Music legend Micky Dolenz is getting sentimental on his new “songs and stories” tour and with it he’s bringing his long history in rock and roll to Arizona – where he also has plenty of history.
Since Mike Nesmith’s death in 2021, Dolenz – who turns 80 in March – is the sole survivor of the chart-topping Monkees. Nesmith was preceded in death by Peter Tork (2019) and Davy Jones (2012).
Dolenz’ new tour kicks off Jan. 31 in Tucson and arrives at the Mesa Arts Center the very next night for a 7:30 p.m. show. On tour Dolenz doesn’t just play all the hits fans have loved since the Monkees’ debut single, “Last Train to Clarksville,” in 1966, he adds carefully selected cover songs. And as the captivating storyteller he’s always been – including as a writer, producer and director – the Los Angeles native gets candid with stories about each song throughout the evening.
This past November Dolenz released “Live at The Troubadour,” his first live album in seven years, recorded at the famed L.A. club immortalized in rock history. Dolenz was there the night Elton John made his celebrated U.S. debut in 1970, and it’s where he even saw a pre-Monkees Nesmith perform.
“I spent two years there one night,” Dolenz said earlier this week of The Troub.
The Monkees made a big splash in Phoenix in early 1967.
For the season finale of their hugely successful NBC television show, the foursome filmed a mini-documentary, “The Monkees On Tour,” which not only captured their Jan. 21 concert at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, part of the film showcased each band member individually hanging out around Phoenix.
Nesmith, followed by filmmakers, went to Christown Spectrum Mall (known as Chris-Town then) then out to shoot rifles in the desert. Jones rode a motorbike in the desert and goofed around with a swan. Tork hung out where they were staying at Mountain Shadows Resort in Scottsdale, and Micky … well, Micky checked out the experimental architecture of an innovative home on the outskirts of Scottsdale.
There’s no direct reference in the episode and all these years later Dolenz can’t recall for sure, but it’s likely he and a camera crew were visiting Cosanti, the home of urban designer, artist, and philosopher Paolo Soleri, who then lived in Paradise Valley, where the visionary established The Cosanti Foundation in the mid-60s.
The architect’s artistic achievement made an impact on a 21-year-old philosophical Dolenz visiting the desert periphery.
“This morning I went to this house that a man had built all by himself. And I really got hung up on it,” Dolenz mused in the episode. “I know I’ve got a lot going for me with the music and the show and everything, but still someday I’d like to make something. Something that will last. Something important. Something I can say is my own.”
In this image from “The Monkees on Tour,” a 1967 episode of the group’s NBC television show, a 21-year-old Micky Dolenz visits what is believed to be Cosanti on the outskirts of Scottsdale that January.
Seeing hand-crafted wind chime bells and other structures in the open desert in the footage during his visit leaves little doubt that Micky was among the famous bronze bells of Soleri, who died in 2013 but who then was already gaining attention for his architecture.
“Occasional ne'er‐do‐wells, drifters and itinerant VW busloads of hippies, hearing rumors about a swinging commune in the desert, drop in, but they do not stay long,” a 1970 New York Times article described of Cosanti. “In fact, they seldom tarry beyond the master's first order to grab a shovel.”
Pretty far out stuff indeed in 60s Phoenix.
“It was the tour episode. And I vaguely remember we each had our own little private kind of moment,” Dolenz said Thursday. “And there was some kind of building thing in the desert. Some guy became famous for this certain kind of architecture in the desert and building dwellings that blended in with the environment and stuff. I can't remember the names of any of it or where it was, but it was just outside of Phoenix.”
In this image from “The Monkees on Tour,” a 1967 episode of the group’s NBC television show, from left, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Mike Nesmith arrive at KRUX radio station in Phoenix.
Dolenz will keep fans riveted with wild tales during his show at the Mesa Arts Center. This is a guy Paul McCartney invited into Abbey Road Studios during the recording of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”; who was at the Monterey Pop Festival; who hung with old pal Alice Cooper plus Keith Moon and John Lennon in the original Hollywood Vampires drinking club in the early 1970s; and who has just about seen and done it all.
Before he tells tale while playing beloved Monkees songs in Mesa the night of Feb. 1, we caught up Micky for some Q&A:
First off, how are you with all the tragic fires going on in Southern California right now?
