It feels like only yesterday that five-year-old me was pressing play on a well-worn VHS tape, one of many my mom had recorded from MTV’s 1986 Monkees Marathon reunion (Micky, Davy, Peter). She simply labeled them “The Monkees,” with the episode names on the side. I pressed play not realizing she was introducing me to something that would leave a lasting impression.
From the moment I watched, Micky Dolenz stood out. His voice, his humor, the theatrics, and more. I have also adopted the skill to know what season it was based on his hairstyle or how far along in the season we were. Soon, I was going in my childhood home’s basement looking at my mom’s Monkees vinyls and the rest was history.
By 1996, I had the chance to see The Monkees live at Melody Fair in Tonawanda, NY—my very first rock concert. As a six-year-old, the excitement was overwhelming. At one point, I saw them coming down my aisle, and I eagerly ran to the end, stretching my hand out for a high-five from Micky.
I missed.
Disappointed, I returned to my seat, but the feeling didn’t last long. The energy of the show, the music, and seeing Micky, Davy, and Peter perform live made it an unforgettable experience. Looking back, that night wasn’t just about watching a band I loved—it was one of the moments that solidified my passion for music.
30 years later, I never in my dreams imagined that I would get to talk to Mr. Dolenz. One of the same voices that shaped so much of my early love for music was now on the other end of the conversation. I couldn’t wait to hear what he was up to. Nothing short of surreal.
The anxiety before he picked up the phone. No comparison at all, by the way.
Christina Corcoran-ZRockR (CC-ZR):
Hello. Is this Mr. Micky Dolenz?
MICKY DOLENZ:
Good, good. I was expecting your call. Thank you very much.
CC-ZR:
Thank you very much. It’s truly an honor to be speaking with you today.
MD:
As I joke, I’m above ground, so that’s always good.
CC-ZR:
Very much so. We need you still!
MD:
Yeah *laughs* Well, thank you so much for your time.
CC-ZR:
Thank you. So if you’re ready, I’m going to just get right into it.
MD:
Let’s do it.
CC-ZR:
What is your situation in Los Angeles?
MD:
In this moment, I’m at home. I’m actually doing a little work around the house. I have a wood workshop—I’ve been doing stuff for years and years. So I am doing stuff in there, and I’m getting my camping and fishing gear all ready for spring and summer. And, of course, getting ready to do, uh, shows. Concerts. Got quite a few coming up.
CC-ZR:
You’ve got a lot of live performances coming up, starting with your show at The Strat in Las Vegas, which I’m really excited to see. What can fans expect from that night?
MD:
Well, the name of the show is “Songs and Stories”, right? And, that’s what it is. But I want to make it clear that I will always do the great big Monkee hits—always. In their entirety. I don’t do any medleys.
Years ago, I discovered that as long as the audience knows they are going to get those hits and you fulfill that contract—and I think you do have a contract with an audience when you’re in a situation like I am, where you have a sort of, I mean, what would you call it? A library or something else of hit songs? I think you really do owe it to an audience to fulfill that contract because they’re coming. They’re coming to hear those hits.
Now, once they know, once they know they’re going to get that contract fulfilled—now, once I discovered that—you can kind of then do other stuff. And I’ve done the album cuts and even some material from other artists. And, like, for instance, I used to do Chuck Berry too. That’s very near and dear to me. I’m not going to tell you which one—you’ll have to come to the show.
I used to do this show very soon, but I didn’t explain why, and people kind of looked at me like, ‘Why is he covering a Chuck Berry tune?’, but then I tell the story, and it’s a very important story in my life and career. Once I tell the story, and then I do the song, of course, it all makes sense, and people love it.
And so I learned that I can do other material, but it does have to have some sort of story behind it. And I’ve come up with a number of stories over the years, and then songs. Um, I told a story about—well, you probably heard that Jimi Hendrix was the opening act—oh, opening act for The Monkees.
CC-ZR:
The infamous Jimi Hendrix story. Oh, yes.
MD:
But I told the story of how that happened. It was my doing, as a matter of fact, and I told that story of how that happened, and then I do a little bit of history. I told a story, for instance, about Stephen Stills and Elton John and a few stories about different people, and also stuff about The Monkees and how it all came together. And I have a lot of video, a lot of the stills and video on the screen, showing, you know, images of that era in that time and place.
So it’s, uh, it’s kind of like a one-man show. I mean, first, I’m sitting here talking for 90 minutes at all—it’s a rock and roll concert. But it’s “peppered,” as we say… Peppered with stories.
CC-ZR:
Yes. And that’s actually what— that’s actually what I’ve always admired about you guys, is your storytelling with your songs. Because I’ve seen you guys a few times—some by yourselves, some of you together. But I’ve always really admired how you spoke about the songwriters, your career, and always giving the credit.
MD:
Because they were obviously so incredibly important than, any artist, you know, without those songwriters, you know—I mean, where would we be?
So I do talk about them a lot, you know. And as you know, I had—I had some of the greatest of all time, oh, I think, for me and literally writing for me. You, you know—Neil Diamond and Carole King, and with her partner, Gerry Goffin, who’s not to be forgotten. And Neil Sedaka and Carole Bayer Sager, Boyce and Hart, of course, two of the greatest writers for us, and Harry Nilsson, Paul Williams, David Gates. I mean, you know, the list goes on. And I do acknowledge them heavily in the show.
CC-ZR:
Yes, I absolutely did. And speaking of that album, it’s been several years since your last live album. What made it the right time to release this one (Micky Dolenz: Live at the Troubadour)?
