Mickey Dolenz on his desire to keep The Monkees’ music alive
Mickey Dolenz, the last-surviving member of the 1960s pop group The Monkees, has expressed his desire to keep the band’s music alive no matter the cost. His comments come just weeks before his On The Monkees tour kicks off on April 1st, during which he’ll be playing Headquarters in full.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Dolenz was asked whether it feels strange to be the last brother “standing”. After noting that he’s hardly had time to process the death of Michel Nesmith in 2021, he clarified his commitment to bringing The Monkees’ songs back to their fans.
“I remember seeing the Everly Brothers on one of their reunion tours in the late ’80s at the Royal Albert Hall,” he began. “I was a huge fan. I was front row center. I thought to myself, ‘God, are they going to sing ‘Wake Up Little Susie?’ And sure enough, they did. I don’t remember if they did any new material. All I remember is standing up with the rest of the audience and crying as they sang ‘Wake Up Little Susie’.”
“That really stuck with me,” Dolenz continued. “After I saw that, I said to my wife at the time, or anybody else who would listen, ‘If I ever go back on the road…’ This is before the 1986 tour. I had no idea I was going to do it. I said, ‘If I go back on the road, I’m going to sing those damn songs exactly as they remember them.’ I hadn’t sang them in about 15 years at that point.”
Released in 1967, Headquarters debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. For about ten years now, fans have been waiting for a reunion tour to celebrate the album, but Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith all passed away before it could happen. Now, Dolenz has decided to embark on the tour solo.
“I insist on doing it,” he said. “All the band members I hire, I insist on doing those songs in their entirety with the same arrangement. That’s so important because people sing along. I do those big hits. I’ve found over the years that if the bulk of the audience knows I’m doing those big hits, then that’s the price of admission. I can then do kind of anything else I want.”
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