Yes! I would like to know about others who have done the same. Of course they’re not all stick inflicted (love that term); maybe the guys they don’t want to play with anymore are the stick inflicted ones.
He has a fairly legitimate claim as (an) inventor of the music video as we know it. Of course, since neither MTV nor VH-1 runs those anymore, he should have a little free time these days…
I didn’t know he wrote Different Drum! Very nice.
David Trampier, apparently due to a bad contract dispute. (The talk page is, not surprisingly, more interesting than the article.)
I was in the studio audience of whatever talk show Greg Kinnear did in 1994, and Mike Nesmith was the guest. He talked freely about his Monkees days, and it was a fun, funny interview.
I hear that a lot when these types of threads come up, but really now. Neil Armstrong is 80 but I doubt he is bothered about “all those questions about that moon thingy” even if it was only about a week out of his long life. Everybody talks about “President” Clinton, that was only 8 out of his 63 years, why do people harp on such a small part of the man’s life?
The simple fact is, yes, people are going to often tend to focus on the most culturally and historically significant thing you did.
I think you’re making an assumption based on insufficient data. He has participated in some Monkees projects. He was on the special they did in the 1990s and he also did commentary on some of the episodes for the DVD release a couple of years ago. And his commentary is insightful, as well as gracious with respect to the other band members.
He has also participated in some of their reunion concerts. I specifically recall reading that he had planned to join them for their tour in conjunction with the release of the Justus album, but he quit after the London performance, because he decided that he didn’t have the chops to play guitar. I can respect that as an artistic decision.
But how much do you want from him? It was a job he had for two years back in his early 20s, one that ended him up in heavy debt when he bought his contract back early. It was a job that left him feeling artistically unfulfilled and mistreated by the music industry. And with the press and public declaring all the participants frauds. He essentially failed in his ambition to become a successful musician, was tarred with the brush of being a fake, and yet every couple of years gets called back to relive the bad times.
The guy’s rich. He inherited a ton of money from his mother, and he has built several businesses on his own – he gave Warner Bros. the idea for MTV, he built a successful videotape distribution business for PBS. He’s had three or four failed marriages and several children to deal with. He’s got a life.
And yet every few years people call him all kinds of names if he declines to participate in yet another Monkees reunion project.
And, anyway, Davy Jones is an asshole. Even Peter Tork quit the last reunion tour early after finding him difficult to get along with.
I think you’re right about insufficient data; I probably should’ve titled the OP “Correct me if I’m wrong, but why does Michael Nesmith seem to have such a stick up his ass about the Monkees?”. But I don’t want anything from him, I’m just curious, and I’ve found out more just by starting this somewhat ill-conceived thread, FWIW.
…and I’ve heard about Davy Jones’, um, personality…which might be worth a whole other thread in itself!
D’oh. I always thought (well, years after, as I wasn’t born at the time) that Davy was so cute and sexy but not in that sexy asshole/Draco in leather pants way. Now I have to revise my world view!
Thanks for posting that. I hadn’t followed up on Tramp in quite a while, and the recent additions to the notes pages to the wiki were rather enlightening, if true.
Davy and his third (?) wife, a “Telemundo presenter.”
Damn if those Monkees haven’t had about a hundred marriages altogether. I’ve always been a big fan of the show and the music, and also Nesmith’s solo music, but being teen idols really screwed them up in their private lives, it looks like.
Michael’s still the stud king for impregnating his wife Phyllis as well as guest star Nurit Wilde within six months of each other. (And I have a vague recollection that Wilde wasn’t the only guest star that he slept with.)
Davy’s latest public tirade against Michael and the others. He seems to do this once every two years or so.
The Monkees was by no means the most culturally or historically significant thing Nesmith did. Not even close.
Davey Jones probably goes off on his tirades every time he realizes that he was the Monkee with no talent whatsoever.
There’s a pretty good reason to have a stick up one’s ass about the Monkees.
He was a talented singer, though, wasn’t he? He played Dodger in Oliver! both on Broadway and in the West End as a young teen and got a Tony nom.
And yet, judging by your link, Nurit still has her cherry.
Glenn Close was in Up With People and refuses to talk about it. I have heard that she will end any interview where it is brought up.
Well, it is a tiny thing. You can see how no one would have found it yet.
I believe David Ogden Stiers won’t talk about MASH and has walked out on interviews when the topic is brought up.
Indeed. He sounds way less bitter than Tina Louise.