This month’s guest interviewers are: Susan Shaffer of Germantown, Maryland for DAVY and PETER; and for MIKE and MICKY: Donna Rapich of Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts.
Micky Permalink
Q. If you were able to be anything for one day, what would you be and why?
A. I think I’d like to be a dog. Dogs are really smart animals and they not only communicate with themselves, but with humans too. It would be great to play with YOU on her level.
Q. What is the funniest question you’ve ever been asked?
A. Do you like being a Monkee?
Q. What’s the nicest thing the other Monkees have done for you?
A. They’ve been my friends for the past two years and friendship is really the nicest thing you can share with someone—friendship and love.
Q. If you could go back to any time in history, where would you like to go and why?
A. I think I’d like to go back to England about the time of Tom Jones. When I was in England I loved the people, so I know I would like them back then. Also, the clothes of that time were so groovy, I think I’d open a tailor shop and design all kinds of fabulous gear.
Q. Right now, who are some of your favorite groups?
A. First of all, the Beatles, of course. I love their new album, “The Magical Mystery Tour.” Next, there’s Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Cream, and the Spencer Davis Group.
Mike Permalink
Q. If you could return to Texas right now, not in concert or for filming or the like, what would you do?
A. I had a chance like that not too long ago and my friend, John from the Lewis and Clarke Expedition, and I went and spent about two weeks just driving over the old country roads in Texas, hunting on the open plain and boating in the Gulf of Mexico. It was a really great way to get away, because I could forget that I was a Monkee, and even though I dig being a Monkee, it’s important to be just a person sometimes. This really gave me the chance and I loved every minute.
Q. What is the most memorable event of your childhood?
A. I guess it was when my mother and I would go to the drugstore together. She would take me every once in a while for a treat. She would order a sundae and I would order broccoli. I’ve never liked sweets very well, but I always loved vegetables, so I would order something like broccoli and just love it!
Q. I can’t find your favorite color, so what is it and what does it mean to you?
A. I have two favorite colors, blue and dark green. I like them because they seem so natural to me—like the sky is blue and trees are dark green in a forest, which is the way I like to see them most. To me they are warm colors.
Q. What was your first opinion of Phyllis?
A. Our first meeting was very brief, but I acted as if I was very unimpressed, but it was just the other way around. I thought she was very beautiful and I thought I’d like to call her April; and I have ever since.
Q. Give me a definition of the Monkees.
A. Davy, Micky, Peter and Me.
Davy Permalink
Q. Davy, I read about your store in New York, Zilch, and I think it sounds fantastic! What new things are happening there right now and what kinds of things can we order through the mail?
A. Well, I’m designing new kinds of Indian Zilch coats all the time and different styles are in the store already. The mail order will start probably just after Christmas. We’re taking our time with it. It’s going to be a lot of inexpensive things that will look groovy—mini skirts and dresses; just simple things that I’ve designed and hope everybody digs.
Q. Some people say that you’ve been in America so long that you’ve lost your accent. Is this true, do you put on a British accent?
A. No, it’s just natural. Put on? I just talk the way it comes out. I suppose I’ve lost some of it, when I say words like “last” and “past”, I pick up the American accent. When I think about it, I come off English.
Q. Do you think you will ever return to the stage or do you think you’ll go into movie making?
A. The next step for me is definitely the Monkee movie.
Q. How about later on?
A. Oh, sure. I want the four Monkees to go back and do a stage show. I’d like to do a pantomime show, maybe, in England, next Christmas, if possible. (Peter, who’s in the room, interjects: “We want to put on a whole vaudeville show with us as every act.”)
Q. What do you enjoy doing in the little spare time you have?
A. I enjoy gardening. I’m having my whole yard landscaped and I’m working on it too. At the moment, though, all I’m doing is digging up weeds. I’m painting my house too, making shelves, doing all those things myself. It’s so groovy to think it’s my house, so I have to do everything myself.
Q. Is it true that you have a line of race horses and will you be running them in England?
A. Yes, but I have only two now. I hope to have a whole string one day.
Q. Does it bring you satisfaction when you can’t be there to see your own horses race?
A. Well, yes, because when I left being an apprentice jockey I never really left anything without trying to make it a success. I like to finish things off and I never really finished that off. I didn’t become a celebrity as a jockey and it really kind of put me up tight to think about it. So now I’ve made it in a different field and I can go back and the racing field is like a new challenge. Not as a rider anymore, because I’m getting too heavy, but as an owner and as a trainer. Maybe I’ll be a racehorse trainer when this is all over. And I’ll still be entertaining the public, won’t I?
Peter Permalink
Q. Are you interested in Yoga and what IS Yoga?
A. I’m not terribly interested in it, because it’s a discipline and I think discipline should be spontaneous. Yoga is a discipline of concentration—concentration to attain sufficiency of various things, like some just for salvation of the soul and some for eating. There are yogas for all kinds of things. That’s about all I know about it.
Q. You’ve written a lot of songs, is there anything special you like to write about and what kinds of songs do you like best?
A. I haven’t written a great many songs, but I do like to write about love and pretty things and nice people. I like blues songs best.
Q. What sort of feeling do you get from a spring rain?
A. A feeling of wetness.
Q. For this last question, I’d like you to discuss anything that you are very interested in at the moment.
A. I discuss whatever interests me most with every breath and step I take. And I believe for every drop of rain a flower grows.
