With Michael Nesmith’s passing in 2021, Micky Dolenz is now the last surviving member of The Monkees. Ahead of his upcoming tour, in which he plans to play their 1967 album, Headquarters, the first one they had control over and played instruments on, he’s really missing his bandmates, particularly Nesmith.
“It is weird … I gotta be honest … being the last man standing,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I wish to God that Nesmith would have been around long enough to do this album, which he was so responsible for putting together and writing on it and inspiring us to do it.”
Before he died, Nesmith and Dolenz went out on a 40-date tour together. Dolenz says he’s still shocked his bandmate made it through, noting it “was so apparent he had health issues,” but he wouldn’t quit.
“Looking back, I think he saw the writing on the wall. He was a very private person. … He didn’t talk about it,” Dolenz says. “Every once in a while he made some joke about it to me, but I was about the only one he’d even talk to about this. A lot of what he said to me was just through a look. God, I’ll never forget that tour. That was just unbelievable.”
Dolenz says he sometimes gets “philosophical” and wonders why he’s the last surviving member of The Monkees, but he knows “it’s not a question that can really ever be answered in any sense.” Instead, he says, “I am trying to uphold the legacy” of the band, adding, “It’s also my job. This is what I do.”
Dolenz’s tour launches April 1 in Orlando, Florida.
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