The 80-year-old’s current “Songs and Stories” tour is a healthy mix of the Monkee hits he wailed and drummed on in the ‘60s, stories about the many interactions he had with other music legends, and covers of said legends’ songs that link to whatever tale of his life he’s looking to “punctuate” with a relatable tune. “People just love to hear those stories when they’re connected to me, and they’re personal stories – my experience with some of these people,” he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay during a recent phone call. “The punchline will be a song that’s relevant.”
When more of Dolenz’s bandmates were around, a Monkees concert always gave fans an opportunity to walk out with a new favorite song from the originally-made-for-TV quartet. The melody to the lesser-known “Cuddly Toy” could be enough to dethrone “Daydream Believer” from the top of one’s favorite Davy Jones songs list. Or if it was one of the later tours featuring the long-disgruntled Michael Nesmith, you might find yourself checking out the late country music pioneer’s First National Band (for which he would use the Monkees name to demo a handful of songs for) on the drive home, rather than blare “Papa Gene’s Blues” for the umpteenth time.
As much as it hurts that those days are over (though Dolenz did perform all of the band’s Headquarters on tour in 2023), he knows that fans come to hear the hits they grew up with anyway. “I will do a little bit of a deep dive into B-cuts sometimes,” Dolenz explains, adding that it depends on the audience and his mood at any given show. “Because I discovered long ago that an artist like myself has, I call it an unspoken contract with the audience.”
And one collection remaining untouched this tour is Good Times, which came out in honor of The Monkees’ 50th anniversary tour almost a decade ago. Sure, “She Makes Me Laugh” (written for the band’s first record in 20 years by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo) didn’t dominate the radio or the charts in 2016, but Dolenz still values those recording sessions anyway. “I think that was one of the best albums that we were ever part of,” he told CL Tampa, adding that we were speaking on the fifth anniversary of Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger—who produced the album—passing away from COVID-19. “One of the best producers I’ve ever worked with,” Dolenz recalled.
Read our full Q&A with Micky Dolenz below.
Thanks for doing this with me, Micky. This is big one for me. You feeling jet lagged at all? I know you were just on a flight home to L.A.
Yeah, well, Sunday. Yesterday was my recovery day, I suppose. And today, I’m kinda back to normal. *laughs*
That’s good. Is jet lag something you get used to after so many years of touring and traveling?
No. *laughs* In a word, no. I’m afraid not. Especially in my case, because I do not travel well. Never really did, I suppose. Well, not when I was younger, of course, I didn’t notice it as bad. You’re resilient. But I’ve never really been comfortable or at ease with traveling, just because of the change of time zones, the food, the sleep, the weird hours. It’s a combination of all that. It’s not easy. In fact, travel, to me, is the work. And we have a saying: “They pay us to travel. We sing for free.”
Haha, that’s true. Speaking of L.A., I saw that you just did that benefit show for all the fire victims out there. Are you okay? Like, did you have to evacuate at all?
Not this time. I have had to evacuate four times over the years. But fortunately…it got close, though. We had an evacuation warning, which is the first stage of it, meaning “pack your shit and get prepared to bail.” But, thank goodness, it started about, I don’t know, half a mile from us, and was going in the opposite direction. So we got away with it this time, but like I said, I’ve been evacuated three or four times, and I got a video from my house of flames like, 100 yards away, and helicopters going over and stuff. It’s pretty bad.
Well, at least you’re alright. But jumping into the show here that you’re doing in Clearwater. I’ve looked at the setlist, and it’s mostly a hits-filled set, along with some of the stuff put out by your peers that you really like. But every time I’ve seen you play a Monkee-centered show over the years, with or without the other guys, there have been a couple of deep cuts that you’ve thrown in that just blew me away. Are there any deep cuts that you’ve dusted off over the years that you wish were better known by, say, a casual fan?
No, not necessarily. It’s not like I have a choice. Either they’re known or they’re not known. But you know, when I do a poll, shall we say—and I do, I keep track of people in the audience—I can always tell when I ask at one point in the show—you’ve probably heard me do this, I’ve done it for years—I ask “how many people know that Jimi Hendrix was the opening act for the Monkees?” And I can always tell, by the people that raise their hand. Well, you don’t even have to be a hardcore Monkee fan to know that. It’s pretty much common knowledge, but it’s not that many. It’s never like half. It’s maybe, at the most, maybe a third.
So the other people are familiar with the name The Monkees, and they will be familiar with the material, the big hits. And so, I have always, as you just suggested, done the big hits. And when I’m doing a solo show—well, of course, now they’re all solo shows, as it were—I’ve done all the big hits. And I did sing most of them, as we know. I will do a little bit of a deep dive into B-cuts sometimes, but over the years, that changes. That depends on the audience, the venue, my mood. Because I discovered long ago that an artist like myself has, I call it an unspoken contract with the audience. There’s a lot of people there, I would even say the majority, that are there to hear those hits, and once they know you’re going to do those hits—and my audiences do, if it’s a word-of-mouth, or they’ve been there before—then you can do other stuff.
Now, in this show, which I don’t know if you’re going to get a chance to see it, I still do all the big hits. But instead of doing deep cuts on this particular show, I started telling stories, because it appears that people love to hear those stories about back in the day and about other people that I intersected with. And for instance, in the show, I tell a story about Stephen Stills, about Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, of course. But the punchline is a song that’s relevant to the story, and it’s really going down very well. People just love to hear those stories when they’re connected to me. And they’re personal stories. My experience with some of these people. But I will punctuate with a song. The punchline will be a song that’s relevant. I’ll give you a “for instance.” You may have seen me in the past do “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry.
