Peter Noone, Davy Jones: A blast from the past
By Will Harris - The Virginia Post
October 27, 2011

First meetings don’t get much more memorable than the one between the Monkees’ Davy Jones and Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits: During their initial encounter in 1967, Noone introduced Jones and his bandmates to The Beatles.

“I just happened to be with a couple of The Beatles at a TV show, and the Monkees were at another TV show, and I walked over with them,” said Noone. “I met Davy then, and I don’t believe I ever saw him again until the ’80s. Now, though, we do dates frequently, and it’s kind of a good little bill.”

Noone and Jones, icons of the 1960s English pop-rock era, will perform at the Ferguson Center for the Arts on Saturday.

During their performances, Jones mixes Monkees’ hits and signature solo numbers. Yes, “Brady Bunch” fans, “Girl” generally makes an appearance. Recent performances have found him delivering “Daddy’s Song,” an all-but-forgotten Harry Nilsson number buried on the soundtrack to the Monkees’ lone cinematic outing, “Head.”

Noone would love to follow suit and perform a few rarities of his own, but he’s found that fans tend to rebel if he shakes up the set list too much.

“I get fans who say, ‘Why don’t you ever do such-and-such a song?’ And I say, ‘Well, I’d have to drop one of the songs that sold millions,’?” Noone said.

“But, you know, you can’t drop ‘Henry the VIII, I Am,’ You can’t drop ‘Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,’ You can’t drop ‘I’m Into Something Good,’ You can’t drop ‘There’s a Kind of Hush,’ and it goes on and on and on. So I end up doing basically the 12 top-10 singles at every show.”

Although both originally hail from Manchester, England, Noone and Jones now spend the majority of their time in the States.

“There’s a limited amount of scope in England for showmen,” said Jones. “You’ve got a few summer venues that one can play, but it really closes down after that. A lot of entertainers headline in Christmas pantomimes or what have you, but there’s not much else. Peter, like myself, has been over in America for most of his career, so he’s pretty much Americanized, I guess. There can’t be any cities he hasn’t played, and I’m sure it’s the same with me.”

Noone agrees that both he and Jones are “Yankophiles,” but the reasons vary, he says.

“Davy’s been married to American women, and most men end up living where their wives want to live,” laughed Noone. “Which, as my wife is French, is why we lived in France for a while. … I have a little, tiny apartment in London, but I also have a very big family in England. My mum, my brother, my sister – they’re all still European, and the Noones are a close-knit clan, so we spend a lot of time with each other.”

Though they’ve each been entertaining audiences in one capacity or another for half a century now, both are confident their voices are stronger than ever. Noone credits his strength as a singer to lessons from voice coach Marge Rivingston, who has worked with Bette Midler and James Taylor, among others.

Jones chalks up his continued vocal abilities to maintaining a certain discipline on the road.

“When I did the concerts with the Monkees this past summer, I’d finish the show, do the meet-and-greet and talk to the people I had to talk to, and then I’d go directly to my hotel room, into the shower and then into my bed to relax and watch TV.

“In the old days, you’d get on the bus, you’d have a scotch or a beer. Now, you have a cup of tea. Preferably chamomile. Something with no caffeine in it. My voice is stronger, and I sing with more confidence than I ever have, but it’s only because I take care of myself.”

The Monkees' Davy Jones Recalls Beatles Friendship and Mike Nesmith's Disloyalty
By Pat Pemberton
Spinner.com
July 13, 2011

When he appeared on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' with the Beatles in 1964, Davy Jones had no idea he was staring at his future.

On the show, he performed a song from 'Oliver!' the Broadway show he was acting in at the time. But two years later, he'd be cast in 'The Monkees,' a TV show about a band similar to the Beatles and inspired by the Fab Four movie 'A Hard Day's Night.'

Despite its origins as a pretend band, the Monkees became a real one after insisting they play their own instruments and write their own songs. Meanwhile, tunes like 'Daydream Believer,' 'Last Train to Clarksville' and 'I'm a Believer' were smash hits, contributing to Monkeemania.

While the show only lasted two years, the Monkees -- Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith -- would occasionally reunite. Currently, they are celebrating their 45th year with a tour that doesn't include Nesmith, who opted not to join the band.

Jones recently spoke to Spinner about the reunion and the band's storied past.

In the past, you said, "Never, ever, ever again" to a reunion. It's almost like athletes who say they're going to retire but can't keep away.

I said I wouldn't go out without Mike Nesmith. And then I looked at a picture of Mike Nesmith, and he looks like a German banker. And I thought, "There's no way that guy's gonna stand on a stage and be Mike Nesmith of the Monkees." And then a management company came to me and said, "We'd like to take the Monkees out. What do you think?" And I said, "I don't think so -- my schedule's busy." This was last year.

Then, they said, "Can't you please?" I said, "I've got [solo] dates." Then I said, "If you come up with something and Micky and Peter say yes, I'll consider it." Well, Micky was over in England doing 'Hairspray' and I went to see him after he'd done press for the show, and we got along real good. Then we talked and laughed and discussed stuff we'd done.

Early on, you had a major appearance on 'Ed Sullivan,' which happened to be the same episode the Beatles were on. What was the pressure like for that appearance, knowing the Beatles were on and so many people would be watching?

No pressure whatsoever. I did what I did. I came out the stage door every night, and when I performed as the Artful Dodger and came out for my bow, there was still a great applause. And I thought the 10 kids outside the stage door looking for my autograph after the show was the bee's knees. Then I saw the barricades outside the Ed Sullivan Theater and I'm thinking, "Wow, man."

Afterward, they sent me out to Hollywood many, many times [for auditions]. You know, 'The Wackiest Ship in the Army,' 'Hogan's Heroes,' 'F Troop,' 'Batman' and all that stuff. But just as all that was happening, along came the idea for 'The Monkees,' and the producer, Burt Schneider, his father was the head of Columbia Pictures, so obviously I had a foot in the door there -- I was already signed to Columbia Pictures. We just had to find three other boys, which we did. And we clicked, and we did 56 episodes, and it went to 36 countries around the world, and they're still playing the music, and we're still on tour.

The Beatles would go on to say they were fans of the Monkees. How important was their approval?

It means something that anybody likes us. Paul McCartney called me up in the '60s and asked me to send some stuff to his daughter, who was a fan of the Monkees. And Micky has tapes and videos of George Harrison and Ringo Starr at his house, in the Canyon, in the late '60s, down in his little studio, playing. Those tapes must be great to listen to.

It's great the Beatles loved us.

How did the Monkees get along in the early days?

We'd get on the set, we'd improvise and we'd be laughing so much, the producer would say, "If you don't stop laughing and get on with it, we're closing the set down."

Micky and I and my wife and our children always used to get together on a Sunday when we were doing the Monkees show, either at his pool or my pool. We'd have a barbecue and the kids would swim. We'd all go to a park in the San Fernando Valley, and we'd be playing with Alice Cooper's Vampires. He had a baseball team, and we used to play different teams, local and otherwise. Peter Tork was a great third baseman, Micky Dolenz a great first baseman. I played second base. I don't know where Alice was, but he organized the whole thing.

Even though 'Last Train to Clarksville' was secretly about Vietnam, the Monkees strayed from controversy. Why?

The world was changing, and they were trying to hide the fact that it was. We were told never to talk about politics, never to talk about the war and never to talk about the marches. If I've got any regret whatsoever, it's that I didn't march to Washington with everybody when they did have the civil rights march.

Critics would talk about you guys not meeting organically, but it's really kind of brilliant how a great band was created, playing great songs written by great songwriters.

Don Kirshner supplied the Monkees with tunes from all these great songwriters. But just because he provided the tunes, he can't claim the success of the Monkees. Even some of the songwriters were like, "I wish I had done that song." But they wouldn't have done anything with it, had they done that song. We had a TV show supporting us. DJs were taking the records off the TV that week and playing them on the radio.

When the Monkees made their bid for more control, you guys were really still new. It was kind of a bold move for you guys to say, "We want more control." Was there ever a feeling like "Maybe we shouldn't mess with a good thing?"

It wasn't spoiling a good thing. It would have become tiresome.

It was mostly Peter and Mike. But Mike had ulterior motives. Mike had the B-side of every single we did. Therefore, he's driving an El Dorado, and I'm driving a Volkswagen. I'm not aware of any of this -- I'm an actor, employed by a studio. I'm not doing any of that. He knew all about that. If he had spent more time on his acting, that would have been better, but he didn't show up half the time. He wouldn't come in for a show or whatever. And then we find that he's got albums and he's got deals and all that other stuff going on. So Mike never really put his 100 percent into the marriage. He only was on the surface of the marriage. He signed the paper not with us, but with other people. And that's the way he is whenever he's come back. In 1998-1999, we made an album and we went to England, we sold out everywhere. We arranged to meet in January for a week's rehearsal, and he just didn't show up.

You went from being an establishment-created band to anti-establishment in that you rebelled against it. Is that what gave you cred among rock fans?

I don't think we ever really rebelled against it. We asked for things that they hadn't considered. We never considered that Micky Dolenz and I would be driving down the street to a rented house after we made the pilot, and all of the sudden 'Last Train to Clarksville' comes on the radio. We had never thought about it going on the radio. It came on before the TV show, so we were like, "What's this?"

I didn't say at that time, "Let me renegotiate my contract." I just went on and took the $400 a week they were giving me. Break it down to hours, and it was probably 25 cents an hour, given the time we spent on it.

But you don't all of the sudden work for GM or Ford or whoever it might be on the line and after two years turn around and say, "I want to own the company." You own the company if you buy the company or if you invest in the company. Micky and I were just interested in performing and working. We were actors, playing the parts of rock 'n' roll singers.

The Monkees' Davy Jones has a third wife half his age and is happiest he's ever been
By Richard Barber
DailyMail.co.uk Online
May 12, 2011

Still monkeying around! A third wife half his age. A new British tour with The Monkees. No wonder Davy Jones says he's the happiest he's ever been

Davy Jones fell in love with his third wife just weeks after they had been cast in a production of Cinderella. ‘She turned to me one day,’ he recalls, ‘and said: “Let’s run upstairs and make love.” I looked at her. “At my age,” I said, “it’s going to have to be one or the other.”

At 65, Manchester-born Davy may no longer be taking the stairs two at a time, but there’s little doubting the passion between him and his beautiful 33-year-old wife Jessica Pacheco.

And yet if you are to believe even half of the stories circulating in the U.S. supermarket tabloids, Davy’s third marriage isn’t so much passionate as tempestuous; perhaps even physically abusive.

It’s an accusation he vehemently denies, but as the recently reassembled Monkees prepare to tour the UK - minus original band member Mike Nesmith - Davy can’t fail to be aware that he’s stepping back once more into what must sometimes seem like the unwelcome spotlight which he first experienced when the band were formed in the mid-Sixties.

