Michael Nesmith Informations

Robert Michael Nesmith (born December 30, 1942) is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series The Monkees (1966–1968). Nesmith's songwriting credits include "Different Drum" (sung by Linda Ronstadt with the Stone Poneys).

After the break-up of the Monkees, Nesmith continued his successful songwriting and performing career, first with the seminal country rock group the First National Band, with whom he had a top-40 hit, "Joanne", and then as a solo artist. He is a noted player of the 12-string guitar, performing on custom-built 12-string electric guitars with the Monkees (built by Gretsch) and various 12-string acoustic models during his post-Monkees career.

He is also an executive producer of the cult film Repo Man (1984). In 1981, Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for Video of the Year for his hour-long television show, Elephant Parts.

Nesmith was born in Houston, Texas, in 1942. He is an only child; his parents, Warren Audrey Nesmith and Bette Nesmith Graham (née Bette Clair McMurray), divorced when their son was four. Bette Nesmith later remarried, marrying Robert Graham in 1962; they remained married until 1975. After Bette's father died in the early 1950s, he left property to her in Dallas; Nesmith and his mother subsequently moved there to be closer to her family. To support herself as a single mother, Bette took temporary jobs ranging from clerical work to graphic design, eventually attaining the position of executive secretary at Texas Bank and Trust, the highest position open at that time to women in the industry. When Nesmith was thirteen, his mother invented the typewriter correction fluid later known commercially as Liquid Paper. Over the next twenty-five years, she built the Liquid Paper Corporation into a multimillion-dollar international company, which she sold to Gillette in 1979 for US$48 million. She died a few months later, aged fifty-six.

Nesmith participated in choral and drama activities at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas. He also began to write verse poetry. At fifteen, he was in the Dallas Theater Center teen program, where he was featured in several plays.

Without graduating from high school, Nesmith enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1960. He completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, was trained as an aircraft mechanic at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, and then was permanently stationed at the Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base, near Burns Flat, Oklahoma. While in the Air Force, Nesmith obtained a GED and was discharged under honorable conditions in 1962. He enrolled in San Antonio College, a community college, where he met John Kuehne (later to be known as John London) and began a musical collaboration. The duo won the first San Antonio College talent award, performing a mixture of standard folk songs and a few of Nesmith's original songs. While in college, Nesmith began to write more songs and poetry and after moving to Los Angeles, began singing in folk clubs around the city. He served as the "Hootmaster" for the Monday night hootenannies at The Troubadour, a West Hollywood nightclub that featured new artists. Nesmith performed with many different members of the burgeoning new LA music scene. Randy Sparks from the New Christy Minstrels offered Nesmith a publishing deal for his songs. It was during this time that Barry Friedman, aka the Rev. Frazier Mohawk, showed him an ad for auditions for a new TV series, The Monkees. In October 1965, Nesmith landed the role as the wool hat-wearing guitar player "Mike" in the show, which required real-life musical talent (writing, instrument playing, singing, recording, and performing in live concerts as part of The Monkees band). The Monkees television series aired from 1966 until 1968, and has developed a cult following over the years.

After a tour of duty in the Air Force, Nesmith was given a guitar as a Christmas present from his mother and stepfather. Learning as he went, he played solo and in a series of working bands, performing folk, country, and occasionally rock and roll. His verse poems became the basis for song lyrics, and after moving to Los Angeles with Phyllis and friend John London, he signed a publishing deal for his songs. Nesmith's "Mary, Mary" was recorded by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, while "Different Drum" and "Some of Shelly's Blues" were recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys. "Pretty Little Princess", written in 1965, was recorded by Frankie Laine and released as a single in 1968 on ABC Records. Later, "Some of Shelly's Blues" and "Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care)" were made popular by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1970 album Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy.

Nesmith began his recording career in 1963 by releasing a single on the Highness label. He followed this in 1965 with a one-off single released on Edan Records followed by two more recorded singles; one was titled "The New Recruit" under the name "Michael Blessing", released on Colpix Records, coincidentally also the label of Davy Jones, though they did not meet until the Monkees formed.

From 1965 to early 1970, Nesmith was a member of the television pop-rock band the Monkees, created for the television situation comedy of the same name. Nesmith won his role largely by appearing nonchalant when he auditioned. He rode his motorcycle to the audition, and wore a wool hat to keep his hair out of his eyes; producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider remembered the "wool hat" guy, and called Nesmith back.

