Michael Nesmith returns tonight for his second straight reunion tour with the Monkees, following a sold-out run with Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork last fall — prompting questions about his new-found passion for old group.
The tour, called “A Midsummer’s Night with the Monkees,” begins at the Capitol Theatre in New York and continues into August.
Dolenz has also mentioned an interest in making an new Monkees album, and Nesmith says he’s open to that idea, as well. Nesmith’s last album with the Monkees was 1996’s Justus, which was also the last to feature all four members.
Co-founder Davy Jones passed in February 2012, after leading a series of Monkees reunion tours without Nesmith beginning in the 1980s.
Nesmith famously walked out after only a few dates when a four-man tour was tried in the late 1990s, but had more often focused on solo projects since 1970.
Over that time, some began to wonder if he had become embarrassed about his time with the Monkees, who began as pre-fab band for a 1960s-era television show before coming into their own as recording artists.
“No, quite the contrary,” Nesmith told Rolling Stone. “It was a nice part of the resume. It was a fun for me, and a great time of my life. I mean, where do you want be in the Sixties except the middle of rock & roll, hanging out with the scene?,” Nesmith said.
A specific question that arose, being as he finally rejoined the Monkees for these lengthy tours only after the death of Jones, concerned a possible rift between the two.
“That’s just garbage,” Nesmith adds. “No. That doesn’t have anything to do with anything other than just scheduling and times and so on and so forth. No, we had — we were fine. We could — we worked together for years and years, just fine.”
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