We meet at his house on the shores of the Atlantic in Florida. He and Jessica are on the beach every day, and sometimes enjoy a midnight swim.

At close quarters, Davy has weathered the passing of the years better than any of his bandmates. Maybe it’s because he’s so compact. ‘I used to be 5ft 4in,’ he says, ‘but I’ve lost an inch.’

What he has not lost is the nagging sense of inadequacy which, he says, has plagued him for his entire career.

‘Even today, I have an inferiority complex,’ he confesses at one point. ‘I always feel I’m there at the window, looking in. Except when I’m on stage, and then I really come alive.’ When Davy first got together with Jessica in 2006, his four daughters from his first two marriages were, to say the least, a little wary (his word) of the relationship.

‘First, she was half my age, and second, or so they’ve since said, they didn’t want me to get hurt any more.’

Each of his two previous wives had been pregnant by him before he’d slipped a ring on their finger. His first wife, an American named Linda, produced Talia, now 42, then Sarah, 39, whose two children make Davy a grandfather.

But the marriage fell apart in the mid-Seventies. ‘She was drifting away from me,’ he recalls. ‘She’d spend the weekend in LA. I had the kids. It was only years later that I found she’d had other interests.’

Other men? ‘Yeah.’

He admits, though, that he was far from the perfect parent. ‘I missed the school play. I missed the Christmas nativity. These are times when an entertainer works. But that doesn’t mean the guilt ever goes away.’

After his divorce in 1975, Davy went on the road with fellow Monkee Micky Dolenz and two other musicians.

‘I was single and a real rascal. But I’m not proud of the way I behaved during those times: I’ve always believed the best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.’

In the early Eighties, he met an English singer called Anita Pollinger.

‘We had an affair, and then she called me from Ireland to say that she was pregnant,’ says Davy. ‘A few days later, she called to say she’d miscarried.

‘Soon after that, she fell pregnant again. I thought I ought to do the decent thing by her and we got married.’

They also had two daughters, Jessica, now 29, and later Annabel, who is 22. But Davy admits that by the time their second child came along, the marriage was struggling.

‘I thought that if we had another baby, it would help me to grow up. But I was riding my horses; I was doing what I wanted to do. I wasn’t being unfaithful - but I was putting myself first.’

He and Anita eventually separated, and by the mid-Nineties Davy found himself twice divorced. At that point, he says, he could never imagine marrying again.

But five years ago he met Jessica Pacheco in Florida - and found himself smitten. And, to his amazement, his feelings were reciprocated.

After a three-year courtship, they were married. ‘I wanted to make an honest woman of her,’ he says with a smile.

So, what of the stories that they have a tempestuous marriage?

‘Verbally, yes, sometimes we do,’ he admits. ‘But then, isn’t that true of every relationship?

‘There was the time we had a screaming match, she walked out - slamming the front door - and went to stay the night with her parents.’

But the allegations are that their differences have gone beyond shouting. Davy insists that the falling out started as the result of a joke.

He recalls: ‘I had a groom working with me at my Pennsylvania farm and there was a guy building me a stone wall. The groom’s mother works on a local magazine and was going to do an article on me.

‘I was out one morning feeding the horses, being friendly to the groom and cracking jokes to the guy working on the wall. Eventually, I said: “Well, it’s 8.15, I’d better get back inside to start the coffee and the toast. If I don’t get Jessie her breakfast in time, I’ll be in trouble.”

A few days later, the groom’s mother turned up for the interview. ‘When the article appeared, it said that Jessie had me wrapped around her little finger.

‘When she read it, Jessie exploded. “What’s this, David?” she said.

‘I tried to explain, but she told me I was stupid and that I should learn to button my lip. It escalated into a major row and she stormed out and drove down to Florida, leaving me to follow the next day with all the horses.’

Before he could do that, he had to honour a commitment to appear at a local pub, where the same woman journalist turned up. ‘She told me she understood that Jessie had left me. I told her that wasn’t the case and please could she stop writing false stories about me.’

But further ‘evidence’ had come to light, she said. Jessica - whose parents are Cuban - had been seen locally with what looked like two black eyes and a cut above one of them. Davy had also been sporting a shiner.

He takes a deep breath as he gives his account of events.

‘Jessica had recently been on the beach,’ he says, ‘and had forgotten to take her sunglasses. You know how strong the sun is here - it made it look the next day as though the area around her eyes was bruised.

‘Then she was applying shadow to her eyelid and her fingernail nicked the skin.’

Around the same time, Davy was walking back home and absent-mindedly walked smack, bang into a lamppost.

He has the grace to grin sheepishly. ‘I know. I know. It sounds like a classic line, doesn’t it? But it happens to be true.’ Whatever you might think of his convoluted explanation, the accumulation of all this conjecture led to a call from the National Enquirer. Word had reached them that Davy and Jessica had a verbally and physically abusive relationship.

‘I denied it, of course, but they printed the story anyway,’ he says. It coincided with the build-up to the couple’s wedding two years ago, which his four daughters - made aware of the printed allegations - duly boycotted.

‘The girls were worried for me - they didn’t know what to believe,’ he says.

Today, however, he says his wife and four daughters are reconciled. ‘The girls have seen me and Jessie together. They know how much we mean to each other. We’re inseparable.’

It must be odd, though, for Jessica that two of her stepdaughters are older than she is.

‘Jessie doesn’t mind,’ says Davy. ‘She regards all of them more as the sisters she never had.’

And what about age difference? Doesn’t that worry him?

‘Not in the least. We have love. We have friendship. She’s also aware of what I’ve done in music, and the fact that I no longer really need to prove anything.

‘I like working, but I’m very selective; whereas Jessie is determined to reach a wider audience.’

An actress who has appeared in a popular TV soap, Jessica now devotes much of her time to her dance group, Flamenco Express. In fact, when The Monkees begin their 12-date tour in Liverpool tomorrow, she will be dancing in the show.

‘She’d have come to the UK with me anyway, but it’s a bonus for her to be involved like this. She tells me she can’t wait to dance on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall during the tour. She’ll be doing something she likes with someone she loves.’

It will be fascinating to see how the crowds react after all these years, but most of the fans will remember the eponymous TV show that was such a hit all over the world. The tunes were so instantly catchy that in 1968 The Monkees sold more records than The Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined.

So why are Davy, Micky and Peter Tork bothering to get together again more than 40 years on?

‘I still get around 30 letters a week, and I must sign around 100 photographs a month for the fan club in New York,’ says Davy. Then, of course, there’s the fact that each of the three participating Monkees will make an estimated million dollars apiece.

The one glaring omission from the line-up this time will be Mike Nesmith, about whom Davy doesn’t pull his punches.

‘He was resentful of The Monkees from the start,’ he says. ‘I think he didn’t want the band to be the way he was identified musically.’

Certainly, Davy doesn’t seem unduly upset that only three-quarters of the band will be touring. He says he has the love of a good woman, and has cemented his place in pop culture.

‘Wherever I go, people still shout out: “Hey, hey, we’re The Monkees!” And I never tire of that.

‘We touched a lot of lives. I won’t ever stop being grateful for that."

Davy Jones on The Monkee's unlikely rise to fame and how they have put their differences behind them
The Daily Record.co.uk
May 1, 2011

A TEENAGE Davy Jones thought he'd hit the big time when he starred as the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver on Broadway.

It had only been four years since he'd turned his back on a promising career as a jockey to make his stage debut as an actor in Edinburgh.

But on February 9, 1964, Davy was an eyewitness to an event which made music history and set him on the road to being a pop superstar.

The cast of Oliver had been invited to guest on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York. They had to take second billing to a new act who were appearing on US television for the very first time. Their name? The Beatles.

As Davy watched John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr power through All My Loving, Till There Was You and She Loves You - to a then record TV audience of 73million viewers - he said to himself, "I want a piece of that".

Within a year, Davy had answered a job advert for "4 insane boys wanted for a new TV series" placed by producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider in The Hollywood Reporter. They wanted to create America's very own version of The Fab Four.

Davy joined fellow actor Micky Dolenz and aspiring musicians Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith to form The Monkees, who also became a pop phenomenon with classic hits such as Daydream Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Last Train To Clarksville and I'm A Believer.

They chalked up record sales in excess of 50million.

This year, Davy, 65, who was born in Manchester, celebrates his 50th anniversary in showbiz.

He said: "My first ever stage performance was in Edinburgh in 1960. I appeared in a production of Peter Pan with John Gregson, Anne Haywood and Jane Asher, who became Paul McCartney's girlfriend.

"I was just 15 years old and quit my job as an apprentice jockey. My success in Scotland led directly to landing the role of the Artful Dodger first in the West End of London and then on Broadway.

"I loved my time in Edinburgh. I bought a kilt, sporran, the lot. I still have the kilt. All four of my daughters have also worn it over the years. America changed my life but I still think of home and working in Scotland was an important part of that."

Seeing The Beatles changed the course of Davy's career. In 1964, the band's manager Brian Epstein was anxious to break them in the States and signed a deal with Ed Sullivan for his boys to play live on his show on three consecutive Sundays.

Their appearances became milestones in entertainment history.

Davy recalled: "I was standing in the elevator when Ringo Starr got in. When I saw them play, that's when the power of pop music first struck me. Within weeks, I was signed to Colpix Records and making demos."

Davy became friends with The Beatles. John Lennon loved The Monkees and dubbed them "the Marx Brothers of Rock". He never missed an episode of their TV show, saying, "They've got their own scene and I won't put them down for it. You try a weekly television show and see if you can manage one half as good."

In 1967, when The Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at Abbey Road in London, they hosted a party for their US rivals.

Now, The Monkees - Davy, Micky and Peter - have resolved past differences and are planning a 45th anniversary UK tour which includes a gig in Glasgow.

Davy said: "The Monkees are probably one of the only bands where all of the original members are still alive. This 45th anniversary is kind of weird. I have four beautiful daughters whose ages range from 22 to 42 and they all love music and go to rock festivals.

"But I wonder if they'll have the same desire to continue with music. Are guys like Oasis or Blur interested in that longevity? John Lennon once said, 'I don't want to be 40, wearing a silver suit and playing in Las Vegas'. But most major artists, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Celine Dion, are doing just that. They're playing residencies and pulling in the crowds."

But Davy paid the price for being a pop idol. He admitted: "The Monkees changed my life but ruined my acting career. Once you get into something so big, people think of you in one way. I've played Vegas, Disneyworld and TV shows across America. The country has been the bedrock of my career. I don't get offered acting jobs in Britain. Or if I did, I can't wait around for a few panto appearances."

