When Jimi Hendrix toured with The Monkees despite hating them
Jimi Hendrix and The Monkees are two of the most iconic acts of the 1960s, with each representing different but nonetheless important aspects of popular culture in the decade. Hendrix was a pioneer in every sense of the word, and what he did for the guitar in terms of bringing it into the future is worth a thesis in itself. As for The Monkees, they were the world’s premier teenyboppers, with frontman Davy Jones a global idol, and their TV show of the same name the highlight of the week’s listings.
Although there are many things that separate both groups in terms of music and aesthetics, this didn’t stop the two from touring together. Interestingly, The Monkees were fans of Hendrix’s work, with one of the group claiming to be a fan of him before he had made it with The Experience. However, this feeling wasn’t reciprocated, and in one interview, Hendrix made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of The Monkees at all.
It transpires that Hendrix and The Monkees came together somewhat naturally via the love that Mickey Dolenz had for the work of the Seattle native. “I first saw [Hendrix] when he was still Jimmy James [and the Blue Flames],” Micky Dolenz recalled to Forbes. “I was in New York, and somebody said I had to come down to [Greenwich] Village to see this guy play the guitar with his teeth [laughs].”
A while later, when Dolenz was at an edition of the Monterey Pop Festival, he saw The Jimi Hendrix Experience performing, and he could not believe his eyes. The guitar wizard Jimmy James was now fronting a different outfit with a different name, delivering a thunderous racket, unlike anything he’d ever heard. This led Dolenz to believe that his and Hendrix’s bands had to collaborate.
“We were about to tour, and were looking for an opening act,” Dolenz recalled. “I said to the producers of the show that Jimi would be great for opening, because he was very theatrical like we were. I guess my producers liked the idea, and Jimi’s producers liked the idea, because sure enough we ended up on the road together. It was wonderful.”
The tour did happen, and although it was regarded as a disaster because the majority of The Monkees fans wanted to see Davy Jones and only Davy Jones, Hendrix carried on doing his thing, with all his thoughts about them confirmed. Per History Channel, Hendrix once said of The Monkees: “Oh God, I hate them! Dishwater….You can’t knock anybody for making it, but people like the Monkees?”