I have.
You have. And how I say that, “this was my audition piece for The Monkees,” right?
Yeah.
Well, I used to do that, and I didn’t tell the story. I didn’t say why – I would just break into “Johnny B. Goode.” And I remember the audience would look at me and go, “why the hell is he singing a Chuck Berry tune?” *laughs* And then I realized, when I prefaced it by saying, “so now I’m going to do a Chuck Berry tune I used to do in my cover group before The Monkees, and the reason is because it was my audition piece for The Monkees. It’s the song that got me the gig.” And everybody goes, “ohhh, great, yeah.” So it makes sense, and they come along for the ride with me. So like I said, now I do that with some other great stories and great people that I’ve known, and the punchline is a song. That’s why the show’s called “Songs and Stories,” officially.
So, I know you talk a lot about the old days during the show, so while we’re here, I did want to ask you about something more recent: Good Times, which I genuinely think was one of the best albums of the 2010s by any artist.
Boy, was that a good album. And you know, it funny you should mention it, because today is the fifth anniversary of when that incredible producer, Adam Schlesinger passed away.
Oh, man.
Five years ago, and one of the best producers I’ve ever worked with. Incredible guy, funny as hell, and just amazing. Amazing man, amazing producer. I just posted something to my old friend, actually. But I agree with you. I think that was one of the best albums that we were ever part of, yep.
Absolutely. Well, first of all, it’s crazy that it’s been five years since Adam died, because I remember that like it was yesterday. But on the album, there were some older songs on there from your previous collaborators, like Neil Diamond and Carole King. But how did you guys get the newer guys like Rivers Cuomo and Ben Gibbard to write for you? Like, did you put out a PSA before you made the album?
What do you mean by PSA?
A public service announcement.
Oh. *laughs* No. They all came through different channels. I think our A&R guy at the record company knew…somebody knew one or the other. I don’t recall, frankly, who knew who. It wasn’t a PSA, but the word would have gotten around through the record company, and the A&R guy. Specifically a guy named John Hughes, who was almost totally responsible for that album. And it turned out that a lot of those people were fans of the original Monkees, and so they jumped on board. And Andy Partridge also was part of that…it was quite flattering, to be honest.
Are there any songwriters that you wish would have written a song for the Monkees?
Oh, that’s a great question. Well, I’m certainly not that familiar with contemporary writers, to be honest. Wow…oh, maybe the Beatles. *laughs*
There you go. You can never turn down a Lennon-McCartney composition.
Right, yeah!
You did write one thing on Good Times, though. “I Was There (And I’m Told I Had a Good Time).”
Yeah!
Was that a salute to the band in its prime, or—where were you that you were told you had a good time?
My whole life? *laughs* No, it came up as, I don’t want to say a joke, but it was a jam. Kind of a giggle, just kind of sitting down and goofing around like we did in the early days, and the original days of The Monkees, especially on the album Headquarters. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that album, but we did a lot of just sitting around in the studio, noodling and coming up with all kinds of stuff that eventually made it on the album, like “Zilch” and “No Time,” just written there right on the cuff. And I don’t remember exactly, but it would have been Adam and I sitting in the studio, and…I can’t even remember. It’s a line that I have used for years as kind of an aside joke. You know, when somebody says “what was it like at The Rainbow Bar and Grill in the 60s?” And my standard catchphrase is “well, I’m told I had a good time.”
Nice.
Laughter happens, “ha ha ha.” My other one is “oh yeah, I love that place. I spent two years there one night.” So, that’s it.
Stepping away from music for a minute. My dad wanted me to ask if you had any stories about doing voice work on “The Tick” back in the ‘90s.
Well, not a particular one, except that it was one of the funniest animated shows I’ve ever worked on. It was just hilarious, and I can’t remember all the characters involved right now. Your dad could probably remember better than I, but all the other voice actors were wonderful, and the writing was wonderful. I remember we were talking amongst ourselves and saying—this is too funny, and it was almost a joke—“If the voice actors love it too much, it’s not hugely successful.” But that certainly was one of the funniest shows I’d ever worked on.
Nice. Last subject for you, and then I’ll let you go. I’ve spent a good portion of my life correcting people when they misspell your first name. Does it irritate you when you see your first name misspelled with an E?
Ha! You know, it’s never been…my legal name is George Michael Dolenz.
Right.
But when I did “Circus Boy” in the ‘50s, I guess somebody decided that I needed to change my name. My father was quite a successful actor. Italian, and…I don’t know, the story I was told is that the studio, or my parents, or somebody thought it would be confusing, you know, Michael Dolenz or George Dolenz, or Junior or something. But my nickname had been “Mickey” all that time. So that was the first time it was “Mickey” professionally, and in “Circus Boy,” if I’m not mistaken, it was spelled with an E. It was Mickey Braddock, and that was nearly the name that I used for The Monkees. And at the very last minute—there are even early, early press photos of me spelling it with an E, and using the word Braddock, in the very early days. But I don’t know why, at the very last minute, I decided, or my parents, my mom, we were going to go with Micky Dolenz, without an E. Not a very interesting story *laughs*
That’s alright. Was there a reason that you dropped the E?
No. I have no idea. Long time ago.
Well, thank you so much again for doing this with me, Micky. And I don’t usually do this, but I wanted to tell you that I saw “The Mike And Micky Show” tour in Denver in 2018, and that was one of the best nights of my life. So thank you for that.
That was a good show. Boy, he [Michael Nesmith] was incredible. Incredible.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2025.