The Monkees' career was blighted by fierce disagreements with producer Don Kirshner. He didn't think they had enough talent and insisted on recruiting songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond, Harry Nilsson and Carole King. Tracks were recorded by session musicians and in1967 they faced a press backlash for not playing on their songs and were nicknamed "the pre-Fab Four".

Davy said: "People said we didn't play our own music. Do you think The Beach Boys played one note on Good Vibrations? You just did what was required for the job at the time."

Two years later, Tork quit the group and Nesmith walked out in 1969.

Since then, there have been several reunions, the most recent in 1996 when they played at the SECC.

When The Monkees hit Glasgow this time, guitarist Mike Nesmith won't be in the line-up. He's taking no part in the anniversary celebrations. Nesmith certainly doesn't need the money. His mother Bette Nesmith Graham was the inventor of Liquid Paper correcting fluid and bequeathed him $25million in her will when she died in the 1970s.

Davy said: "It's a shame Mike is not involved. He's very busy on other projects. But it's never say never."

Davy, Micky and Peter have also denied press reports that tensions have been running high at rehearsals.

He said: "The tour has been such a pleasure. How many guys of my age can say they still love what they do? The Monkees made about 10 albums. We could probably have done more. Now, it's more about playing the music."

Interview: Gordon Barr speaks to Davy Jones of The Monkees
ChronicleLive.co.uk
April 22, 2011

THE Monkees are in Newcastle next month to celebrate 45 years in showbusiness. Entertainment editor Gordon Barr meets up with English band member Davy Jones.

JUSTIN Bieber stole my haircut!

Despite him being four times Bieber’s age, that’s the proclamation from The Monkees singer Davy Jones.

Davy - he’s now 65 - is in fine form as we chat about the forthcoming 45th anniversary tour of the group who once rivaled the Beatles in popularity terms.

“Everyone is getting excited that The Monkees are going to be on the road again.

“This guy Justin Bieber? He stole my haircut! And that Axl Rose, he stole my dance! Plus, I’m the guy that made David Bowie change his name,” laughs Manchester-born Davy from his home in Florida.

“Seriously, though, it’s great to still be going and playing venues like Newcastle City Hall - and to fans of all ages. I’m loving it.”

That City Hall gig takes place on May 15, when the original TV boy band will be back together for their first UK tour in 12 years, featuring Davy, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork (Mike Nesmith is not touring with them).

The Monkees wrote the script for modern-day pop music, selling 50 million records with hits such as Daydream Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, I’m a Believer and (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.

They provided the soundtrack to teenage lives on both sides of the Atlantic from the 60s onwards, with the TV series being repeated throughout the 80s and a whole new legion of fans exposed to their crazy antics - even now, courtesy of the internet.

“We’ve been talking wardrobe for The Monkees tour, which is quite incredible. I mean we are all in our sixties so we will hardly be wearing Black Eyed Peas outfits!” smiles Davy.

“I have put the show together and chosen a lot of songs the fans will remember and enjoy, and not just the obvious ones.

“There are lots of hits but lots of other songs played on the TV show that were favourites. We asked our fans via the web what tunes they wanted to hear.

“I was listening to some Mike Nesmith songs the other day and, just because he isn’t going to join us, doesn’t mean we can’t include some of his material. He was so absolutely prolific.

“There is an audience for everything. You know, it is never the same old same old with me, because every time I sing Daydream Believer it is the first time some of those people will have heard me sing it.

“I am so blessed. The world is in a horrendous state of economic, social and moral decay at this particular point and I hope we can just let people forget their troubles for a while.”

Davy shows no signs of slowing down either. “My goals as a kid were to walk on a tightrope, run the marathon (I did London in 1985) ride on a camel and be in showbusiness. “My dad told me I needed to get a job, then a savings account and, when I got that savings account, I would get credentials and buy my own house.

“When I bought my dad a house in Manchester in 1967 for 3,700, he said he was not moving out of his terrace. He did not want to have a mortgage. I told him I was paying for it all. That is all he ever wanted – stability, his house and car paid for. Nothing was bought on the never never.

“Money is very important as you get older, but that is not why we are doing this tour.The fans are asking us to do this.

“The fun of the fair is not over - The Monkees can still entertain and be the way they were. The skipping’s not happening too much anymore, obviously!”

When he’s not out on the road, Davy enjoys nothing more than spending time at his home in Florida, especially during the spring and summer months.

“I love this time of year, one of the reasons being my horses. Once I have finished all my chores, if I haven’t ridden in the morning, I can go in the evening.

“It was always my dream to end up by the ocean and we have a nice little apartment on the beach in Hollywood, Florida, funnily enough in the same street name, Franklin Street, as we had in Hollywood, California.

“We had a house in the hills above Sunset Strip years ago and so it is kind of crazy. It’s a full circle thing.

Davy Jones is not fed up of Monkeeing around with his band mates
By Andy Welch
Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk
April 28, 2011

The Monkees have been closeted in a small room all day doing interviews. It’s a nice room, a book-filled nook of a London members’ club, and there’s endless tea and biscuits, but a small room nonetheless.

Davy Jones, who was born in Openshaw and lived near Debdale Park, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz are here to talk about their forthcoming 45th anniversary tour and two-CD Best Of, Monkeemania.

This morning they were probably fresh and full of the joys of spring, but now, several hours in to their promotional duties, the trio are starting to flag.

The band’s drummer, Dolenz, is sitting, nay lying, on the end of the couch, hat pulled down over his eyes like a cowboy catching an afternoon nap.

He’s snatched a few hours off from performing in an award-winning touring production of Sixties-set musical Hairspray.

Jones, however, is up on his feet. He’s 65 now, but still has the glint in his eye of a former teen idol. The band’s only Brit now lives in the States and only a trace of a British accent remains. Despite this, he doesn’t sound American either.

He chats 50 to the dozen, with Tork and Dolenz rarely getting a word in. They seem happy enough, though, perhaps used to him after all these years.

“I’m doing great,” Jones says. “I’m doing exactly what I want to do, I’m still riding my horses, I’ve got beautiful kids and I’m with my lovely wife,” he adds, referring to his 33-year-old third spouse Jessica Pacheco, a model, dancer and actress from Miami.

“And here I am with my buddies. We’re here to play music and I do that all the time, but it’s not the same if I’m not with them.”

The Monkees were the first made-for-TV band, formed when two young film-makers, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, inspired by The Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night, pitched an idea for a TV show about a band.

Dolenz and Jones were already child stars of stage and screen, Tork and Mike Nesmith answered the casting call and starred in the series for two years.

During this time, the band made their TV show, which was exported around the world and is still repeated today, and released albums of songs written by the best on offer at the ‘Brill Building’ - the New York hit factory that boasted Neil Sedaka, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Diamond and, chiefly, prolific duo Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart among its ranks of staff songwriters.

The formula, however contrived, worked a treat. During 1967 The Monkees outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined in the US, going on to sell around 50m records worldwide.

Strangely, when the trio talk today about their songs, they get confused over which of the writers was responsible for which hit. As Jones explains, though, it’s understandable. “We’ve just got so many hits! That’s the problem when we’re picking a set list.”

Dolenz adds: “The last time we were together like this in a room was 2002.

“Davy and I haven’t spoken or seen each other for a few years, but the things we all went through in the sixties and the time we spent together means we’re just as tight now as we were then.”

Nesmith, the band’s former guitarist, opted not to join in on the reunion. Jones says he just didn’t fancy it, but he was asked and there’s no animosity.

“You have to be ready to play, prepared, and I don’t think Mike was up for this level of involvement – the up and down and all over the place.

“I wanted to do this because every time I go anywhere, people say, ‘Where’s Micky?’ or, ‘Where’s Peter?’ or, ‘Are The Monkees going to get back together?” Settling into his flow, Jones adds there was a point a couple of years ago when he thought he wouldn’t do it again (this is technically the band’s fourth reformation).

“I’ve enjoyed doing my own shows for the past few years - cabaret, singing hit after hit and all that schtick, but it’s just not the same playing I’m A Believer or Stepping Stone without these guys.

“I have other songs I do, a bit of country, big band stuff, but it’s The Monkees’ songs people want to hear. I get letters all the time from people asking about the band.”

Looking forward, the trio aren’t too sure what’ll happen next, whether they will carry on for another tour or call it a day for good. Jones remains optimistic and believes that as long as they keep performing the hits such as Daydream Believer, Last Train To Clarkesville and the aforementioned Stepping Stone and I’m A Believer, audiences will accept other material they want to try too.

Ultimately, the threesome are just excited to be back on the road after all this time.

The Monkees play Manchester Apollo on May 14. Monkeemania: The Very Best Of The Monkees is released on Monday May 9.

Fans of Monkees singer Davy Jones leave show with lots to rave about
By Michael Fortuna
The Villages Daily Sun: Local News
March 15, 2011

THE VILLAGES - A group of teachers decided to have a little fun for the Davy Jones concert.

For the first of two shows Monday night at Savannah Center, six out of the seven elementary school teachers came dressed in black T-shirts with a heart-shaped photo of The Monkees singer along with the words “I Love Davy” around the heart.

Pat Roy and Pam Wells, who live in Lady Lake; Susan Mitchell, a Village of Santo Domingo resident; Susan Rayment, a Village of Santiago resident; Nancy Humes, who lives in Leesburg; Nancy Bryson, a Village of Winifred resident; and Carolyn Hunter, who lives in Fruitland Park, hadn’t seen Jones perform live, but they remembered being glued to the TV set when “The Monkees” came on.

As for Monday’s show, the seven gave reviews such as “awesome” and “great.”

“He’s hot,” Roy said.

“It was a lot of fun to relive moments of your past,” Bryson said.

“We had a great time,” Mitchell said.

Rocky and the Rollers got things warmed up in the Scarlett O’Hara Theater before Jones was introduced as “the greatest tambourine player in the world.”

With camera flashes going off, Jones walked up to his microphone, only to find the stand a bit higher than himself.

“I’m Davy’s dad,” Jones joked to the audience. “Davy will be out here in a minute.”

After throwing a few jokes into the audience, Jones - along with Aviva Maloney on sax and keyboards, Dave Robicheau on lead guitar, Eric Biondo on trumpet and percussion,

Jimmy Riccitelli on keyboards; Johnny J. Blair on bass; and Felipe Torres on drums - broke into “I’m a Believer.”

The band also brought back such Monkees’ hits as “Papa Gene’s Blues,” “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” “I Wanna Be Free,” “Girl,” as well as new songs like “Amore” and “I Love You Forever.”

Jones went down Broadway for a song when he performed “Consider Yourself” from the musical “Oliver!” - the same musical he starred in when he was 15 years old.

