Michael Nesmith, Monkees singer and songwriter, dies at 78 

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Michael Nesmith, a singer and guitarist for the 1960s group The Monkees, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 78.

His family announced his passing in a statement, reading: ‘With infinite love, we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully of natural causes.’

Jason Elzy, the head of public relations for Rhino Records, told the New York Times the cause of his death was heart failure. 

Nesmith is now the third of the four members of the band, whose hits include Daydream Believer and Valerie, to have died. David Jones died in 2012, and Peter Tork died in 2019. 

Their band, the Monkees, once rivaled the Beatles with their consecutive hits, as Nesmith tried to get them to be a real band, and not just one that was made for television. 

He was at one point considered the only ‘real musician’ among the team, a claim that he has disputed.   

Nesmith is survived by three children from his first marriage, Christian, Jonathan and Jessica Nesmith, and a son from a relationship with Nurit Wilde, Jason Nesmith, as well as two grandchildren. 

Last month, Nesmith and sole survivor Micky Dolenz performed their final show together at the Greek Theater in Illinois.

Following the announcement of his death, Dolenz tweeted: ‘I’m heartbroken. I’ve lost a dear friend and partner.

‘I’m so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best – singing, laughing and doing shtick. I’ll miss it all so much, especially the shtick.

‘Rest in peace, Nez.’ 

The group’s and Nesmith’s manager also confirmed his death in a tweet, writing: ‘It is with deep sadness that I mark the passing of Michael Nesmith. 

‘We shared many travels and projects together over the course of 30 years, which culminated in a Monkees farewell tour that wrapped up only a few weeks ago.

‘That tour was a true blessing for so many. And in the end I know that Michael was at peace with his legacy which included songwriting, producing, acting, direction and so many innovative ideas and concepts. 

‘I am positive the brilliance he captured will resonate and offer the love and light towards which he always moved.’  

Several other celebrities also took to Twitter to express their grief, including Arrested Development start John Levenstein, who wrote that Nesmith ‘was my first boss. I was young and insubordinate. He was bemused and patient. Later we became great friends. He had no fear of death.’

Journalist Bryan Behar said he was fortunate to have seen Nesmith’s last show last month, and music writer Caryn Rose also recounted watching The Monkees on television, noting that she also remembers ‘that weekend MTV decided to run the whole show in order.’

Magician Penn Jillette, meanwhile, called Nesmith his ‘first big artistic hero.

‘He’s a big part of who I am,’ Jillette tweeted. ‘It’s love you bring, no that I can’t deny. With your wings, you helped me learn to fly. Sweet Young Mike Nesmith.’ 

Nesmith was born on December 30, 1942 to Warren and Bette, who divorced in 1946, soon after Warren returned from World War II.

His mother later remarried, taking on the last name Graham, and became wealthy by creating Liquid Paper, or White-Out. 

In 1960, Nesmith enrolled in the Air Force, earning a high school equivalency degree, but he requested an early discharge in 1962, and enrolled at San Antonio College, where he began performing on a guitar he received from his mother and stepfather. 

By the mid-1960s, he was a struggling 23-year-old singer and songwriter after being discharged from the Air Force when he saw the advertisement in Variety seeking ‘four insane boys’ for ‘acting roles in new TV series.’

The television series wound up being The Monkees, a show created by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider about a rock ‘n’ roll group a the height of Beatlemania.

The four band members – Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz, David Jones and Mike Nesmith – were all recruited through similar ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. 

On the show, Nesmith was known for his green wool hat and deadpan comedy style that contributed to the slapstick humor of the show, which was an immediate hit among children.

He also wrote and produced some of the group’s songs, earning him the reputation of being the only ‘real’ musician in the group – a claim he disputed in his 2017 memoir, Infinite Tuesday.

‘It would always seem wildly ironic to me that I was the one given credit in the press for being the “only musician” in the Monkees,’ he wrote. ‘Nothing was further from the truth.’ 

During the band’s time together, Nesmith fought for artistic control, pushing for the band to be more than just a made-for-television group, as they released hit after hit, even eventually rivaling the success of the Beatles.

Their first two albums, The Monkees and More of the Monkees were back-to-back No. 1 LPs, holding the top of the chart for 31 consecutive weeks in 1966 to 1967, according to Variety.

The group logged two more No. 1 collections by the end of 1967. 

Their first big hit was Last Train to Clarksville, which started a run of five consecutive top singles for the band in the United States.

But at first on the show, the group members did not actually play their instruments, which upset Nesmith to the point where he punched a hole in a wall.

Speaking about the incident years later, Nesmith said: ‘We were kids with our own taste in music and were happier performing songs we liked and/or wrote, than songs that were handed to us.’  

The band’s NBC series aired for two seasons, and earned an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1967. 

The group eventually succeeded in ousting their supervisor, and took control of their records and song choices, but they worked as a four-man group on only one album in 1967 before they disbanded.

Nesmith largely resisted reunion tours after the group disbanded, with rumors circulating since the 1960s about inter-band tensions between him and Peter Tork, but in 2012, the guitarist took part in a reunion tour and performed on the 2016 album Good Times!

As the band approached its 40th anniversary in 2016, Nesmith told Uncut Magazine: ‘The Monkees reside in my life like a little nugget, a gem I enjoy.

‘The struggles, the victories are long gone. What has continued has been the remnant light of it.’

His tour with Dolenz was postponed from 2018, when Nesmith underwent quadruple bypass surgery. 

After The Monkees disbanded, Nesmith formed the First National Band, a country rock group, with which he had a top-40 hit Joanne.

And in 1974, Nesmith founded the Pacific Arts Corp., originally designed as an outlet for his music, but gradually broadened into the video realm. 

In 1979, he and William Dear developed a TV show, called PopClips for Nickelodeon, a new channel for children’s programming that was looking to add teenagers to its audience. The show played nothing but music videos, introduced by VJ.

Then in 1981, Nesmith co-wrote, starred in and produced Elephant Parts, an hourlong 1981 collection of music video and comedy skits that won the Grammy for Video of the Year.

The project would inspire Warner Television to create MTV.  

But the venture was not without controversy – he faced a lawsuit from PBS in the 1980s, after his company, Pacific Arts, distributed many of its home video titles, including Nature and Ken Burns’ documentary series, The Civil War.

PBS sued him for royalties, but in 1999, a federal jury in Los Angeles found in favor of Nesmith, and he was awarded $47 million. 

In more recent years, Variety reports, he has focused on his online environment – Videoranch, where he would publish and sell his works.

He had a net worth of approximately $50 million when he died Friday at his $4 million home in Carmel Valley, California.