As the latest Monkees tour continues, Micky Dolenz talks about how their concerts have evolved with the passing of Davy Jones and the return of Mike Nesmith.
“I rehearse basically the same way that I always have,” Dolenz says in a new interview with Scott Peterson. “I’m playing a lot more drums in this particular incarnation than I have sometimes in the past, which I love. I love playing. In the past when David, [fellow co-founding member] Peter [Tork] and I were out, we always did a lot of Nesmith material, but I was the one who tended to sing the leads. Now, it’s great having him back singing the leads, and me doing that high, third harmony above, like an Everly Brothers kind of thing.”
Jones, who regularly recorded and toured with Dolenz and Tork after a 1980s-era Monkees reunion, passed in 2012. Since, Nesmith has returned to complete the current trio. He’d been part of 1996’s Justus, the only post-1960s album to include all four original members, but had rarely performed with the group on stage prior to Jones’ fatal heart attack.
“Mike brings his sensibility to it, as he always has,” Dolenz adds. “It’s slightly different. It’s not better or worse. It’s just different. I love Mike’s singing and playing. Mike is a wonderful, wonderful writer and musician and inspiration.”
The Monkees make a pair of Pennsylvania stops before rounding out the month of May in Detroit. They then head to Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis and Cincinnati to kick off next month’s shows.
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