“Then I joined the Monkees, and that ruined my acting career,” Jones told the audience.

At one point, the seven teachers stood up and shouted, “We still love you, Davy!”

Then Jones said: “My sisters. Just stop drinking.”

To add a bit of variety throughout the show, Jessica Pacheco and Jose Junco from Flamenco Express wowed the audience with their Latin dancing.

Jones closed the first show with “Daydream Believer” and audience members waving their hands from side to side and singing the chorus.

Carol Hickman, who was a fan of the TV show back in younger days, had seen the Monkees perform live “years and years ago” in Richmond, Va.

Now she was returning to see Jones on stage here in The Villages.

“Davy was great,” said Hickman, who lives in the Village of Hadley. “It brought back a lot of memories. He was such a cutie. He still is.”

Davy Jones to give two shows March 14 at Savannah Center
By Michael Fortuna
The Villages Daily Sun: Villages
March 3, 2011

THE VILLAGES - For 45 years, the members of the Monkees have been too busy singing to put anybody down.

In May, Davy Jones will be reuniting with two of the Monkees, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork, for a tour of the United Kingdom in honor of the Monkees’ 45th anniversary.

Jones had returned from a three-day trip to London where he hung out with Dolenz and Tork. He also saw Dolenz perform in “Hairspray.”

“We laughed a lot,” Jones said. “That came across to the audience when we did some shows and live appearances.”

As for why the Monkees’ songs still are going strong, “I think it’s because we had great songwriters,” Jones said. “The music holds up because they’re wonderful songs.

“Now (the Monkees fans) are all grown up. Now we’ve got two or three generations of fans.”

As a solo act, Jones will be making his first appearance in The Villages at 6 and 8:30 p.m. March 14 at Savannah Center. Rocky and the Rollers are opening the performances.

Tickets for the show are $27 for Villages residents and $32 for the public, and are available at any Villages Box Office location or online at thevillages.net/boxoffice.

Jones will be backed by his band that has been with him for “many, many, many years.”

Expect to hear a few Monkees hits, as well as a few tunes that audiences don’t normally associate with the Monkees sound.

“We have enough songs to sing,” Jones said. “We have lots of fun.

“I’m not saving anything (for the end of the show). I start off strong and get stronger. I’m an entertainer much in the old style.

“I get paid to travel, not to perform. I’m very grateful.”

Jones, who has homes in both Pennsylvania and in Hollywood, Fla., recently bought a new bicycle and was itching to take it out for a spin on the boardwalk.

“Life is good,” Jones said.

Sometimes, Jones will head outside and listen the sounds of the ocean.

“It has no particular chord changes or melody,” Jones said.

Growing up in England, Jones got into acting for a simple reason.

“In school, I could act and get out of doing geography,” Jones said. “You have to learn your lines. It was escapism.”

He had worked with the BBC and ITV reading stories when he was 11, followed by roles in radio plays and television appearances from ages 12-14.

When it came time to graduate from school around the age of 14, most of the students were going on to become apprentices in certain trades.

“(The headmaster said), ‘Davy Jones, we all know what he’s going to be,’” Jones said. “Is that a kick in the shins.”

Jones then went on to become an apprentice horse jockey. Today, he owns 13 horses.

When Jones was 15, he found himself on the Broadway stage playing the Artful Dodger in “Oliver!” Jones appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” with the cast of “Oliver!” on the same night the Beatles made their debut.

Jones has kept his theatrical chops going throughout his life, starring in such productions as “The Boyfriend,” “The Point,” “Godspell” “and “Grease.”

In 1966, Jones went for an audition for a new TV show called “The Monkees.”

“They paired us up, and we clicked,” Jones said.

That chemistry between Jones, Dolenz, Tork and Michael Nesmith led to two seasons on TV, as well as several Top Five albums, a few No. 1 singles, and some 200 concerts around the world.

“It was all just a snowball time of laughter and travel and very hard work,” Jones said.

Back in the early 1960s, Jones picked up the guitar for the first time, mainly strumming along. Nowadays, Jones will play the guitar a couple of times during a show, but that’s it.

“I’m the frontman,” Jones said.

In the midst of everything swirling around in his life, Jones is in the process of writing a musical.

“I like to try new things,” Jones said. “It was part of a big plan. There was no specific dream. It’s exactly where I wanted to be.”

Davy Jones is back
By Steve Knopper, Special to the Tribune
Chicago Tribune
January 27, 2011

About 40 minutes into a 45-minute phone conversation, Davy Jones divulges a bit of blockbuster news, at least in Monkees World: Three-quarters of the band will tour this summer. They'll rehearse in May, play 10 dates in England, then hit America in July. "We're just waiting for my signature on a paper," Jones says, by phone from his part-time home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (At press time, the tour had yet to be officially announced.)

The missing Monkee? Michael Nesmith, the tall Texan with the knit cap, who always had something going on his career aside from nostalgic reunions, from songwriting (Linda Ronstadt's "Different Drum") to movie production ("Repo Man"). Jones, the group's primary heartthrob and Broadway-trained showman, will team up with drummer Mickey Dolenz and bassist Peter Tork and an as-yet-unnamed Nesmith stand-in. "He has a different idea," says Jones, 65. "He's going into his later years as a philosopher, as a person of great sort of intelligence. And not that we don't have intelligence — it's just that we are the entertainers, Mickey, Peter and myself. He was more the father of the band, you know, and now he's more sit back and watch his sons go out there and do it again.'"

Jones, of course, is a founding member of the Monkees, one of the most beloved rock 'n' roll bands of all time. Born in Manchester, England, he started his career as a child actor in London and New York City productions of "Oliver!" His stardom led to a contract with Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems Television, and he found himself working with auditioners Dolenz, Nesmith and Tork on the set of a new TV show.

"The Monkees only happened because of Davy Jones, plain and simple. The show was built around him. He was attached to the product from the very beginning and was there for all the auditions," says Eric Lefcowitz, author of last year's "Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-for-TV Band" (Retrofuture Products). "Davy had been a pro since basically being a small boy. He's a pure entertainer. He seems to have this almost innate ability to entertain people and put across a winning image that's very family-oriented."

"The Monkees," a hit show from 1966 to 1968, began as a sort of fabricated boy-band answer to the Beatles, but with the help of savvy producer Don Kirshner, who died last week at age 76, the band turned into ace pop musicians. Several of its greatest hits, including "Daydream Believer," "I'm a Believer," "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and "Last Train to Clarksville," remain in heavy rotation on oldies stations worldwide. And the show turned out to be pretty funny as well, showcasing the actors' comic timing.

Since then, members of the band have departed and rejoined, sometimes abruptly, over the years, and Jones and Tork have given recent interviews hinting of backstage acrimony. In 2009, Jones predicted the Monkees would never tour again. "I just want to be positive at this stage," he says today. "I'm blessed with a variety of options, and I don't take it all lightly. I got exactly what I asked for [in life], and I'm very happy."

Jones, who talks in a friendly, rapid-fire British accent, rarely stopping for air, breezes through a wide range of topics, from the recent shooting tragedy in Arizona to his youngest daughter, Annabel, a singer-songwriter who fronts a British rock band called Lady and the Lost Boys. His name-dropping is natural and unpretentious, whether he's reminiscing about driving young, poor members of The Who to a ratty Santa Monica, Calif., hotel in the '60s or a recent reunion with an old friend, lounge singer Steve Lawrence, in Las Vegas. He says he has never met Neil Diamond, who wrote Jones' signature 1966 Monkees hit "I'm a Believer," and admires the Sex Pistols' late-'70s version of the Monkees' 1966 classic "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," even though he is no punk-rock fan. "We touched a lot of musicians, you know. I can't tell you the amount of people that have come up and said, 'I wouldn't have been a musician if it hadn't been for the Monkees.' It baffles me even now," Jones says. "I met a guy from Guns N' Roses, and he was overwhelmed by the meeting, and was just so complimentary."

Mostly, what Jones emphasizes during the phone conversation is what he describes as an idyllic life of songwriting, preparing for solo performances (he mixes Monkees hits and pop standards) and gazing at the ocean. His wife of two years, Jessica Pacheco, is a Telemundo actress and flamenco dancer in her early 30s, and the couple split their time between Fort Lauderdale and tending to Jones' stable of horses at his farm in Beaverton, Pa. "It's an amazing thing — once you go through TV and radio and obviously all those Monkee appearances and everything, you become more attractive, more intelligent — all these things you're obviously not, for the most part," Jones says. "I'm trying to be a little bit more aware of my good fortune. I'm learning a lot more in my later years than I did as a youth, when I was more interested in knocking the Grass Roots off the charts."

Davy Jones delights at The Canyon
By Sally Carpenter
The Acorn
November 13, 2008

A standing room only crowd of mostly middle-aged women danced down memory lane as veteran teen idol Davy Jones performed a night of nostalgic hits at The Canyon club in Agoura Hills last Friday.

Jones' stint as the Artful Dodger in Broadway's "Oliver!" led to the 1966-68 TV series, "The Monkees," which made Jones, then 20, the sweetheart of preteen girls. Now a gray-haired, 62-year-old grandfather, Jones celebrated his past in the 90minute show.

Why do fans love him?

"Reliving my youth," said Maria Younghans of Orange County, and "doing all the things I couldn't do when I was 11, 12, 13."

Kris Rice of North Hollywood, who admitted that Jones was "cute," said that while growing up she "wanted to be Marcia Brady," the character who won a kiss from Jones during his guest appearance on "The Brady Bunch." During the Canyon concert Jones performed "Girl," which he sang on that TV show, remarking that he didn't marry Marcia Brady.

Molly Brents of Monrovia grew up with three sisters and as a child she looked up to the four Monkees (Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith) as "my big brothers."

"I love the fact that he (Jones) has 40 plus years of energy and drive and oomph," Brents. "I heard from reliable sources that he's still got it. I had to come here and see it for myself."

Are husbands jealous? Brents' husband, Steve, said of his wife's affection for Jones, "If it makes her happy, it's good for me." He always goes to shows with his wife, and he admires The Monkees too. The band inspired him to pursue music, which "gave my father and I something in common. We didn't do sports."

The guitarist of the five-piece backing band introduced Jones to the stage as "the King Kong of The Monkees, the Manchester cowboy," a nod to Jones' childhood in Manchester, England. Jones - dressed in a white shirt and black jacket, vest and pants - greeted the audience with "I'm Davy's dad. He'll be out in a minute."

He kicked off with three rockin' Monkees songs - "I'm a Believer," "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow," and "Valeri" - that got the crowd's feet moving and hearts pounding better than an aerobic workout. Jones removed his coat and unbuttoned his vest to cheers from the ladies. He ended the set with "They don't write songs like that anymore - thank god!"

