![]() Since 2011, he has been releasing MP3 singles from his website. The singer/songwriter/guitarist’s most recent solo album was “Rays” in 2006. Nesmith called the tour “great fun.” He is confident the surviving Monkees trio will tour again. Finally, he signed on for last year’s brief reunion tour, which took place after the death of Monkees singer Davy Jones. ![]() The trio continued with periodic tours but Nesmith participated in only one of them, in England in 1997. Nesmith spent a long time trying to get the Monkees off his back but, while the other three members reunited in 1986, he did only one reunion concert with them in Los Angeles. “Many people were involved and it was a great time and great team.” “The music video was a great offspring - and as you might guess was collaborative,” he said. What has been his most satisfying creation? He wrote two novels, “The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora” (1998) and “The American Gene” (2009). He became involved with the movies, as an executive producer (1984’s “Repo Man”) and actor (1988’s “Tapeheads”). His Pacific Arts Video company became an early purveyor in the home video market. Nesmith continued his work in videos, producing the clip for Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” among other things. Nesmith’s fascination with video continued, and he was recognized with the first Grammy ever for a long-form video, in 1982 for the hourlong “Elephant Parts.” In 1980, the program was sold to Time Warner Amex, which developed the “PopClips” concept into MTV. In 1977, Nesmith created a video clip for his song “Rio.” That led the singer, always a thinker, to create “PopClips,” a video program for Nickelodeon. So when I had the chance I put them together the way I wanted to - with no thought other than just to make them sound good to me and realize the potentials of the songs as best I could.” The producers and controllers of the music for the show did not want them. “The songs on that first solo effort had been piling up in the Monkees closet for a while and not released. “It was a natural sequence,” Nesmith said. Then he started the First National Band, which played a new style that became known as country-rock when the Eagles adopted it. ![]() He had to pay to get out of his contract in 1970. Mike Nesmith wearing his trademark stocking cap as a member of the Monkees, circa 1966.Īlthough he was able to contribute a couple of songs to nine Monkees albums in the 1960s, he was the most outspoken member about being a puppet. But he certainly has marched to a different beat. ![]() It is not a theme for his life, Nesmith insists, merely an observation in general. I love the song and the way people have commented and their approval and compliments tell me they love it as well.” “The reactions to it so far have been almost overwhelming. “It is in the show but in a very different form than one might expect,” Nesmith said in an e-mail interview. ![]() Do expect to hear “Different Drum,” the 1967 hit he penned for the Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt. That’s what he’ll demonstrate Friday at the Fitzgerald Theater as part of his first solo tour in more than 20 years.ĭon’t expect a lot of Monkees songs maybe just one or two that he wrote for the band. But Michael Nesmith was also the Prefab Four’s Renaissance man.ĭid you know that he helped pioneer country-rock? That he was a godfather of MTV? That he was executive producer of the movie “Repo Man” and is a published novelist?įirst and foremost, Nesmith, 70, is a singer/songwriter. In 1981, Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for Video of the Year for his hour-long television show, Elephant Parts.Of course, he was the Monkee with the stocking cap. He was also an executive producer of the cult film Repo Man (1984). He played a 12-string guitar, performing on a custom-built Gretsch electric during his time with the Monkees and various 12-string acoustic models during his post-Monkees career. Nesmith's songwriting credits include "Different Drum" (sung by Linda Ronstadt with the Stone Poneys).Īfter the break-up of the Monkees, Nesmith continued his successful songwriting and performing career, first with the seminal country rock group the First National Band, with whom he had a top-40 hit, "Joanne", and then as a solo artist. Robert Michael Nesmith (Decem– December 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series The Monkees (1966–1968). ![]()
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