Guest opinion: Monkees deserve Hall of Fame enshrinement

Mike Nesmith is dead. And I don’t feel too good myself. (I readily admit that I stole that joke from the late, great Lewis Grizzard.)

Mike Nesmith was the only one of the Monkees that I didn’t know. OK,…..maybe “know” is a strong word,….but I interviewed Peter Tork and spent about a half hour with him, met Davy Jones, and actually WORKED with Micky Dolenz twice.

Peter Tork was in town with the Monkees in the late 90s. I was a weatherman at NBC-2, and interviewed him for our noon newscast. Being a big Monkees fan, I needed no notes at all, and Peter and I spent much of the interview talking about classical music. We both were forced to play Shostakovich in high school, and both remembered the experience is being challenging, and somewhat painful. To me, Peter was a sweet, and somewhat sensitive guy. He lived in San Francisco for a lot years, and I think he kind of embodied the vibe of that city. (He actually tried to hit on my wife, who was the producer of the newscast, but I couldn’t blame him.)

I met Davy briefly after that same concert, but became more friendly with his daughter Jessica, who was overseeing the backstage meet and greet. She was quite short (surprise), very cute, and funny. I remember her telling me “If that guy in the corner doesn’t stop staring directly at my arse, there is going to be trouble!” (Jessica actually used much spicier language, but my Auntie Darl could be reading this post in heaven.)

However, my Micky Dolenz story is much better. I was the emcee for two of his concerts at the Decatur Celebration in the early 90s. He was doing a solo act, but sang many of his Monkees hits. His two shows were identical, and at the beginning of the second show he actually said, “if you were here for the first show, you’ll find out these are the only jokes I know.”

I was standing in the wings of the stage, as I was instructed to bring him off stage after the show, but then bring him back on stage for his encores. Micky and I had chatted a bit between shows, as he did a backstage autograph session after the first concert, so we became a bit friendly.

For the second show, there was a sign language interpreter on stage, as a group of hearing impaired people were located up front to the right of the stage. Micky was doing the same set list as the first show, and he was about to go into a great, SUPER up tempo tune called Going Down, which is a favorite of mine. (Musicians will recognize this as a variation of the old Dixieland classic Tiger Rag, which Micky would actually occasionally break into when performing live.)

Just before starting Going Down, Mickey turned to the sign language interpreter, and said, “ummmm, good luck with this one.” Micky caught my eye, knowing that I knew what song was next, and we both enjoyed a legitimate 5 second laugh together. (As Micky predicted, the interpreter was unable to sign the lyrics, so she just clapped her hands to the beat. For most of the song, Mickey stood next to her and had his arm around the interpreter. Very classy.)

Here’s the reason that I don’t feel good about the death of Mike Nesmith. There is absolutely NO QUESTION that The Monkees should be in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The traditional knock on them was that “they didn’t play their own instruments”, which they didn’t for only their first two albums. Anyone who’s seen the great Wrecking Crew documentary knows that many bands of that era NEVER played their own instruments, ever!

Years ago, I bought a 3 CD set of the Monkees greatest hits. 16 songs each CD. Not one clunker in the bunch. However, I do take solace is the fact that Micky Dolenz is the last living remaining member of the Monkees. If any of you have read his autobiography, which I highly recommend, you know Micky doesn’t pull any punches, and is very honest about everything, even himself. I highly anticipate his frank, and LONG overdue acceptance speech on behalf of the other three members,….an acceptance speech that will hopefully shock Auntie Darl in Heaven. But that’s ok. She was more of a Dukes of Dixieland fan anyway.

Jim Syoen was the The Chief Meteorologist at Fox 4 from 2009-2015, and morning weatherman at NBC-2 from 1995-2007. He lives in New Orleans.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame needs to open its doors for The Monkees