Jones stepped back in time with a rousing "Consider Yourself" from "Oliver!" and "Is You Is," a song he discovered on his mother's 78 rpm vinyl - "Playing those old records made me cry."

He talked of his family - "I have four daughters, all girls," and in a surprisingly reflective, intimate mood lamented how the parenting years rush by too fast. He slowed the tempo with a touching ballad, "Let Them Be Little."

He spoke fondly of touring the world as a Monkee, and poked fun at his former bandmates. He made a dedication to "Larry, Moe and Curly, I mean, Micky, Peter and Mike." But he praised Nesmith as "One of my favorite songwriters" and performed two Nez tunes, "Papa Gene's Blues" and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere."

He spoke of his inability to escape his Monkee image - "It's like being in the Mafia. Once you're in, you're always in," but Jones seemed comfortable playing that iconic role.

Jones frequently mentioned his age, something that this reviewer had not seen in 10 years of attending Monkees shows. He said to someone taking a picture, "Not too many close-ups with that camera" and that he was "no longer a heartthrob, but a coronary." He joked that when performing on a weeklong cruise with other oldies acts, "I was scheduled for Friday night because I had the best chance of survival."

He tried to act naughty with risqué jokes for the adult audience, which seemed an ill fit with the wholesome pop songs.

Despite the old age remarks, Jones danced and sang non-stop with vigor and glee. He closed with a dynamic four-song encore, including "Steppin' Stone" and his signature tune, "Daydream Believer." The crowd pressed against the stage and yelled for Jones to return after he left. He didn't come out for autographs, which disappointed some fans.

With the show focused on reminiscing, is Jones more aware of the passing time, having crossed the 60-year milestone? Or does he see the irony of a sex symbol with wrinkles, a senior citizen singing bubblegum songs about teenagers in love?

But his fans screamed, clapped, gave gifts and sang along as if they were kids again. As boomers age, performers like Jones can show how to enjoy the mature years with grace, humor and a song in one's heart.

Davy Jones fills his shows with humor and other Monkee business
By Sam Gnerre Staff Writer
Press-Telegram
November 7, 2008

Davy Jones will forever be known as a Monkee, but he had a solo acting, performing and recording career long before becoming that group's lead singer.

At 11, he was plucked from his career as an apprentice jockey to appear on the long-running BBC serial "Coronation Street." That led to a series of acting roles and, eventually, to a pre-Monkees solo recording career.

The 62-year-old Manchester, England, native will headline a show that also features crooner Gary Puckett of Union Gap fame at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday.

We caught up with Jones as he was preparing for a Boys & Girls Club benefit show in Hollywood, Fla.

What kind of songs will you be doing?

Well, we have a basic set list, but we play it by ear for the most part. We do a cross-section of songs with references to films, musicals and to different times in my career in addition to the Monkees. Of course, we'll do lots of Monkees hits: "Last Train to Clarksville," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Daydream Believer" and the like.

Do you ever get tired of singing the old Monkees standards?

No, never. I play shows to younger children who are discovering these songs for the first time. I still get incredible amounts of mail from enthusiastic fans of all ages. The music spans eras. Imagine how Tony Bennett felt, especially before his recent renaissance, having to sing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" over and over. He had no problem singing the old songs and neither do I. My father always told me, "Find out what you do best, son, and stick with it. Nobody does what you do."

Were you the first one selected for the Monkees when they were putting the group together?

Yes. My manager at the time, Ward Sylvester, was with Columbia. He came to Colpix Records in 1965, which was my record label before the Monkees, and fired everyone. Sylvester and producer Bert Schneider had just seen "Hard Day's Night" and they said to themselves, "We can definitely do something like this. We just need to find three other people to go with Davy." They already had me signed up.

Can you clear up some of the rumors around the auditions? Did Stephen Stills try out? Charles Manson?

I was in on all the auditions for the Monkees, since I was there from the beginning. I was there when Michael Nesmith came walking in the room carrying his laundry on his back. The Charles Manson story is not true, it's one of those rumors that comes from people saying things like, "Everyone tried out, even Manson." He didn't. Stephen Stills didn't formally audition, but we all admired his early work with the Buffalo Springfield, so he was approached with an offer. But he said, "It's not my kind of music, guys, but I have this friend, Peter." So when Peter Tork showed up, he said, "Stephen Stills sent me," and they were look-alikes at the time, so we said, "Oh, really, are you his brother?" But once the field was narrowed down from 50 to 16, then to 8, we knew we were getting close to something good.

Did you know right away that the four of you would work out?

It was immediately apparent when the four of us got together that it would work, yeah. It was a very strong feeling. We were working with good people, Sylvester, Schneider and producer Bob Rafelson. And we had great songwriters: Carole King, Neil Diamond, Harry Nilsson.

The Monkees received lots of criticism, perhaps unjustly, for being a manufactured band.

Well, you have to remember that Brian Epstein presented the Beatles as a manufactured product. They all wore the same outfits, hairstyles, everything. I was a guest on "The Ed Sullivan Show" when the Beatles made their first live appearance. I've always loved Ringo, he's a very good friend of mine still and he has always been hilarious. George was a serious musician. And John and Paul were brilliant songwriters. But they definitely were manufactured in the beginning. People complain that session people played on our early records. Well, come on! The "Wrecking Crew," the batch of L.A. session musicians that played for Phil Spector, they played on just about every hit record from the Beach Boys on down during that era. It's not a meaningful distinction, especially now.

Have you done any recording lately?

Yes, my good friend Jeff Barry, who's worked with just about everyone - Barry Manilow, Spector, Neil Diamond, you name it - he suggested that I do an album of the songs I used to hear my father play when I was a kid. "Cry," by Johnny Ray, "Fly Me to the Moon," Charles Aznavour's "She," these types of tunes. No one can touch Nilsson's "A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night" (his 1973 album of pop music standards), not Rod Stewart or Michael Buble or anyone, but I think I've made a quality album.

When is it coming out?

We're currently listening to the mixes, and we'll be working with it when we come out to California in a few days for that part of the tour. Jeff suggested the title to me, which will be "Alone in Love." My girlfriend of two years, Jessica Pacheco, will be coming out with me. She's a professional flamenco dancer, and quite a bit younger than I. When we got to the hotel the other day, she said to me, "Let's run upstairs and make love," and I said, "Well, it's either one or the other." I do a lot of humor in the show, and people are always saying, "I didn't know you were this funny." I poke fun at older guys like Tony Orlando still kicking around: " `Knock Three Times' on the ceiling - if you hear me fall down." Humor's a big part of what I do.

Davy Jones thrills riverfront crowd
By Brian Boyce TribStar.com
May 24, 2008

TERRE HAUTE — Baby boomers and their younger cousins were bouncing to their feet as Davy Jones showed Terre Haute he was still a believer Saturday night.

“The greatest tambourine player alive … the King Kong of the Monkees,” the announcer said into the microphone as Jones danced onto the stage in a Hawaiian shirt to a standing ovation.

“I know most of you thought I was dead,” Jones, 62, joked after finishing “I’m a Believer,” one of many hit songs performed by The Monkees on their television show between 1965 and 1970.

But even 38 years later, Jones had the women dancing in front of the stage - and a couple up with him - before long.

The outdoor theater was filled well before 9 p.m. at the Fairbanks Park Arts and Music festival, and the Terre Haute Parks and Recreation department chalked up a success as young and old cheered on the week’s national act to concert-perfect weather.

The Wabash River’s tree line shone bright green against a baby blue sky, just beginning to embarrass the white clouds pink when show time kicked off at 9 p.m.

“They don’t write songs like that anymore,” Jones noted after singing “She Hangs Out,” adding with a boyish grin, “thank God…She hangs out?”

Jones said the rest of his bandmates from The Monkees were back at the “old actors’ home” that night, but he’d pass on the audience’s regards.

“They’re actually much older than I am,” he said to laughter, claiming that the last time he saw Peter Tork he asked him if he knew who he was.

“Micky [Dolenz] said, ‘Ask the nurse, she’ll tell you’,” he said.

The sweet smell of fair food was strong enough to clog an Olympian’s arteries, but Jones still gave a jig to “It’s a little bit me, it’s a little bit you,” a song Neil Diamond wrote for their band, as he paid tribute to the songwriters of the 1960s and early ‘70s like Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

The famously 5-foot-3-inch singer said he most recently toured in Japan, a place he liked because “in Japan, I’m buff.”

One audience member who said he “born in the ’80s” noted his parents listened to The Monkees when he was a kid and that he enjoyed the performance.

“It brings back the old classics,” he said.

Jones, a native of Manchester, England, complimented Terre Haute on being “very homey,” saying he likes small towns and family-oriented venues.

“This is for all you girls who kept those Monkees pictures up on your walls,” he said taking an acoustic guitar in hand and singing his pledge to “love you forever.”

And those girls, women and grandmothers now, clapped along in appreciation for a time when rock ’n’ roll was fun, glad that the last train to Clarksville stopped by Fairbanks Park on Saturday night.

Davy Jones: Don't call him an old guy
By Debbie Behrends - Staff Writer
Pioneer Press
February 7, 2008

With an off-the-chart energy level after three cups of Cuban java, Davy Jones refuses to be unhappy and he refuses to be grouped with "a bunch of old guys."

Perhaps best known as the cute little Englishman of The Monkees, Jones hasn't stopped moving for long. He's performed on TV, Broadway and onstage; has written three books with a fourth one under way; and he raises and races horses. All the while he's raised four daughters and is a grandfather twice -- actually delivering his 5-year-old grandson.

"I've delivered cows, sheep, pigs, horses, cats and dogs. Why not a real baby?"

And even he can't believe he's 62.

"There must be a mistake. I've got so much more to do," he joked during a phone interview from his home in Hollywood, Fla. He also proceeded to joke about snow in Chicago while he looked out at the beach, palm trees and 72-degree weather in mid-January.

Does he keep in touch with any of those "old guys?"

Monkees business:

“Yeah, I went to see them at the old actors' home in Hollywood last week. Are you kidding? I'm not hanging out with a bunch of old guys," he said.

Jones said he got a phone call from Peter Tork recently. Jones had mentioned in an interview that Tork "never really got in touch with his inner celebrity. He thanked me. I guess he thought that was a compliment."

He said Mickey Dolenz is always off doing his own thing. "He's a different kind of a guy. He's always working on the next project while we're working on this one."

He called Mike Nesmith "very aloof."

But, he said that doesn't mean he wouldn't work with them again.

Always on the move, Jones was preparing for a cruise with other '60s acts including Bill Medley and the Lovin' Spoonful. The week before, he was performing and golfing at charity benefits in Las Vegas.