Once he was cast, Screen Gems bought his songs so they could be used in the show. Many of the songs Nesmith wrote for the Monkees, such as "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", "Mary, Mary", and "Listen to the Band", became minor hits. One song he wrote, "You Just May Be the One", is in mixed meter, interspersing 5/4 bars into an otherwise 4/4 structure.

As part of a promotional deal, Gretsch guitar company built a one-off, natural-finish, 12-string electric guitar for Nesmith when he was performing with the Monkees. The custom-made guitar was frequently cited at that time as being worth $5,000 (the equivalent of $36,500 in 2018), which was undoubtedly inflated for publicity purposes. He earlier played a customized Gretsch 12-string, which had originally been a six-string model. Nesmith used this guitar for his appearances on the television series, as well as the Monkees' live appearances in 1966 and 1967. Beginning in 1968, Nesmith used a white six-string Gibson SG Custom for his live appearances with the Monkees. He used that guitar in their motion picture Head for the live version of "Circle Sky", and also for the final original Monkees tour in 1969. In a post on his Facebook page in 2011, Nesmith reported that both guitars were stolen in the early 1970s.

As with the other Monkees, Nesmith came to be frustrated by the band's manufactured image. Nesmith was the most publicly vocal Monkee about the band's prefabricated image.

The Monkees succeeded in ousting supervisor Don Kirshner and took control of their records and song choices, but they worked as a four-man group on only one album, 1967's Headquarters. Nesmith withheld many of his songs from the final Monkees albums, opting to release them on his post-Monkees solo records. During the band's first independent press conference, Nesmith called More of The Monkees "probably the worst record in the history of the world". The band never regained its credibility after fans learned they had not played the instruments on their earlier records. Sales still continued to be profitable until the disastrous release of the movie Head.

Nesmith's last contractual Monkees commitment was a commercial for Kool-Aid and Nerf balls in April 1970 (fittingly, the spot ends with Nesmith frowning and saying, "Enerf's enerf!"). As the band's sales declined, Nesmith asked to be released from his contract, despite it costing him: "I had three years left ... at $150,000 [equivalent to $980,940 in 2018] a year." He remained in a financial bind until 1980, when he received his inheritance from the Liquid Paper Company. In a 1980 interview with Playboy, he said of that time: "I had to start telling little tales to the tax man while they were putting tags on the furniture."

Nesmith did not participate in the Monkees' 20th-anniversary reunion. However, he did appear during an encore with the other three members at the Greek Theatre on September 7, 1986. In a 1987 interview for Nick Rocks, Nesmith stated, "When Peter called up and said 'we're going to go out, do you want to go?' I was booked. But, if you get to L.A ... I'll play."

Nesmith next joined his fellow Monkees band members for the 1986 "Monkees Christmas Melody" video for MTV appearing throughout dressed/disguised as Santa Claus until the finale where he revealed his identity - and participation - to all.

Nesmith appeared again in 1989 with Dolenz, Tork and Jones. Prior to the official kickoff of The Monkees '89 tour (on July 1 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) all four Monkees gathered in Los Angeles, California making two live radio appearances (KLOS-FM: The Mark and Brian Show on June 28th and KIIS Radio on June 30th) to promote their reunion concert at the Universal Amphitheatre where they appeared together as a foursome live on stage on July 9th. The following day (July 10th) all four band members were in attendance as the Monkees received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

In 1995, Nesmith was again reunited with the Monkees to record their studio album (and first to feature all four since Head), titled Justus, released in 1996. He also wrote and directed a Monkees television special, Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees. To support the reunion, Nesmith, Jones, Dolenz and Tork briefly toured the UK in 1997. The UK tour was the last appearance of all four Monkees performing together.In 2012, 2013 and 2014, after Jones's death, Nesmith reunited with Dolenz and Tork to perform concerts throughout the United States. Backed with a seven-piece band that included Nesmith's son, Christian, the trio performed 27 songs from The Monkees discography ("Daydream Believer" was sung by the audience). When asked why he had decided to return to the Monkees, Nesmith stated, "I never really left. It is a part of my youth that is always active in my thoughts and part of my overall work as an artist. It stays in a special place."

In 2016, Nesmith contributed vocally and instrumentally to the Monkees' 50th anniversary album Good Times!. He additionally contributed a song, "I Know What I Know", and was reportedly "thrilled" at the outcome of the album. Despite not touring with Dolenz and Tork for the majority of the Monkees' 50th anniversary reunion in 2016, Nesmith did twice fill in for the ailing Peter Tork as well as appearing for the final show of the tour which featured all three surviving band members (the last show to do so). At the end of the final show Nesmith announced his retirement from the Monkees, never to tour again.

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