By Neko Chohlis, Davy’s Close Friend
Whether he’s doing a concert, a Monkee segment, a recording session or greeting fans—wherever he goes Davy gives every ounce of himself as a performer and as a person. That’s why he is called “Mr. Bighearted”.
To Davy, show business is a business. It’s his job and he gives it everything he’s got—even if it means getting a little scared once in awhile. Sometimes I look at him before a concert—where the kids are really going crazy—and he has a slightly panicked look on his face.
Once the audience was even throwing things, and there were four big holes in the screen that we showed slides on, right behind the Monkees. But Davy just stood there, smiling and dodging things and singing away.
He loves doing concerts and approaches each one in an open-minded way. I’ve never heard him complain about doing a concert. You can tell by the way he performs that he digs it. He knows exactly what the audience wants, and he really grooves with them.
Aware of fans Permalink
To Davy, the more people, the better! His fans mean so much to him that he wants to give them everything they came for. He delivers the best show he can by really communicating with his audience kneeling down, pointing to them or blowing a kiss. He can feel the warm vibrations coming from the audience and that makes him perform even better.
In fact, he’s the most fan-conscious performer I’ve ever seen. He realizes that if they get carried away, it’s done out of love and enthusiasm. He feels he owes them a lot of thanks so he always does things to make them a little happier.
Like, when we were in Detroit, there was a girl in a wheel chair. I went back to get Davy’s autograph for her since he was her favorite Monkee and I told him about her. She was sitting right by the edge of the stage, so when Davy went on to sing, he came over to her, kneeled down and sang to her for a few minutes. He’s always doing little things like that.
Broadway bits Permalink
Davy also lets his love for the theater shine through on his solo numbers. He sticks in a bit of Broadway when he sings “Gonna Build Me A Mountain” and he loves to dance. He puts extra little bits into his act to make it super-special, because Davy’s an actor and a dancer as much as he is a singer. In fact, he digs acting best of all.
Before a concert, Davy, like the other Monkees, sits around and does nothing until right before he goes on stage. Then the four guys get in a football-type huddle. Each puts one arm around the next guy and puts his free hand on the stack in the middle of the huddle. Then they mumble “Hare Krishna Rama, Haba-re-ba-so-bo-see-ben” or some nonsense thing like that. It’s just a little ritual that ties them all together into a closer group so they’ll groove with each other.
Record sessions Permalink
Before a recording session, Davy will come in and joke with the people who are there. If he’s in an extra-groovy mood, he’ll clown around through the whole session and make crazy facial expressions while he sings.
Davy’s always livening up everyone around him. And when he gets together with Micky while they’re recording, it’s one big comedy show!
Recently Davy has gotten involved in song-writing—constantly sitting down at the piano or trying to figure out a tune on the guitar. The only thing he doesn’t like about the recording part of it is that the four Monkees can’t record enough together because each one has so many things happening every day. On a given day Davy may be the only one at the studio.
Gives his heart Permalink
As for filming the show, sometimes he gets tired. But a true pro like Davy keeps going and never lets on. When the Monkees began, it could have become a drag because they just memorized scripts and repeated the same thing over and over.
But now they ad-lib. Davy just looks over the script, then forgets the lines and says it in his own words. It’s a lot more fun for him that way!
Davy really loves being a performer and sincerely wants to give everyone watching a part of himself. He’s all heart and that is why he will always be a successful entertainer and a successful human being.