After becoming virtually a household name with the popularity of The Monkees, Jones said he lost interest in performing for a while.

"I got more interested in the mid-80s after looking at all the garbage out there," he said.

Record deal:

Jones says he likes a variety of music. He said the last record (yes, he used the word record) he bought was Tony Bennett doing duets with Tim McGraw, Bono, James Taylor and a wide variety of entertainers. He also likes Macy Gray and likes "to listen to the expertise of Mutt Lange and Shania Twain."

He admits he loves to perform and will work harder for an audience of 10 than 10,000. Jones said he left home at 14 and "got exactly what I asked for.

"When you become a celebrity, you become recognized, more articulate, better looking ... taller ... . And that's not always a good thing."

He said he would like to "have a sit down, a walk on the beach, a swim" with some of today's celebrities and tell them "come on, get over it.

"I'm sorry I'm happy. Happiness is the way. I get up in the morning and say I love my life," he said. "Never give up on your dreams."

LuxuriaMusic.com: Tarzan's Painting Sidekick Cheeta Comes to the Aid of The Monkees in Campaign to Get Them Inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Net Radio Station LuxuriaMusic.com Launches On-Air/Online Push Capped by Charity Auction of Three Monkees-Themed 'Ape-Stract' Paintings by 75-Year-Old Chimp

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- First, The Monkees, the best band to come out of TV and the top-selling recording artists of 1967, get slighted for nomination by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then Cheeta, the "Susan Lucci of Movie Animals," gets passed over for a "star" on Hollywood's Walk of Fame for the sixth time! When it comes to officially signifying fame, it seems that the gatekeepers from the worlds of music and movies may have a thing against entertainment's great ape acts.

Now, thanks to LuxuriaMusic.com, the web's leading purveyor of lounge, exotica, psych, surf, bubblegum music and more, the public will be able to make its voice heard and turn up the pressure, on both the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame's nominating committee and Johnny Grant, the de facto arbiter for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The station has brought together Cheeta and The Monkees for a month-long campaign to build awareness of and gain signatures on petitions to finally gain them the honors they deserve.

The Monkees' much-loved singer/tambourine player Davy Jones is thankful for the support from campaign-driver LuxuriaMusic.com and the movies' greatest monkey star. "The slight from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is something that really seems to hit our fans almost harder than us," said Jones. "Anything we can do to help this effort and help them gain satisfaction is welcome. We're thankful to LuxuriaMusic for picking up the mantle and also to Cheeta, for picking up his paint brush!"

Now through the end of November 2007, www.LuxuriaMusic.com will dedicate its web and online resources to this grassroots campaign. Site-goers will also be able to view an exclusive video of Cheeta from his campaign headquarters in Palm Springs as well as pictures of Cheeta displaying his Monkees' Portrait and two "Ape-Stracts" named after their signature hits, "Daydream Believer" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday." One of the chimpanzee's recent works went for a whopping $10,000. The works will be auctioned off to benefit the buzz-building campaign, C.H.E.E.T.A, the Palm Springs based sanctuary that provides residence, care, and rehabilitation for homeless or unwanted ex-show business primates, Cheeta's own GoCheeta campaign for his Hollywood Boulevard Star, as well as the Jane Goodall Foundation, which is at the forefront of saving the endangered chimpanzees in the wild.

Equally important, the website will also host two online petitions for the respective fame garnering efforts of The Monkees and Cheeta, as well as a link to the charity auction of Cheeta's paintings, one of which recently sold for $10,000 at auction. LuxuriaMusic.com's forthcoming on-air schedules will feature several special programs and music marathons dedicated to the Monkees and monkeys in general from such DJs as Howie Pyro, Domenic Priore, Angel Baby and Monkees' historian/biographer Andrew Sandoval.

"It was via The Monkees that I first heard songs composed by Goffin & King, Jeff Barry, Boyce & Hart, Neil Diamond, and the great under-appreciated genius Mike Nesmith," said Chuck Kelley, LuxuriaMusic's program director. "It's time for rock critics to step away from their preconceived notions of what a rock and roll group should be and just focus on the art. The Monkees deserve to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." And you can't understate their success in the pop charts -- their first four albums hit #1 on Billboard -- and in the hearts of their fans, who keep them as a requested pop staple on radio today.

"As for Cheeta," Kelley continued, "he's the Picasso of Primates, someone whose time for a 'star' on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is long overdue."

Cheeta, aka "Jiggs," turned 75 on April 9, 2007 and has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest living non-human primate. In his "Hollywood heyday", Cheeta was an international simian superstar and shared the big screen with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in over a dozen of the classic Tarzan films of the 30's and 40's. Vaudevillian Dan Westfall inherited Cheeta in 1991 from his uncle Tony Gentry, a well-known animal trainer who obtained the chimp from Africa in the 1930s. Cheeta has now reinvented himself as the "Grandma Moses" of the animal kingdom, taking up the paintbrush and raising thousands of dollars for animal rights charities and now, through Luxuriamusic, to help the Monkees gain support for a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When not painting, Cheeta spends his days socializing under the California desert sun with his grandson Jeter and other fellow primates at the C.H.E.E.T.A. primate sanctuary in Palm Springs.

Indie Filmmaker Matthew Devlen took up the cause to secure Cheeta a star on Hollywood Boulevard 4 years ago when he became friends with Johnny Weissmuller Jr. while researching a documentary on his dad. A self professed "primate provocateur," he is working with partners, including LuxuriaMusic, to go Boulevard or Bust on his fifth attempt at seeing this animal megastar take his rightful place alongside two other iconic screen counterparts, Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. Over the next 8 months, Devlen will oversee GoCheeta.com as the clearinghouse for Cheeta's campaign for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. More information can be found at his official website, www.cheetathechimp.org and his just-launched campaign website, www.gocheeta.com.

"Johnny Jr. was a great friend of mine and a big fan of Cheeta," states Devlen. "Sadly we lost him to cancer last year and it was his dying wish that Cheeta end up with a star on the Boulevard alongside his father."

"When you see fictional characters like Kermit the Frog, Godzilla, Bugs Bunny and even Winnie The Pooh with their names emblazoned on the Boulevard, you have to wonder what's going on", adds Devlen. "There's just a lot of competition, 300 names were submitted last year and only 19 received the honor. I'm sure Mayor Grant goes bananas every year trying to whittle down that list and I'm sure he'd love to have Cheeta make the cut."

About LuxuriaMusic:

Targeting an international audience of hip music fiends who are sick of hearing the same standard 50 songs on terrestrial radio, LuxuriaMusic.com plays an intoxicating blend of musical genres, including Exotica, Lounge, Space Age Bachelor Pad, Bossa Nova, Bollywood, Bubblegum, Soft-Psych, '60s Go- Go, Latin Jazz and Surf music. The LuxuriaMusic radio format was developed by Chuck Kelley (music consultant on Pulp Fiction) and The Millionaire (Combustible Edison), and launched its first Internet radio broadcast on Feb. 14, 2000. The station is now owned and operated by LuxuriaMusic, LLC with corporate headquarters in San Francisco and broadcast studio in Los Angeles.

Website: http://www.LuxuriaMusic.com/
Website: http://www.cheetathechimp.org/
Website: http://www.gocheeta.com/

Monkee's tale remains unbound by regrets
By Andrew Hughes - Tribune Staff Writer
South Bend Tribune
September 28, 2007

On Monday, Davy Jones and his band recorded a version of Edith Piaf's "No Regrets" for an album he's working on of songs his father sang to his mother.

After a 45-minute interview that Jones' publicist was adamant would last no longer than 10 minutes, "No Regrets" seems especially appropriate for the amiable, talkative singer's new album, and not simply because the song fits the album's theme.

From his comments and good humor, Jones makes it clear that he's at peace with, and proud of, The Monkees and the parts that the band and its television show have played in his life.

"The Monkees" made Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork famous overnight after the television show's debut in September 1966, but that fame also came at a price: The four band members were just out of their teens and suddenly found themselves spokesmen for a generation.

"I think I've been more of a flag waver than the other boys," Jones says without complaint during a telephone conversation Tuesday from a recording studio in Florida. "It was a very stressful, difficult time. We were all growing into our long trousers."

Now, Jones says he's having fun with The Monkees' songs, some of which he'll perform with his band and the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra on Saturday at Lake Michigan College's Mendel Center.

"When I look at 'The Monkees' now and see the pleasure it brought to a lot of people and see the techniques we did -- talking to the camera, the in-your-face stuff, which the Marx Brothers also did, speeding up the film -- it made us look very vulnerable and very real," he says. "I just think 'The Monkees' was a fun time. I think it was a fun show. I'm not sure how important it was for influencing anything, but it was entertaining."

Although critics wouldn't say it then, The Monkees also produced some of pop's finest records during the band's four-year run from 1966 to '70, including the hits "I'm a Believer," "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" and Jones' signature song, "Daydream Believer."

"You know that our songs were written by great songwriters -- Carole King, Neil Diamond, (Jerry) Leiber and (Mike) Stoller, Neil Sedaka," he says. "All those songs were quality tunes."

On Saturday, Jones will certainly perform some of The Monkees' songs for which he's known, but he'll also perform some that weren't "his" on the albums, including Nesmith's seminal country-rocker "Papa Gene's Blues" and King and Gerry Goffin's masterful critique of suburbia, "Pleasant Valley Sunday," which Jones says is his favorite Monkees song.

"These are Monkees songs," he says of singing songs associated with his former band mates. "I thought, 'Wait a minute, I'll sing it.' I've always said ('Pleasant Valley Sunday' is) my favorite song, so now I do it."

Later, Jones adds, "I have a good old time. There's no formula. There was no formula on 'The Monkees.' "

Jones performed with an orchestra once before and says the musicians were "mouthing the words" during the performance, another testament to The Monkees' enduring appeal.

"I think the greatness came with the association with the material," he says. "You'd be very, very surprised the kind of musicians, the quality of musicians, who have come to me and said, 'If it wasn't for the Monkees, I wouldn't have played.' "

When he isn't recording or performing, the one-time apprentice jockey continues to raise racehorses at stables near his homes in Florida and rural Pennsylvania and in Kentucky. Jones, who watches the news every morning and evening and reads the local paper wherever he travels, also has written a couple of books and has been getting out to plays and nightclubs in Miami while in Florida to enjoy the Latin, Jamaican and jazz music played there.

"The world has been so kind, and I'm still trying to figure out a lot of things," he says, and later comments about his varied interests. "I've always been a guy to wave the flag to go to the theater, go to the symphony, go to the ballet, go to the opera. ... I try to make my life not just one heaping pile of one thing."

As for a potential Monkees reunion, Jones won't rule it out, but says they're "all getting long in the tooth" and that the rigors of traveling become more difficult as he ages.