“I got lucky but I feel almost guilty about it. I just can't believe it. I can't even look at the pictures anymore. It's so horrific. It looks like Gaza. I mean, it's just terrible. And I knew people that lost their houses and places that I've been going to since I was a kid in Malibu. You can't even describe it. I've been evacuated where I live four times since I moved in. This time I got an evacuation warning because of another small fire that had broken out, but fortunately they got a grip on it and we didn't have to move out.”
One of Phoenix’ favorite sons, Alice Cooper, is obviously an old friend of yours.
“He's one of my oldest, dearest friends. I knew him actually before he was Alice, when he was still Vince (Furnier). We met in L.A. here. He had just rented a place when he first got into town, across the street from me, and I vaguely remember that I didn't hang with him much at that point. But then when he became ‘Alice’ we bumped into each other again somewhere. He actually moved next door to me so we could hang out and we learned to play golf together. My wife at the time, her father taught both Alice and I how to play golf. I never got any good and of course Alice probably could have gone pro. We just hung out and he did some demos in my studio. And, of course, one of the Hollywood Vampires. I mean, he started the Hollywood Vampires, and we just stayed friends forever.”
In December Paul McCartney shared on social media a clip that went viral of him and his band backstage walking out to start a concert singing The Monkees’ TV theme song. You and he go back almost 60 years. What did you think when you saw that?
“He has always been so gracious to me ever since I met him back in the day. He invited me to a rehearsal here in LA before Coachella years ago and we talked about all kinds of things and were reminiscing. And then it wasn't long after that that he posted the same kind of thing: them going to the gig, going to the stage, almost like they're doing warmups with the Monkee theme. You know, the Beatles got the Monkees more than, really, the English in general, even more than the States. And I have a hypothesis about why. John Lennon actually said, ‘I like the Monkees. They remind me of the Marx Brothers.’ And that was incredibly accurate. The Monkees was, as you probably know, it was not a group, it wasn't a band, it was the Marx Brothers on television. It was a television show about a band, and it was about this band, that imaginary band, that lived in this beach house in Malibu, of all places. And the show was about this band trying to get work. And on the television show, we never made it. We never got work, which does ask the question of how we could afford a Malibu beach house but that's what the show was about. And in England at the time they did have a tradition of ‘The Goon Show’ or Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe and all those people. And then there were others before the Monkees, way before, on radio and on television, that kind of wacky ensemble sketch, even though we weren't a sketch show as a sitcom. Of course Monty Python came out. But there was a tradition long before the Monkees of that. But there wasn't over here. There was nothing like that. And I think, frankly, it confused a lot of people. Didn't confuse the fans, they didn't care. They loved it. But you know some of the critics and some of the hardcore rock and rollers, they just frankly didn't get it. It just went right over their heads.”
Tell us about your upcoming show at the Mesa Arts Center.
“I mean I always do the big Monkee hits; always the can't-not-do's. And I tell more stories than I have ever in the past. I was a little bit hesitant thinking maybe they just want to hear just the music. But I started telling some stories and it just was very well received. And I even ask the audience at times, ‘Do you mind if I tell you a story?’ And they're all very enthusiastic. I tell that one about the Beatles. I tell the story about seeing Elton John at The Troubadour, I tell the story of Jimi Hendrix being our opening act. I tell the story of Stephen Stills, who everybody knows he auditioned for the Monkees but didn't get it, but he told his roommate, Peter Tork, who did get it, and Stephen became a very, very good friend over the years. Still is. And I tell that story, and then I do a tune.”
You turn 80 in March. What’s your secret formula for keeping so active?
“You had to remind me. It's a combination of nature and nurture, you know? I do try to take care of myself. I do stay active. I go to the training gym a couple times a week. I watch my diet. I kind of always have and I have remained active. But then part of it is just the luck of the draw.”
The Monkees, clockwise from bottom center, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork arrive at Tokyo International Airport on Sept. 30, 1968.
(AP Photo/T. Sakakibara, File)
This past November Micky Dolenz released his first live album in seven years, “Live at The Troubadour.”
(Album cover provided by dis Company)
Steve Stockmar
News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment
YourValley.net
sstockmar@iniusa.org
Meet Steve
Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.
Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.
Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.
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