The Monkees
From 1965 to early 1970, Nesmith, along with Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones, was a member of the television pop-rock band the Monkees, created for the television situation comedy of the same name. Nesmith won his role largely by appearing nonchalant when he auditioned. He rode his motorcycle to the audition, and wore a bobble hat to keep his hair out of his eyes; producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider remembered the "wool hat guy" and called Nesmith back.
Once he was cast, Screen Gems bought his songs so they could be used in the show. Many of the songs Nesmith wrote for the Monkees, such as "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", "Mary, Mary", and "Listen to the Band" became minor hits. One song he wrote, "You Just May Be the One", is in mixed meter, interspersing 5/4 bars into an otherwise 4/4 structure.
Even before Colgems and Don Kirshner's surreptitious release of the second Monkees album, More of the Monkees, without the knowledge or consent of the four musician-actors, they came to be frustrated by their studio-manufactured "bubblegum" image. Within weeks of the album's release, Nesmith successfully lobbied the group's creators, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, that the Monkees be allowed to play their instruments on future records. During a group meeting with musical supervisor Kirshner and Colgems lawyer Herb Moelis, in a suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel, each actor received a $250,000 royalties check; yet Nesmith still threatened to quit. Moelis rebuked him: "You'd better read your contract". Nesmith defiantly punched a hole in the wall, declaring to Moelis, "That could have been your face, motherfucker!" Weeks later, due to a breach of (verbal) agreement over the next single release, which was promised to Nesmith by Rafelson and Schneider, Nesmith led the charge in ousting Kirshner, effectively giving the four youths complete artistic and production control of their output. The group finally worked as a true four-man rock group on 1967's Headquarters—despite Jones and Dolenz having limited instrumental skills, studio time being expensive and retakes being costly.
During the band's first independent press conference, Nesmith called More of the Monkees "probably the worst record in the history of the world", partly due to rushed, shoddy studio engineering. The band took a hit to its artistic credibility when fans learned the four had not played all the instruments on the first two albums. However, sales continued to be profitable. Headquarters sold 2 million copies, down 2 million units from its predecessor, but still reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard, falling only to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band a week later and remaining at No. 2 all through the entire 1967 Summer of Love.
For the remaining five Monkees LPs, ironically, the original Kirshner formula of hired studio musicians and songwriters again became the norm, although Nesmith, Tork, Dolenz and Jones contributed about 50 percent of the original compositions, Nesmith the majority of those. By the end of the Monkees run, Nesmith was withholding many of his original song ideas from Monkees albums, planning to release them in his post-Monkees solo career.
Nesmith's last contractual Monkees commitment was a commercial for Kool-Aid and Nerf balls in April 1970 (fittingly, the spot ends with Nesmith frowning and saying, "Enerf's enerf!"). As the band's sales declined, Nesmith asked to be released from his contract, despite it costing him: "I had three years left ... at $150,000 [equivalent to $1.16 million in 2022] a year." He remained in a financial bind until 1980, when he received his inheritance from his mother's estate. In a 1980 interview with Playboy, he said of that time: "I had to start telling little tales to the tax man while they were putting tags on the furniture."
Nesmith did not participate in the Monkees' 20th anniversary reunion, due to contractual obligations with his production company, but he did appear during an encore with the three other Monkees at the Greek Theatre on September 7, 1986. In a 1987 interview for Nick Rocks, Nesmith stated, "When Peter called up and said 'we're going to go out, do you want to go?' I was booked. But, if you get to L.A., I'll play." One of his sons auditioned for New Monkees but was not chosen.
Nesmith next joined his fellow Monkees for the 1986 "Monkees Christmas Medley" video for MTV appearing throughout dressed/disguised as Santa Claus until the finale, when he revealed his identity to all.
In 1989, Nesmith reunited with the other members of the Monkees: Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones. Prior to the official kickoff of The Monkees '89 tour (on July 1 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) all four Monkees gathered in Los Angeles, California, making two live radio appearances (KLOS-FM: The Mark and Brian Show on June 28 and KIIS Radio on June 30) to promote their reunion concert at the Universal Amphitheatre on July 9, 1989. The following day, all four band members were in attendance as the Monkees received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
In 1995, Nesmith again reunited with the Monkees to record their studio album (and first to feature all four since Head in 1968), titled Justus, released in 1996. He also wrote and directed a Monkees reunion television special, Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees. To support the reunion, Nesmith, Jones, Dolenz, and Tork briefly toured the UK in 1997. The UK tour was the last time all four Monkees performed as a group.
In 2012–2014, after Jones's death, Nesmith reunited with Dolenz and Tork to perform concerts throughout the United States. Backed with a seven-piece band that included Nesmith's son, Christian, the trio performed 27 songs from The Monkees discography ("Daydream Believer" was sung by the audience). When asked why he had decided to return to the Monkees, Nesmith stated, "I never really left. It is a part of my youth that is always active in my thoughts and part of my overall work as an artist. It stays in a special place."
In 2016, Nesmith contributed to the Monkees' 50th anniversary album Good Times!. He additionally contributed a song, "I Know What I Know", and was reportedly "thrilled" at the outcome of the album. Despite not touring with Dolenz and Tork for the majority of the Monkees' 50th anniversary reunion in 2016, Nesmith did twice fill in for the ailing Peter Tork and appeared for the final show of the tour. It was the last time the three surviving Monkees performed as a group.
In 2018, Nesmith and Dolenz toured together as a duo for the first time under the banner "The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show". The tour was cut short four dates out due to Nesmith having health issues. He was flown back home to undergo quadruple bypass surgery. He contributed two songs to the Monkees' 13th studio album, Christmas Party (the group's first Christmas album), released on October 12, 2018.
In 2019, Nesmith and Dolenz reunited again to make up the cancelled dates of the tour and adding several more dates, including a planned tour of Australia and New Zealand. Nesmith and Dolenz announced a follow-up tour, "An Evening with the Monkees", to begin in early 2020. The tour was delayed, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced by Nesmith and Dolenz on May 4, 2021, that the Monkees would disband following a farewell tour. Dubbed "The Monkees Farewell Tour", the tour consisted of over 40 dates in the United States from September to November. However, because of restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they were not able to play shows in Canada, the UK or Australia. The final date of the tour was held on November 14, 2021, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
