, he would continue to stay relatively close to the biggest names in rock, with people like Neil Young saying that he was shocked at the amount of lyrical chops that Manson had, calling him one of the greatest living poets that he had ever seen when he heard his music for the first time.
Granted, that unstoppable way with words was also what went hand-in-hand with him committing his despicable crimes. Although much has been made surrounding the murder of Sharon Tate by The Family in the late 1960s, the house that they had stormed that fateful night originally belonged to The Beach Boys’ producer, Terry Melcher, with many people believing that Manson had initially gone over to the house to murder Melcher after he was cheated out of getting a recording contract.
But as far as the theory with The Monkees, it’s pretty clear that the idea of one of the most frightening killers in history having a connection to one of the most wholesome groups of the 1960s was too good a story to let go. It might make for the 1960s equivalent of a creepypasta today, but for anyone still thinking that it held water, you can easily listen to copies of ‘Last Train to Clarksville’ and ‘Daydream Believer’ in peace.
