The News-Times

Michael Nesmith, the Monkee for all seasons, dies at 78

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LOS ANGELES — Michael Nesmith, the singersong­writer, author, actordirec­tor and entreprene­ur who will likely be best remembered as the wool-hatted, guitar-strumming member of the made-for-television rock band The Monkees, has died at 78.

Nesmith, who had undergone quadruple bypass surgery in 2018, died at home Friday of natural causes, his family said in a statement.

Nesmith was a struggling singer-songwriter in September 1966 when “The Monkees” television debut turned him and fellow band members Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and David Jones into overnight rock stars.

After the group broke up in 1970, Nesmith moved on to a long and creative career, not only as a musician but as a writer, producer and director of films, author of several books, head of a media arts company and creator of a music video format that led to the creation of MTV.

Nesmith was running “hoot nights” at the popular West Hollywood nightclub The Troubadour when he saw a trade publicatio­n ad seeking “four insane boys” to play rock musicians in a band

modeled after the Beatles.

The show featured the comical misadventu­res of a quartet that tooled around Los Angeles in a tricked-out Pontiac GTO called the MonkeeMobi­le and, when they weren’t chasing girls, pursued music stardom.

Each episode rolled out two or three new Monkees songs, six of which became Top 10 Billboard hits during the show’s two-year run. Three others, “I’m a Believer,” “Daydream Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksvill­e,” reached No. 1.

Jones, with his British accent and boyish good looks, was the group’s cute lead singer. Dolenz became the wacky drummer, although he had to learn to play the drums as the show went

along. Tork, a folk-rock musician from Connecticu­t, portrayed the comically clueless bass player. Nesmith, with his twangy Texas accent and the wool hat he’d worn to his audition, became the serious but naive lead guitarist.

A prankster by nature, he’d arrived at the audition carrying a guitar and bag of dirty laundry he said he planned to wash immediatel­y afterward. With a harmonica around his neck, he stormed into a casting office, banging the door loudly. After pausing to gaze at a painting as if it were a mirror, he sat down and immediatel­y put his feet up on a desk.

He got the job.

But he rebelled almost immediatel­y when producers told him they were going to call his character “Wool Hat.” He demanded they use his real name, as they did with the other actors.

It would be the first of many confrontat­ions Nesmith would have with producers during a tumultuous twoyear run in which “The Monkees” won the 1967 Emmy for best comedy series.

Nesmith and Tork, the group’s two most accomplish­ed musicians, railed against the program’s refusal to allow them to play their own instrument­s at recording sessions. But when Nesmith revealed that fact to reporters, music critics quickly turned on “The Monkees,” dismissing the show as a fraud and the band as the “Prefab Four,” a mocking reference to the Beatles’ nickname, Fab Four.

Nesmith, meanwhile, had written several songs he hoped to debut on the show, but almost all were dismissed by music producer Don Kirshner, as sounding too country.

Among them was “Different Drum,” which Linda Ronstadt recorded in 1967 for her first hit single, validating to Nesmith his opinion that Kirshner, hailed by the pop music industry as “The Man With The Golden Ear,” didn’t know what he was talking about.

Things came to a head when all four Monkees demanded they take control of the music. They were warned they would be sued for breach of contract.

At that, Nesmith rose from his seat and smashed his fist through a wall, telling Kirshner it could have been his face.

For years Nesmith would refuse to confirm or deny the incident, even as the other three gleefully recounted it to reporters. In his 2017 memoir, “Infinite Tuesday,” he did acknowledg­e it, saying he’d lost his temper when he felt his integrity was being questioned.

“It was an absurd moment in so many ways,” he wrote.

It did give the Monkees control over their music, however, beginning with the group’s third album, “Headquarte­rs.”

After the show concluded in 1968 the band embarked on a lengthy concert tour where members sang many of their own songs and played their own instrument­s before crowds of adoring fans. Jimi Hendrix was sometimes their opening act.

Following the band’s breakup Nesmith rarely rejoined the others for reunion tours, leading many to believe he disliked the band and the show, something he steadfastl­y denied.

“I really enjoyed being in the show. I really enjoyed working with Davy and Micky and Peter,” he told Australian Musician magazine in 2019.

It was, he would often say, that he was simply too busy doing other things.

Over the years, he recorded more than a dozen albums and toured with the First National Band, the countryroc­k-folk group he assembled.

He wrote scores of songs, including “Some of Shelly’s Blues,” “Papa Gene’s Blues,” You Just May Be the One” and “The Girl That I knew Somewhere” that he performed with the Monkees. Others, performed with the First

National Band, included “Joanne,” “Propinquit­y (I’ve Just Begun to Care)” and “Different Drum.”

For the Monkees’ 30th anniversar­y he induced the others to reunite to record a new album, “Justus,” for which all four composed the songs and played the instrument­s. He also rejoined the others for a brief tour and wrote and directed their 1997 TV reunion film, “Hey, Hey, It’s the Monkees.”

Nesmith also wrote and produced the 1982 sciencefic­tion film “Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann” and earned executive producer credits on “Repo Man,” “Tape Heads” and other films.

His 1981 comedy-music video “Elephant Parts” won a Grammy and led to “PopClips,” a series of music videos broadcast on the Nickelodeo­n cable network that in turn led to the creation of MTV.

Nesmith even published two well-received novels, 1998’s “The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora” and 2009’s “The America Gene.”

Robert Michael Nesmith was born Dec. 30, 1942, in Houston, Texas, the only child of Warren and Bette Nesmith.

His parents divorced when he was 4 and his mother often worked two jobs, as a secretary and painter, to support her son and herself. It was that latter job that inspired her to whip up a typewriter correction fluid called Liquid Paper in her kitchen blender. By the mid-1970s it had made her a fortune, which she eventually left to her son and to nonprofit foundation­s she endowed to promote women in business and the arts.

Nesmith, who was married and divorced three times, is survived by four children, Christian, Jason, Jessica and Jonathan.

 ?? Associated Press file photo ?? This 1967 photo shows, from left, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees with their Emmy for best comedy series.
Associated Press file photo This 1967 photo shows, from left, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees with their Emmy for best comedy series.
 ?? Frazer Harrison / Getty Images file photo ?? Songwriter and guitarist Michael Nesmith of The Monkees has died at 78.
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images file photo Songwriter and guitarist Michael Nesmith of The Monkees has died at 78.

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