My Brother Micky

As told to Tiger Beat by his sister Coco

What is Micky like? There are so many things about him that I couldn’t even being to tell you all of them.

Micky’s crazy clothes Permalink

Micky used to have very bad taste in clothes, I think—not that he had bad taste, he was just always saying things like, “What should I wear. Does this look good? Well, how does this look?”

He was like me to a certain extent in that we never knew what looked good, so I was always asking him and to this day it’s, “Micky, does this look good?”

“Yeah, it looks great.” or “No, that doesn’t look good,” or “Does this look good, Coco?” or whatever.

His taste in clothes—actually, he’s always had pretty good taste. He’s always liked boots and the groovy things, except for his Hawaiian shirt that he always wears. He got a Hawaiian shirt when he was 12 years old. He got it in Hawaii—that ugly thing and it’s so ugly! I think maybe he wears it because it reminds him of the good old days.

What’s groovy about Micky is that he wears all the groovy clothes on the show and that’s what he wears when he goes out. When he gets home and he starts working on an art project, like last night, he puts on a pair of dirty old cut-offs and a sweatshirt so he can be comfortable and he sits in the middle of the room and glues everything. Right now he’s making collages.

His secret ambition Permalink

I think he’d like to be a fireman. Yeah, a fireman—he’d love to be a fireman.

When he was going to Los Angeles Trade Tech, he was taking Architectural Drafting. He was just a real architect drawing lines and buildings and he was really good at it, just fantastic doing A++ work all the time. I think that deep down, if he had the time, he’d like to do stuff like that, because he’s good at it. He used to come home with some beautiful, groovy blueprints of buildings.

Oh, he builds things. He built my dog a modern dog house. You know how a regular dog house has just a hole? This one had a platform and a door and panels. The roof is slanted to the ground and there’s this little platform like a sundeck and it’s really groovy and he just whipped it up.

We got our pool up in San Jose and in one day he whipped up this movable picket fence, a huge fence, with the locks and everything and it was really neat.

Normal genius Permalink

In school, he liked all the shops because he’s a mechanical wizard. When he was 10 years old—you know the telephones that have cards that go in and dial themselves, well—he figured something out like that when he was 10 years old, but he never went on with it.

He’s always been a mechanical wizard and doing things with his hands. Like now he’s picking up these metal things and doing things with stereos. He used to do things with telephones and tape recorders that you couldn’t believe.

He was good in drama when he was in high school. He was usually pretty good in everything. He was just a normal guy though in that he went through school and didn’t do his best, so he really got up tight, so he says,

“Well, I could have done a lot better.”

Nervous nails Permalink

Micky has a bad habit of biting his fingernails. Ugly!! He’s overly sensitive something about his friends and stuff. He’s worried if they like him for his money or for him. Aside from biting his nails, he really doesn’t have any really bad habits.

Groovy guy Permalink

You know what he used to do which was really groovy. I was going to Grant High—no—I was going to Millican, or was it Grant? Anyway, I was going to one of these two schools and I used to get up early in the morning. Well, Micky was out of school. He didn’t have to, but he used to get up every morning at 8 o’clock to bring me to school, even if he’d been out late, so I wouldn’t have to take the bus. I really had a thing about taking buses. I’d have to take the bus and I’d have to walk a couple of blocks and I was just lazy, but he used to get up every morning. Something it was difficult to get him up and stuff, but all in all he really enjoyed it. He got up and brought me to school when he didn’t have to.

He’s also helped me with my homework like in math and stuff like that, because I was really bad in math. Numbers and I just don’t go together. Every time I used to take drama and stuff, he always used to help me with my scenes. He’s really a talented guy.

Musical Monkee Permalink

Micky’s always been the musical one in our family. He used to write songs a long time ago and we’d sit down and say how we liked it and I’d figure out the harmony and we’d change the words a little bit. Now, we haven’t always got the time, but we still get together and sing and he tells me what to do and I go it. I’ll do that harmony and I’ll sing and I can do other stuff, but he’s written all the songs we do and he does the music and the words.

His saddest day Permalink

The saddest day in Micky’s life was when I was born—yep, when I was born. No, actually, the saddest day in Micky’s life—I think maybe, well, that’s sort of difficult ’cause he’s my brother and I don’t know. From my point of view, I think what would have been the saddest day was probably when my dad passed away and when my dad died, Micky took over—especially when it came to me. He gets a big kick out of being big brother. You know, I can’t do anything. That’s why my mom doesn’t mind when I come down here to Los Angeles to visit, because she knows that Micky will just keep me in line here and I won’t do anything either, because I don’t want to jeopardize it. He treats me almost like a father, ’cause he knows what’s right for me and I listen to him. I listen to my brother before I listen to my parents, because we’re really closer.

The girl scene Permalink

Ever since his first girlfriend, Linda Singer, when he was 13, it’s always been a triangle, Micky—his girlfriend—and me.

He’d tell me stuff, “Well, gee, Coco, Linda this.”

She’s say, “Gee, Coco, Micky this.” I’d end up knowing more than both of them and I’d just sit back and say yeah, I know what’s happening and they don’t. It was always that I was the third spoke on the wheel type thing. He’s always talked to me about his girlfriends.

“Do you really like her? What do you think of her.”

He doesn’t like the phony Hollywood hippy type kids, little teeny boppers. Let’s put it this way, he doesn’t not like them, he just doesn’t condone their actions. He think they’re sort of silly, at least, that’s what I think. He likes long blond hair. Like he’s said in so many articles before, he’s girl crazy and that’s true—he just loves girls. He loves affection, he craves love. Find him a girl that’ll show him some love and some real true, sincere feeling and he’ll just eat it up, ’cause he likes that. He’s basically quiet on the phone with girls.

It’s “Yeah, Babe, what do you want to do?” or “I love you, too.” Usually something like that and he’s basically very quiet. When he gets with his girlfriend and a mess of people, he’s loud Micky Dolenz again.

Basically Micky Permalink

Basically he has the home in him, the man-at-home type thing. He likes traveling, don’t get me wrong, he digs traveling around, he just loves to travel. He’s a bug on traveling and he’s a big on just seeing everybody and doing everything. One thing he likes to do, is just be able to go home and relax—do what he wants. That’s why he picks up all those wires and all the different collages and things, ’cause he basically likes to sit home and do quiet stuff.

Micky himself Permalink

He’s my brother. Just himself. Micky, who Micky is. He’s thoughtful and he just wants to help everybody. He’s always helping people, he’s always helping me, he’s always there to talk to. He’s the most beautiful person in my world. He’s just fantastic ’cause he’s versatile. He can sit down and write a poem, turn around and fix a telephone, then turn around and buy somebody something. Making things with his hands and just being versatile and just being him is what I like most about my brother, Micky.