For now, Jones will perform Saturday in Benton Harbor and then continue to record his new album.

"It's a rainy day, so a good day to be in the studio," he says Tuesday, and later offers a bit of advice.

"No matter what stage of life you're in, go back to (your grammar) school and stand before the gates or walk around if you can," he says. He tells the story of how, when he did so, the custodian let him in and said, 'I knew you'd come back,' " even though he hadn't worked there when Jones was a student.

As he toured his old school, Jones says, "All of a sudden, I thought, 'Gee, I've done good.' "

JUPITER, Fla., Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- GorillaTrades, http://www.gorillatrades.com has signed former teen idol, singer Davy Jones, as the company's celebrity spokesperson. Jones' image will appear in forthcoming print and broadcast media advertisements for the company, a new campaign that carries a multi-million dollar price tag. The TV spots will first air on the Bloomberg Network and CNBC.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070905/CLW067)

"The ageless Davy Jones, born in Manchester, England in 1945, is a perfect match for GorillaTrades' growing Baby Boomer clientele," said a company spokesperson. "Not only are The Monkees/Gorilla monikers a natural combo, Davy's energetic personality and enthusiasm mirrors the company's dynamic approach to investing."

Jones was a teen sensation during the 1960s as the lead singer of the Emmy Award-winning television classic, The Monkees, a wholesome weekly comedy that followed the antics of four young musicians -- Davy, Micky, Peter and Mike -- making their way in the world. The Monkees' album sales surpassed all previous records and continue to be best-sellers 40 years later. Since The Monkees' heyday, Jones's career has included roles on film and stage, along with numerous personal appearances around the world.

Perhaps his most celebrated television appearance was a Brady Bunch episode, "Getting Davy Jones," in which he becomes Marcia Brady's dream date for the prom. The rerun continues to be aired frequently for a new generation.

GorillaTrades is a global online subscriber service providing late-breaking news and professional insight and expertise into the stock market.

GorillaPicks are listed regularly on a "menu" of both new and existing investments offered to GorillaTrades subscribers for consideration, based on their individual investment objectives and risk tolerance.

Subscribers are directed to use the portfolio of GorillaPicks and the 5-times-weekly subscriber commentary as guidelines in investment decision-making. More than 6,000 stocks are sifted through daily to match each of the 14 technical indicators for potentially explosive growth.

GorillaTrades subscribers are now in 55 countries.

Of his new association with GorillaTrades, Davy Jones said, "The Gorilla certainly seems to be a likeable chap. I'll enjoy hanging around the Wall Street jungle with him!"

Paige Henson
HHB Advertising & Public Relations
(478)464-0272
paige@hhbadvertising.com
http://www.gorillatrades.com

SOURCE: Gorilla Trades

Should The Monkees Be In the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame?
By Gary Wien
UpstageMagazine.com
June 29, 2007

Ok, so I'm a child of the eighties and a Monkees fan. I'll admit it. I still remember watching every one of their episodes that MTV re-ran for what seemed like several years and fell in love with their music. I even saw them live in the mid-80s at the Garden State Arts Center. It's not called that anymore, but this was before corporate sponsorships.

About a month ago, I heard a DJ ask why The Monkees weren't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it got me thinking. Why aren't they? Since Davy Jones of The Monkees is coming to New Jersey for a pair of shows (the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove on July 7th and BergenPAC on October 26th) I decided to ask him directly.

Why do you think the Monkees aren't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

I don't know. I was on the Bill O'Reilly show the other night. (there's a clip on davyjones.net) of the segment where Bill talks about this issue and the rumor that Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone is trying to keep The Monkees out of the Hall of Fame) I have thought about it and are we talking about entertainment? Are we talking about the number of records one sells? He was saying we sold 68 million records and The Monkees are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I think maybe the title of the occasion might be something. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... The Monkees were never looked at as rock and roll and everyone has this thing about us not being musicians but now they're putting rap singers in there.

Maybe if it was called the Music Hall of Fame or the Video Music Hall of Fame then the Monkees would have to be in there. I think it's the title and that we're not viewed as rock and rollers. But what is rock and roll? I passed a joint with Jimi Hendrix, I slept with a lot of female singers, and I partied until I dropped.

The recognition of having an induction into the Hall of Fame would be wonderful, but I ain't going to lose any sleep over it. I'm proud of all of the people who are in it. I think it's quite a thing when people acknowledge your talent. I've got no bad feelings towards the guy who owns the joint. He owns it. If I don't want to invite someone to my party, I don't invite them.

It's well known that you were the first Davy Jones so the other David Jones became David Bowie. But if he had been there first, did you ever think what you would have named yourself?

I probably would have called myself David Bowie! The reason I'm saying that is because I know why he called himself David Bowie. When we were growing up in England - and David and I are around the same age - what we were watching and what was very high profile in England was Davy Crockett. We had those squirrel hats with a tail on the back. It was a big thing in England for a number of years and Jim Bowie was a guy that was with Davy Crockett. I'm only assuming this because I don't think I've ever said anything to anybody about this - In fact, I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before - but that was the time we were growing up and you're influenced by the things around you. Davy Crockett was big and Jim Bowie was with him. I'm not sure about David Bowie, you'd want to ask him that.

Before The Monkees, you were nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway and you later went back to the theatre. Was it ever hard to shake that character? I know television actors and theatre didn't mix as well back then as they do now.

Barbra Streisand was the first person to break through record wise from the Broadway stage. A lot of theatre people couldn't make it on television because they just didn't have the technique. The only occasion I've ever had where I felt somewhat challenged was when I was playing Jesus in "Godspell" in London some years ago. Well, stillness on stage is the most eye-catching thing so while the cast would be prancing around on stage the director had me be very calm and still and wait a few seconds before I spoke. So it would be very quiet and when I spoke it meant something. But the first thing that I thought of when I was dying on the cross at the end singing "Oh God, I'm dying..." was that I was just hoping nobody would scream "give us Daydream Believer before you die!"

On another occasion, I was singing "I'm dying" and then I went "I'm dead" and it was a very moving experience but we did it in Ireland during a matinee and when I said "I'm dead" I heard giggles from the audience. I'm going, what did I do? Why are they laughing? And then it kept happening during the other matinees, so I checked it out. In Ireland when you come home from work and you take off your shoes and sit down in your favorite chair you say to yourself, "God, what a day... I'm dead!" It means I'm tired, I'm exhausted... So, they were laughing because Jesus had cracked a joke!

One final question, I read somewhere that you were actually drafted by the US Army. I thought you weren't a citizen back in the sixties, did you really get drafted?

Yeah, I was a Green Card holder and they were drafting everybody at the time. It was during the late 60s, maybe 1968 - right in the height of The Monkees fame. It was kind of scary. I went down to the draft board a couple of times. In fact, I lost weight -- I got down to 99 pounds and when I was walking around naked in a circle with a bunch of guys standing on the scales this big guy said to me, "you're a 99-pound weakling boy!" And I looked at him and I said, "right!" Because if you were 5 foot 4, you had to weigh over 104 pounds and I weighed 99!

So you were really close to going, huh?

Oh yeah. The last time I went the lieutenant said "bring your toothbrush when you come next time."

Davy Jones: The Beatles were manufactured
The Rock Radio.com
May 11, 2007

Davy Jones says that the Beatles were just as manufactured as his own band, the Monkees. Jones told delmarvanow.com that, "I think the Monkees have been viewed as a band that was manufactured, but the first manufactured band was really the Beatles. They were put by (manager) Brian Epstein in the same boots and the same suits. I was on the The Ed Sullivan Show the same night that they (made their debut on live American TV) in 1964. I was one of the acts that night (with the cast of Oliver!) and I saw what was going on... That's what show business is like."

Jones says that although he only considered the Beatles to be only an average live act, what they accomplished artistically was tremendous: "I'm sure that if you had seen the Beatles at Shea Stadium, (it would've been) questionable as to what was going on and what you were hearing. You listen to them on The Ed Sullivan Show, even now, it's a bit sketchy, but you know, who cares? They went on to do wonderful stuff and we were dying to hear 'The White Album' and Rubber Soul and all the rest of the stuff that came later."

Jones, who'll kick off a series of dates later this week at Disney World, joked that, "I used to be a heartthrob. Now I'm a coronary." He added that at 61 he's finally come to terms with his global fame: "Once you reach a celebrity status, people look at you and all of a sudden you've become better looking, more intelligent, you become taller -- all these things that you're not really."

He went on to say, "I didn't choose to be an authority, I didn't choose to be an example. I didn't realize that was all part of it. I didn't realize my celebrity would effect my sisters, my father, my aunts, my uncles, the lads that grew up with me who were on the same soccer team."

Last month Monkee Peter Tork slammed Rolling Stone editor and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame co-founder Jann Wenner for blocking the group's entry into the Rock Hall. Tork claimed that Wenner believes that the group lacks credibility because they didn't play on their initial hits.

This Monkee horses around
By Sharon Wernlund
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
May 7, 2007

INDIANTOWN — In the 1960s, Davy Jones was a human magnet for screaming teeny-boppers as lead singer of The Monkees with his brown shag haircut, impish grin and cute British accent.

Four decades later, horses, not hordes of fans, greet the pint-sized performer at a remote ranch in this rural community where Jones, now a grandfather, is up to anything but monkey business.

Clad in cowboy boots, denim jeans and a faded "Manchester Boy" T-shirt, the former teen idol and ex-jockey arrives before dawn, after a jolt of strong Cuban coffee, to feed, water and exercise his stable of 11 horses.

These are no ordinary steeds. Four of them, including Indiantown Jones, are training for racetracks across the country. His horses have a history of wins, and it's no wonder. One, says Jones, is the retired offspring of the legendary Seattle Slew.

When Jones isn't here, odds are good that he's on a fast track to a gig somewhere and making mothers swoon.

"I was out here this morning at 6 o'clock and cleaned all these stalls," says Jones, 61, on a recent Wednesday, as he bares his blistered fingers. "Last Saturday night, I was in Phoenix, with a microphone in my hand, singing to 5,000 people."

Though The Monkees have had several reunions since disbanding in 1970, Jones is now a solo act.

This month, he returns to EPCOT's annual International Flower and Garden Festival in Orlando with a lineup of 1960s bands such as Paul Revere and The Raiders, the Turtles and The Guess Who.

Jones takes the stage May 11-15 for Mother's Day weekend with nostalgic pop hits I'm a Believer, (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone and his trademark tune, Daydream Believer.

Why is he still popular, 40 years later?

"One of the lines in the last song I wrote was 'Remember me the way you hoped I'd be,' " he says. "I think that's my secret."

