| Monkee-ing Around with Micky Dolenz |
| Written by Peggy Hogan | |||
| Wednesday, 17 October 2012 02:44 | |||
 Micky Dolenz is best known as the lovable lead singer and drummer of The Monkees. He has also made himself a name as a director, radio personality and solo artist since his stint on the Screen Gems television series. Hot off the heels of his latest solo release, Times Square had the chance to speak to Micky about his past and future as an entertainer. Times Square (TS): I was hoping with could start with your story of how you became the voice of The Monkees. Mickey Dolenz (MD): Well the short story is, my parents were both in the business. My mother and father were both actors and singers – my mother sang in the big band era and my father had been an actor in Hollywood. My parents met doing a play in Hollywood, so I was born into a show biz family. I thought everybody's father was an actor. I basically followed in my father's footsteps. My first series, I was ten years old – it was a Screen Gems television series, called Circus Boy. The Monkees was the second series I had –After high school I dabbled around a bit and I started doing little guest shots on television shows in the summer. I was going to be an architect – my friend and I decided we were going to get serious and get a real career and be architects and open up an architectural firm. I went to college for architectural drafting, but I was also doing guest shots on network TV shows and then along that pilot season came the Monkees pilot. It was one of a few pilots I was up for that season that all had something to do with music, but that's the only one that got on the air, and I guess, as they say, the rest is history. TS: While we're taking this stroll down memory lane, I'm wondering if there are any specific episodes or gags that stick out in your mind . MD: You know, I get asked that questions a lot and frankly, I don't remember the process in terms of episodes and I'll tell you why. It's simply because we filmed continuously during a production season. Each episode took three days to shoot so we would start one episode on a Monday and complete it on Wednesday night and then we'd start a brand new episode Thursday morning, and we would film that Thursday, Friday and Monday of the next week, and Tuesday morning we'd start another episode - and so the process was going around and around and around. To my recollection – I mean, I remember the whole Monkees experience but there's very few moments that stand out in any particular episode. I tend to remember people anyway and I remember some of the people that were on the show. I remember the director and the writers and the crew and some of the actors. Like Rose Marie –we got along really well with Rose Marie and I remember Stan Freberg being on an episode because I was a huge Stand Freberg fan. TS: I understand you used to go directly from tapings into the studio to record tracks for the show almost everyday and I'm wondering how you coped with having to invest so much time and energy in your work during that period of your life? MD: I knew the process, certainly of doing a television series and even though during Circus Boy I wasn't recording at night. I was familiar with the whole process. The music side of it was sort of new, but for the most part I had just kind of been around the business for so long, to me it was just part of the job. I approached the Monkees back then the same way I approach it now – I'm an entertainer, actor, singer, musician who was hired to play the part of the wacky drummer on a television show. It wasn't until after I was cast and signed contracts that they informed me that I was going to be the drummer, I said, "Well, I play guitar" and they told me they had enough guitar players. Just like in Circus Boy, they cast me and told me that I was going to be riding an elephant. I just say, "Great, where do I start?" TS: Your new solo album came out very recently, and I was hoping you could tell us a little more about why those songs are so near and dear to your heart. MD: Well this producer named David Harris approached me a few years ago actually, he just told me that he was a fan, that he loved my voice and that he'd like to record me. We chatted about it and eventually we got together and I started playing him some songs that either I'd written, or that were near and dear to me. Then I started telling him some of the stories behind these songs, like for instance, "Johnny B. Goode", which was my audition piece for The Monkees and I told him the story of "Sugar Sugar" which was supposed to be the next Monkees tune. It's the song that kind of blew everything up. Donny Kershwin was fired so we didn't record it and Donny went and got it recorded by others, for The Archies, the animated show. We were originally going to call the album Scrapbook, or because it's kind of a musical scrapbook of my life and the songs and moments that were important for one reason or another – just little moments of my life. TS: Have you played B.B. King's before? Is it a venue you have any sort of previous relationship with? MD: Yes, I've done a number of charity events there and I believe this is the first time I'm playing it as a solo artist. So that'll be special and on top of that, I'm premiering a couple songs off my new album. TS: Do you find that audiences in New York are particular in anyway that's different from other major cities in the US? MD: I can only speak for myself but New York audiences have always been for me, and for The Monkees, extremely enthusiastic. I have quite a history there. I did Broadway musicals there, I was the morning jock at CBS FM for several months and my last show there was a live broadcast from B.B. King's. I love the club, it's a great venue to play, and I must stay, I'm really looking forward to this show. Mickey Dolenz Plays B.B. King's on Oct 19th. For more Times Square articles like Monkee-ing Around with Micky Dolenz, please visit the Music Interviews Section of TimesSquare.com PLUS- Follow us on Facebook.com/TimesSquareTwitter.com/eTimesSquare & get a free copy of Times Square Magazine
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