April 11, 2026
By W.B. King–
As Artemis II was returning from its historic 10-day, 250,000-mile journey around the Moon and back, Micky Dolenz reflected on July 20, 1969, when he, and approximately 150 million other Americans, watched Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin moon walk. True to his unique character, exemplified by the quirky minstrel he personified on the hit television show, The Monkees, his viewing experience had a creative twist.
“I have 16-millimeter footage, silent. I was sitting in my living room filming my television set—the images were black and white of course, but I actually still have it,” he told The Hudson Independent. “It’s about time they went back…but what a shlep,” he added with a laugh.
“I’m a science nerd, so anything like that is pretty cool. I directed a series of public service announcements decades ago for NASA from different celebrities pinpointing and outlining the developments—the medical, the scientific, the communication and the ecological—that came from the space program at that time,” he shared. Among those featured were Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson.
A lifelong science student, Dolenz has continually studied quantum physics and cosmology, among other interests. Before attending The Open University in England in the mid-1970s, he documented his first tour of the Fermilab (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), which investigates the fundamental nature of matter, energy, space and time.
I’m a Believer
Debuted in 1966, The Monkees followed the lives of four madcap, intrepid musicians—Davy, Peter, Micky and Mike—all trying to make it big in a rock band. The freewheeling, psychedelic 1960s were in full swing. While many people at the time were interested in mystic vibrations and turning on, tuning in, and dropping out, Dolenz, for the most part, kept his science cap on.
“I was into that a bit but I’m also an empiricist. So, I separate empirical data and information from let’s say more speculative or metaphysical things,” he said, referencing books he later read like The Tao of Physics that explores the parallels between modern physics (quantum theory and relativity) and Eastern mysticism (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism). “I find it interesting but ‘nullius in verba,’ you know, Latin for ‘don’t take any one’s word for it,’” he noted.
“I’m not cynical about anything, but I am skeptical. Saying ‘everything is a vibration’ sounds very woo-hoo 60’s kind of thing. But if you do look at particle physics and the particle duality, [and it’s been studied], he continued. “There’s no direct correlation between Eastern mysticism and particle physics. There are some coincidences, but to make direct correlations is a bit risky and speculative.”
Son of Pioneers
For many who dream of making it in Hollywood, risky and speculative are adjectives that come to mind. For Dolenz, born in Los Angeles to parents who were singers and performers, being creative was encouraged but it wasn’t exactly a birthright.
“My mom played piano and acted. My dad was a ‘tiny light opera’ singer, and acted, quite successfully,” he shared, adding that they met while performing in a play. His father, George Dolenz, was an Italian immigrant turned formidable thespian known for films such as Vendetta (1950) and starring in the 1950s television series, The Count of Monte Cristo. “So, I was in the business, in that sense, all my life.”
The family resided on a ranch in California, surrounded by chickens and horses. Dolenz explained that there was never pressure on him, or his three sisters, to be in the business. Other pushy stage parents, he recalled, would scream at his peers, “Honey, eyes and teeth. Eyes and teeth.” The acting bug did eventually bite, though. Prior to his Monkees fame, Dolenz, then under the name Mickey Braddock, starred as “Corky” in the television series Circus Boy (1956-1958).
Along with sounds stages and livestock, harmony and melody were integral aspects of his upbringing. “There was always music around the house. My mom came from Texas. So, I was listening to a lot of ‘Sons of the Pioneers,’ and my dad would be listening to ‘Some Enchanted Evening,’” said Dolenz whose personal tastes began leaning toward acts like Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley—what he called “early” rock and roll.
“My first albums were Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole,” he told The Hudson Independent. As the folk music scene grew in the early 1960s, he gravitated to bands like the Kingston Trio. “As I got into my late teens there were other things I liked, then, of course, there was The Beatles, and I’m a huge fan.”
While known as the drummer and vocalist in The Monkees television series, Dolenz first instrument was the Spanish guitar. By the time he was in high school, he fronted his own band, “Micky and the One-Nighters.” He had begun writing original music, but they mostly belted out rhythm and blues and rock songs of the day. And while he also earned guest spots on shows like Mr. Novak and Peyton Place, he began questioning if a career in showbiz was right for him.
“After high school, I was kind of wondering what to do. My father passed away. I always was into building stuff and fixing stuff. I got it from my dad—he was always building stuff and fixing stuff. A friend said, ‘Hey, let’s get our architectural degrees and open up a remodeling place for homes in Southern California,” Dolenz shared, noting his time at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College. “I thought, ‘Wow, what a great idea.’ And I loved it.”
Go Johnny, Go Go
Knowing the advantages of a successful career in Hollywood, when pilot season came long in the spring, Dolenz was still on the fence. He took a break from drafting in 1965 and auditioned for three or four pilots, one of which was The Monkees. For the four leading roles, more than 400 people were seen.
“The auditions went on for weeks. I don’t remember Mike [Nesmith] or Peter [Tork], but I do remember David. We did some screen tests together with other aspiring contestants. David and I had similar backgrounds. He had been on television in England. He’d been on Broadway, so we kind of knew the process,” he noted, adding that while he enjoyed studying architecture, he was “no fool” when it came to seizing a great opportunity. “I don’t remember Mike and Peter at all until we met for the first wardrobe fitting.”
Describing the show as a musical half-hour comedy for television, Dolenz said John Lennon summed it up best: the Monkees are like the Marx Brothers. “That was very accurate, but having said that, we could also play,” he said, adding that when he was cast as the drummer and singer, he explained that he was a guitarist. “We have enough of those,” an NBC executive said. Nevertheless, when he auditioned, he delivered a resounding version of one of his favorite songs, “Johnny B. Good” by Chuck Berry, on guitar and vocals, which landed him the gig. Next came drum lessons.