At the ranch in Indiantown, Jones stows his fame as easily as his saddle. His passion for his horses — not his successful career — dominates his thoughts as buckets are filled with feed and water.

At 16, Jones was nominated for a Tony award for his Broadway performance as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! Monkee milestones include an Emmy award-winning TV sitcom, multimillion record sales and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The leap from stellar status to sweeping stalls is a self-imposed reality check.

"Once you're a celebrity, you become better-looking and more intelligent," he says. "You become all these things that you're not. And then, that's what destroys people.

"So I'm doing this so that I can keep in touch with the world. And because I'm 61 years old and I don't want to be a little fat guy."

Jones visited Indiantown for decades before buying a modest home here about five years ago.

While training his race horses at nearby Payson Park, he discovered one of Martin County's poorest communities and was enchanted.

"You see the Mexicans and the Guatemalans going out to work for minimum wages and take care of their kids and their families. It makes you proud that you're still living in a world that cares."

The entertainer, who confesses to dying his graying locks, has retained the good looks that were once plastered on everything from Tiger Beat magazine covers and lunch boxes to bubble gum wrappers and trading cards.

And though he yearns to be anonymous, he's gracious when fans spot him at a local restaurant or park and happily obliges with a handshake, autograph or photo.

"Even Michael Jackson can go into Publix just as long as he doesn't do it at 7 o'clock on a Friday night," he quips.

In April, Jones, in his jeans and cowboy hat, strolled freely through a crowd of 150 guests at Indian RiverSide Park in Jensen Beach as host of "A Groovy Night on the Ranch" fund-raiser dinner for the Indiantown Education Coalition.

The sold-out event, which he has hosted for three years, raised a record $7,500 for college scholarships and classroom grants. For an hour or so, Jones charmed the audience with songs and jokes as an aging teen idol.

While singing the band's theme song, "Here we come, walking down the street," Jones did the famous Monkee walk in the slo-mo style of a geriatric.

"Peter Noone (of Herman's Hermits) is now singing, 'Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely walker' and Paul Simon is singing, 'Fifty ways to lose your liver.' "

But all joking aside, Jones is serious about the mission of the coalition of business partners, educators and community members to send Indiantown's poorest students to college.

"It's just kids — OK. There's so much emphasis on how kids are not cooperating and how they're destructive and disrespectful. But you know something: You come to Indiantown and the crime rate is practically zero."

On April 26 the coalition, thanks to the dinner, a bike rally and other fund-raisers, awarded $14,000 in scholarships to Indiantown students graduating in 2007 from South Fork High School.

One $1,000 scholarship was awarded in honor of Jones' deceased mother.

"Most of these students are the first ones in their family to finish high school, so it's really a big deal," says Debbie Banta, the Martin County school district's special projects coordinator. "Because of him, we have gotten so much publicity and more donors than ever before.

"I remember the Monkees when I was growing up. I wasn't a big fan then, but I am now."

Jones, who also has homes in Pennsylvania and California, is no stranger to charity events. In other communities, he's supported a cerebral palsy camp for children and the fight against multiple sclerosis.

He's also been a regular on the charity sports circuit and even ran in the London Marathon.

Back in Indiantown, he's a good neighbor to Seagull Industries, where he leases his ranch.

When the nonprofit organization, which serves people with disabilities, recently held its annual picnic for clients and their families, Jones bought burgers, sang and recruited one of his band members to entertain.

With the proper safeguards, he's allowed people with physical and mental disabilities to ride his horses as part of their therapy.

"Everyone is disabled who's never learned to ride on a horse," he says.

Meanwhile, Jones is busy completing paperwork to become a U.S. citizen.

And though he's proud of his past as a Monkee, Jones doesn't want that to define his career or who he is.

"I don't want to throw away The Monkees and pretend I was never in it," he said. "It's part of my life. It's like the Mafia. Once you're in, you're in."

With his four children now grown, the twice-divorced Jones has no plans to retire into oblivion.

He hopes to again land roles in movies or a television series.

He was a guest star on the television series The Brady Bunch as well as the spin-off movie as Marcia Brady's heartthrob.

His many stage roles include Jesus in London's Godspell.

In 1995, he and Monkees Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork taped a Pizza Hut commercial with Ringo Starr.

He's writing songs and published a second edition of his autobiography, Davy Jones: Daydream Believin'.

His talents shine in short stories, photography and poetry, too.

"I don't want to talk about the past. I want to talk about the future. I would love to play in Oliver! at the Lyric Theatre. Funny enough, I'm talking right now with David Cassidy about working together and going out on the road."

And with a grin, he says, "We'd call ourselves the ultimate idols."

At 60, Davy Jones Monkees around in Geneva benefit concert
Beacon News
By Michele duVair
October 3, 2006

GENEVA -- Watching Davy Jones perform recently in Geneva was sure to make "a believer" out of anyone. The 60-year-old former member of The Monkees rock group entertained old fans and made new ones with classics including Daydream Believer, Last Train to Clarksville and I'm a Believer. Then he, along with his six-piece band, threw in a few new numbers of his own.

Jones might not have had the moves of a 25-year-old, but he sure displayed the enthusiasm during his Saturday evening performance, which drew several hundred people to downtown Geneva Saturday night.

"Someone who's 60 years old and can still bounce around the stage like that makes me feel tired," said Pam Kaniuk, of Chicago.

Kaniuk, who paid $100 for a reserved seat at this weekend's show, says she liked Jones as a child, grew up and forgot about him for many years, then rediscovered his music last year in Wisconsin. Since then, she has watched him live several times and plans to see him again this fall.

"He's real worth watching on stage," she said.

Far from stodgy, Jones jumped around the stage like a kid, playing his air guitar and whirling his microphone. He was chatty with the audience, often poking fun at his diminutive stature and '60s-era foibles.

Dawn Vogelsberg, Geneva alderman and co-chairperson of the event, said she expected to raise about $10,000, all of which will benefit the Geneva History Center, a nonprofit organization that maintains a museum and archives of the city's significant artifacts.

Vogelsberg, along with Terry Burns of Geneva, got the idea for the concert-fundraiser after learning that Jones was performing in Wheeling on the Fourth of July. They called the city of Wheeling, got the name of Jones' manager and arrangements were quickly made to perform here.

A highlight for Vogelsberg and Burns was picking Jones up at the airport.

"That was the funnest thing I've ever done," Vogelsberg said. "He was singing to us. He asked us about our kids. He's such a fabulous person."

And, according to Vogelsberg, he likes small towns -- in particular, Geneva. Jones performs about 100 concerts a year, relying heavily on his fame from The Monkees television show. Created in 1966, the show was a comedy about the adventures of a four-piece rock bank. Though Jones was hired as an actor in the show, the music from the show was so popular he and other Monkees members soon learned the music and went on tour. Though the show lasted only two years, many of the songs remain popular today.

Noah Stern, 24, of Naperville, certainly recognized many of the songs Jones sang.

"I'm not going to claim that I have every one of his CDs, but it's great to get a chance to see him," Stern said. "He's a classic. It's always fun to be able to experience that."

He's a believer
By Jaime North
The Daily Item
February 3, 2006

Playing a zany character on a hit television show was easy for Davy Jones. All he had to do was act naturally.

Nearly 40 years after The Monkees made their debut, Mr. Jones still possesses the playful nature and warm personality that captivated millions.

"I never thought about what I was saying, I just did it," Mr. Jones said. "Me on the show was just me. It was so much fun. It came at the right time for all of us."

Mr. Jones added, "Now, people remember me for what they remember on the show. Me as Davy."

Aside from international fame, Mr. Jones is your average Snyder County resident.

He enjoys horseback riding, the occasional fish fry, and of course, is getting ready to watch his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in the Super Bowl.

"I think 12 points will be enough," Mr. Jones said. "At least I hope so."

The former teen idol, who just turned 60, also carries a deep appreciation for Beavertown, his adopted community in western Snyder County. Over the years, Mr. Jones has groomed himself into becoming a local.

And today he wants to give back to the area and help raise money for the Middlecreek Area Community Center.

"Being here for almost 20 years has given me a chance to re-evaluate myself," said Mr. Jones. "I've been enriched. This is a special place, and it was almost an accident that I came.

"I'm glad I did, and I think we should look deeper to see all that is great here. It's right on our doorstep."

An integral part of the community, according to Mr. Jones, is the community center.

In a show of support, Mr. Jones has expressed his full endorsement of the 800 Club, a campaign initiated last year to raise funds and help pay off the $800,000 accrued debt from construction four years ago.

Mr. Jones hopes to draw more attention to the cause.

So far, the club has 60 members who have pledged more than $6,000, and according to the club co-chairman Don Moyer, there is plenty of room for more names along the walls.

"The ultimate goal is to have 800 members each with $1,000 pledges," Mr. Moyer said. "Some have given more and some less. We have more people committed verbally, but we're looking to add more."

Having the loan paid off will allow MACC officials to allocate more money to creating new programs and adding services.

"We're busy here every day," said Eric Grimes, executive director. "We get about 100 kids each school night during the colder months. Many adults in the community use our facility as well."

The after-school program would be significantly helped by the loan payoff, Mr. Grimes said.

"Almost 100 percent is funded through grants," Mr. Grimes said. "Grants aren't always going to be there, and we're only given a certain amount. Right now, the program can only grow so much."

Over the years, Mr. Jones has been heavily involved in many charities. He played a benefit concert in Ohio on Wednesday and recently had a multiple sclerosis research fund established in his name in memory of a niece who died of the disease.

Fame and a contagious charm have enabled Mr. Jones to help many causes. He plans to do the same for the community center.

"I'm not being pretentious, but we can generate a little more," Mr. Jones said. "I know I'm passed the part of me being cute, but people see the image of that guy they grew up with instead of an angry old man."

Mr. Jones has recorded several solo albums since the Monkees split up in the mid-1970s. He has also written many books and is currently writing a musical based on the life of Johnnie Ray, a hit singer in the 1950s. Mr. Jones said he is in the midst of finishing a transcript of a book titled "For All The Women I've Loved."

"It's not what is sounds like," Mr. Jones joked. "I'm surrounded by women — three sisters, two ex-wives and four daughters. I write a lot, and a lot about what I see. I'm looking for answers and am still looking to find them."

Supporting the community center is a path Mr. Jones hopes will lead to him toward becoming more associated with the area.

"I want people to remember me, not just for one thing, but for a number of things," Mr. Jones said. "This is my home, and I hope this is something I can also be remembered for."

As he continues to make a new name for himself, Mr. Jones acknowledges he will forever be linked to the wacky four created in the mold of The Beatles.

"It's like being in the mafia," Mr. Jones said. "Once you're in the Monkees, you're in. There's no going back, you're always a Monkee."