MD:
Oh, you know, in my business—especially in my situation—whatever you call it, the stars aligned, I would say. You know, it just—I’m not with any particular record company. So it just sounded like a good idea because, you, you know, if you—I have, I have a favorite charity of mine. It’s called Make-A-Wish, right? Yes. And you’ve heard it, I’m sure.
CC-ZR:
Absolutely.
MD:
And.. and so I always, I always donate a portion of a lot of my merchandise money to Make-A-Wish, and I wanted to do a show in Los Angeles for Make-A-Wish… that one was for—that one was in honor of Make-A-Wish. All the proceeds, went to Make-A-Wish.
And The Troubadour is a place that—I have almost kind of grown up in. I tell the whole story of The Troubadour in my show. And, I mean, I spent, like—I spent two years there in one night. Very famous, very famous place.
So that’s how I am. So we got the show for Make-A-Wish. And then—and then I thought, Oh, you know, this is something that we should archive. I mean, this is something that we should record and have for posterity. And that’s how it happened, you know. And I videotaped it also. So eventually, one day down the line, I might release a video of it—you never know. That’s how it happened.
CC-ZR:
Going back to the songwriters, what about yourself? Because you wrote Randy Scouse Git, which is one of our favorite songs…
MD:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Absolutely. I talk about that, and I talk especially about Mike Nesmith. Mike wrote, I think, some of the best songs we ever did. And I do—I talk about him, and I talk about Peter and David. And everybody.
I mean, it was, you know—we did, we did write, not as much as Mike. Mike wrote amazing stuff for The Monkees and for others, as you probably know. So I talk about that, and I talk about myself, and Peter and David too.
CC-ZR:
How does it feel to still have that connection with your fans? How do you feel after performing shows?
MD:
The shows are the easy part as you may have heard from other artists. Uh, The hard part is the travel especially when you get older. And I tell people that I’m not kidding, they pay me to travel. I sing for free. There’s a lot of truth in that. You’ll hear that from a lot of artists. The traveling, especially now, especially after 9/11, after the pandemic, uh the twabeling instead part. And uh you know, you gotta do it obviously. But the shows are the, well I don’t want to say “easy” but they are easier than the travel as far as I’m concerned. They are not easy. I you know, I work hard at it and ya know I always try to do a great show. I have a wonderful wonderful 5 piece band that are just incredible. So we work hard at it and you know, we aren’t just coasting through it that’s for sure. Um, and uh And you know the audience is a touch wood and I feel blessed. The audiences have always been very enthusiastic. And now as you may guess sometimes there’s two or three generations of people in the audience. The originals of course and then 1986’ reunion, and then and then more recently cause the show keeps playing somewhere, and I’m a believer playing in shrek of course didn’t hurt. So it’s all, and a lot of people love that show. they remember it. Watching it kept them laughing you know.
CC-ZR:
Bonus question: What was the green rice made out of in the “I Was A 99-lb. Weakling” episode? (I want to personally prefice I had forgotten the episode title before he answered)
MD:
Whaaaaaaat? *laughs*
I don’t remember episodes at all. I remember people from the show but the episodes kinda all flow together as one because we filmed them continuously for the season for 6 months. We would start on a Monday for one episode, finish on a Wednesday and then on a Thursday, we would be on another episode. They are all kind of the same episode. So I have absolutely no idea or remember green rice at all.
CC-ZR:
That’s fair. I had to ask. Everything blended together, huh,
MD:
Well, it even did, you know, because, well, like I say, they were continuous episodes, as it were. No, you wouldn’t stop—you wouldn’t do an episode and then stop for a week. Oh, wow. It—it was continuous, literally. Like, on Monday, you’d be on one episode, finish on Wednesday night, and start another episode Thursday morning.
And there were three days for an episode, so you’d go Thursday, Friday, and then the following Monday to finish an episode. Monday night, you’d finish, then start a new episode on Tuesday and go Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday, Monday too. And then, after like three or four episodes, you might get a hiatus for a few days or a week or something. But then you’d start right up again.
It wasn’t like, you know—like I say, it wasn’t like we’d do it and sit around for a week. It wasn’t like that. And it wasn’t like that for any show, frankly, or anybody’s show.
CC-ZR:
You learn something new every day…
Micky, I just want to take a moment to say how much your music—and you personally—have meant to me. I’ve been a fan since I was five, and your talents and gifts have been such a huge inspiration to me musically. It’s amazing to see your work and how it continues to connect with fans. Thank you so much.
MD:
Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~
Micky and his team were kind enough to invite us to the show. We cannot wait to join this Valentine’s Day.
And heck. Maybe I’ll get my high five and I’ll get to run back to my seat to text my mom quickly in New York.
Tune in for the Micky Dolenz – Songs and Stories Tour Dates 2025:
• February 14 – The Strat, Las Vegas, NV
( Tickets for the Las Vegas show available at https://thestrat.com/entertainment/featured/micky-dolenz )
• February 15 – The Edge Pavilion, Laughlin, NV
• March 20 – The Factory, St. Louis, MO
• March 22 – Uptown Theater, Kansas City, MO
• April 10 – Capitol Theater, Clearwater, FL
• April 12 – Seminole Center, Immokalee, FL
• April 13 – The Plaza Live, Orlando, FL
PHOTO CREDITS: Photos of Micky Dolenz Solo Courtesy of dis COMPANY-
Photos of Monkees Memorabilia and Promo from Rhino Records from the collection of Sylvia Lee/Courtesy of Sylvia Lee
Screen grab of Micky performing Goin’ Down From The Monkees TV Series from various sources