Over the course of two years, 52 episodes were shot—it was a smash success. “To me, it was like one long episode because we didn’t shoot one episode and then stop for a couple of weeks, it was continuous. So, I don’t remember specific episodes necessarily. I do remember people—the directors and the writers, all of that. But we also worked with a lot of guest stars like Stan Freeberg and Rose Marie. I was a big fan of theirs,” he continued. “It was so intense in those years. Ten hours a day, easy, then going into the studio at night and recording, sometimes a couple of lead vocals every night, because they needed so much material. Then rehearsing to go on the road. And all the ancillary stuff—the press, publicity, interviews, photo sessions, all that, too.”
Here We Come…Walking Down the Street
Beginning with their self-titled album in 1966, the band would eventually release 13 studio albums through 2018. The first track, “(Theme from) The Monkees,” written by the songwriting duo Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, was an introduction to the group’s tomfoolery ethos and featured Dolenz on lead vocals. Those same songwriters would pen other hits like “Last Train to Clarksville” and “I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone.” Neil Diamond would later write the hit “I’m a Believer,” while Carole King and Gerry Goffin graced the group with “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” Other notable songwriters for the band included Neil Sedaka (“When Love Comes Knockin’ (At Your Door)” and Harry Nilsson (“Cuddly Toy”), among others.
“In my show, I give constant credit to the songwriters. I had some of the best in the world writing for me. Incredible songwriters. The way I look at it this: start with a great song and try not to screw it up,” he said, laughing. With the band racking up six top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in its first two years, kismet was clearly at play.
“I’ve directed and produced, written, created my own shows over the years, so absolutely casting has an enormous amount to do with it,” Dolenz said of the onscreen chemistry and brotherhood of the creatives who comprised the iconic group. “But so does everything else—the writing, the directing, and in the case of The Monkees, the music, mainly the song writers, which, I think, are one of the main reasons why the music stands up,” he continued. “The [television] show stands up because of the screen writers, the directors and the producers who created it. It’s always a combination of a lot of things. You can’t take a show like that a part, in the scientific sense, and reduce it. It doesn’t make any sense. You can’t take a part Star Trek and say, ‘Oh well, it was just successful because of Leonard Nimoy’s ears.’”
After the 52-episode arc, the band was still charting songs and catching the fancy of Hollywood folks who wanted to capitalize on the group’s commercial success. Dolenz and the band were soon introduced to a relatively unknown actor, aspiring to be a screenwriter.
“Producers came up to me and said, ‘We want to make a movie, but we think not a 90-minute episode of The Monkees. I remember being all for that. That’s when Bob Rafelson introduced me to Jack Nicholson who was this young B-movie actor who wanted to write. We fell in love with him immediately, just the greatest, most charismatic, intelligent, funny guy in the world,” he said of the Oscar-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest star, an old friend he sees on occasion. “We all kind of sat down and decided kind of what we would like to do, what we did not want to do, and went off on all these crazy tangents.”
The result was the feature film, Head (1968), directed by Rafelson and written by Nicholson, which was interestingly designed to destroy the pop image the band cultivated during the television show run. The Monkees were featured characters along with cameos by the likes of Teri Garr, Annette Funicello, Frank Zappa and Sonny Liston.
Are You Experienced?
At the time, the band also greatly benefited from having access to remarkable musicians, such as those who comprised “The Wrecking Crew.” These session players, including Glenn Cambell and Leon Russell, were well-known for playing on albums by seminal acts like The Beach Boys, The Byrds, and The Mamas and Papas. In time, it was proven that The Monkees weren’t just gifted actors, they also had musical chops.
Dolenz wrote stirring tunes like “Randy Scouse Git,” “Goin’ Down” and “Midnight Train.” Jones co-wrote several songs, including “Dream World.” Nesmith, a staunch advocate for band autonomy, wrote many tunes including “Papa Gene’s Blues,” and Tork contributed songs such as “For Pete’s Sake,” among others.
While attending the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, Dolenz became enthralled with a flamboyant guitar player with whom he hadn’t seen before—Jimi Hendrix. “He was relatively unknown. I said to my producers, ‘That’d be a great opening act,’ because he was very theatrical, and The Monkees was a theatrical act,” Dolenz recalled. While some critics said it was too much of a musical genre juxtaposition, Jimi Hendrix and the Experience opened for The Monkees seven times. “His people liked it, our people liked it, and that’s how it happened. Blame it on me,” Dolenz said.
As We Go Along
Over the years, The Monkees performed in various configurations, but Dolenz now stands alone celebrating the groups 60th anniversary. Davy Jones passed in 2012, followed by Peter Tork in 2019, and then Michael Nesmith in 2021. At different times, the band members graced the stage of the Tarrytown Music Hall, which Dolenz called “a special place in the world.” On April 18, he returns with his band, which includes his younger sister Coco, who sung on early Monkees records and appeared on the television show.
In chronological album order, Dolenz will offer songs from the group’s catalog, accompanied by archival pictures and videos. “In this particular tour, I definitely make comments and tell a couple of stories, leading from one album into the other,” he shared. While Dolenz confirmed that “all the hits will be played,” he added deeper tracks like “Goin’ Down” and “As We Go Along,” may also make the set list.
When on stage, his fellow Monkees are always by his side, helping Dolenz carry forward the joy they created together. “I show an enormous amount of video of all of us, so they’re never left out. When I sing the songs and I look at the photographs and see the video, it’s like they’re still there, and it’s nice.”
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