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"You're such a lovely audience! We'd love to take you home with us! We'd love to take you home! <breaks into song> I don't really wanna stop the show... but I thought you might like to know... that the singer's gonna sing a song... <stops the song> and the man's name.. is Mike Nesmith!" sung Peter way back in 1967. Mike Nesmith is perhaps one of the most complex men around. Or, maybe not. But his singing/writing/producing style is very unique and cannot be ignored. Why, if it weren't for Michael, there'd be no MTV! Oh, you didn't know about that? Well, read on!
On December 30, 1942, Robert Michael Nesmith was born in Dallas, Texas. Mike's parents were Warren and Bette Nesmith. When Mike was young he started playing the guitar to regain dexterity in his fingers after a firecracker accident. His mother invented what we know now as Liquid Paper and he spent many afternoons helping her bottle the stuff before it could be sold.
Before "The Monkees", Mike recorded two singles for Colpix records under the name of Michael Blessing. He was the only Monkee who saw the audition ad. According to Davy Jones, Mike came into the audition wearing his infamous green wool hat and carrying a bag of laundry over his shoulder. Before the Monkees Mike was married to Phyllis Barbour and with her he had a son, Christian DuVal Nesmith. Christian was born January 31st, 1964.
Along with Peter Tork, Mike was one of the more musically talented of the Monkees. He was a singer/song writer long before the Monkees and was an accomplished musician. Although Micky and Davy were more or less content to let Screen Gems take care of the music for the Monkees, Mike and Peter wouldn't have it. Following Mike's lead, the other Monkees decided they wanted to work on the music themselves which lead to the firing of the music director, Don Kirshner, and the development of the "Headquarters" album.
In 1967 Mike is quoted to have said, "Tell the world we're synthetic because, dammit, we are. Tell them the Monkees were wholly man-made overnight... but that's us they see on television. The show is really part of us. They're not seeing something invalid."
Mike and Phyllis also had two other children: Jonathan Darby Nesmith and Jessica Buffler Nesmith. Jonathan was born on February 4th, 1968 and Jessica was born on September 10th, 1970. Mike stayed with the Monkees after Peter left the group to make the albums "The Monkees Present" and "Instant Replay" before he bought himself out of his contract. When his mother died, Mike inherited the "Liquid Paper" company she had created. He sold this to Gillette Inc. for around 47.9 million dollars. His marriage to Phyllis did not last and they divorced.
Mike had an affair with a lady named Nurit Wilde which resulted in his son, Jason Nesmith. In the 80's he re-married to a woman named Kathryn. They didn't have any children. Kathryn and Mike have since divorced and he is now single (though reported to be dating a model, name unknown).
After the Monkees, Mike went on to become an accomplished singer/song writer on his own as well as a producer. He created and produced "Elephant Parts" and also "Television Parts" which was aired on NBC for a short time. Mike reportedly came up with the concept for MTV and sold the idea. He also won the first Grammy award for video with "Elephant Parts". He has released many solo albums. Two of the most noted are "The Prison" and "The Garden" noted as being the first albums to come with books that you read while you listen. One of his most recent releases is "...tropical campfires...". His solo albums are great and worth finding. Check out Mike's very own webpage: Video Ranch to find all his work. Most of you know that he has not re-joined the Monkees in any touring. Word has it that this is because he is writing the Monkee movie. He did, however, re-join the others to work on their latest album, "Justus" and to make the ABC Special and Disney documentary.
Anything else you'd like to see about this guy? Send me a note at _mars_@geocities.com and I'll see if I can find out for you!
