As the late Davy Jones’ birthday looms on December 30, long-time bandmate Micky Dolenz is fondly recalling their time together — in the Monkees, and out. “He was the brother I never had,” Dolenz tells Closer. “We were very, very close. We hit it off immediately, since we both had careers in show biz as children.”
Their first stint in the Monkees lasted from 1966-71. Thereafter Dolenz and Jones toured in 1974 with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, songwriters for the Monkees. They starred in 1978’s The Point, a stage production by Harry Nilsson, and appeared in 1995’s The Brady Bunch Movie along with fellow Monkees alum Peter Tork.
The duo reunited as the Monkees from 1986-89 (again with Tork, releasing Pool It!), then in the mid-1990s (with both Tork and Mike Nesmith, releasing Justus) and in 2011 for the group’s 45th anniversary shows.
Jones suddenly passed in 2012, having suffered a heart attack brought on by atherosclerosis while tending horses — a post-Monkees passion — at his Florida farm. The remaining Monkees have continued on, but Dolenz admits something elemental is missing.
“There’s a big hole that can never be filled,” Dolenz adds. “I miss his sense of humor the most. People ask all the time if I’m going to replace Davy. He’s irreplaceable. Yes, we still sing his songs, but they don’t belong to me anymore. They belong to the fans, because they’re the ones that go crazy when we sing. If I keep that in mind, it helps make the hurt of his loss easier.”
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Davy would have been 70 years old in December of this year. Too bad his fans miss him since following his death four years ago in February of next year.