Verne and I walked into the busy hotel restaurant early Sunday morning.  I was very sleep deprived, having spent much of the night before researching the career of former teen idol and Monkee Davy Jones to prepare myself for our interview with him.  The night before seemed like a whirlwind dream - a misty water coloured memory of Verne and I in Davy Jones' trailer, some rapid paced conversation and hasty interview arrangements.  I am also not entirely sure that everybody present was wearing pants.  Entering the hotel restaurant where mid morning diners feasted on a rather expensive brunch buffet,   we quickly spotted Davy Jones and Aviva Malloney sitting together at a nearby table.  They recognized us and waved and we approached the table and sat down.  Davy Jones was clearly in a far different mood than the night before.  He was quieter, calmer, and more intense.  The waitress quickly poured some coffee and the four of us had a quiet conversation as a nearby Estebanesque guitarist played "Here Comes the Sun" nearby.  Davy softly sang along.  "It must have taken George Harrison an hour to write that tune," he commented.  This brought it all home to me.  We weren't just sitting with a man who knew who George Harrison was, we were sitting with a man who had actually known George Harrison!  This was a guy who had actually spent some time with George Harrison, not to mention the rest of the fab four; it only added to the surreal nature of the morning.  After a while Aviva left the three of us and Davy lead us to another end of the restaurant away from the rest of the patrons so we could have our talk.  Now, truth be told, I don't think Davy Jones was very interested in answering questions but that didn't mean he wasn't interested in talking to us.  In fact, it was just the opposite.  Davy Jones had a lot to say and what resulted was a much more candid and intense visit than I could have ever imagined.  I really have never had a moment like this with a celebrity before.  Davy told us all his philosophies on life, religion, sex, fatherhood, politics, political correctness, women, responsibility, entertainment, the definition of the soul, and even laundry.  What you are about to read is the true story of Davy Jones.  How did The Beatles on Sullivan affect him?  When did he first lose his virginity?  How did the Monkees destroy his theatrical career?  What did Sylvester Stallone say to him?  What did Henry Winkler do that annoyed him?  What does he think about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Keanu Reeves, Tom Hanks and Taylor Hicks?  What are Davy's true feelings about Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz, and the whole Monkees phenomena itself?  These answers and more will be revealed as

CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT PROUDLY PRESENTS

THE SOUL OF

DAVY JONES

THE LONG AWAITED SECOND PART OF OUR INTERVIEW WITH FORMER MONKEE AND 1960'S TEEN IDOL DAVY JONES

Sam:  Thanks again for talking with us this morning Davy. You did a really great show last night! I think it’s one of the biggest crowds I've seen in this city and I gotta tell you, the audience just ate your show up! How do you manage to keep your popularity over all these decades?

Davy Jones:  Well, when I am traveling or when I go out I try to set a good example. I try to dress so that I look at least half decent. Y'know, I hate to go into airports and there are guys wearing tank tops and cut offs and you got to actually sit next to them and they’re flossing their teeth. Y'know, there are all kinds of people who do things like that and to me it's not a necessary thing. You go and you just act like a gentleman. Y'know, I was raised by my mum and my three sisters and I got four daughters and I've been married twice. I've got a lot of females in my life. Yeah, I've got a lot of girls in my life that look after me and do things for me and stuff and you've got to learn to just forget that lad stuff and become an example. I mean, it’s a stress sometimes. I mean, I didn't ask to be a role model. It's just inbred. My father was the street healer and when I say that is that in England, if there is a problem, and somebody was ill and there was a sickness on the street or someone cut themselves or whatever my father was an ambulance man. The reason I say that is because I remember one time, for instance, is that one of the neighbours died on the toilet and everyone was saying, "Go get Harry!  Go get Harry!  He'll take care of it." So my dad was a little guy who had to take this guy off of the toilet, clean him up, put him together and, y'know, that's a respectful thing. I mean that's a very extreme time but I saw him do many things. I do things too for people. I have an experience. Let me tell you really quick…New Years Eve. New Years morning, I'm coming from my friend's house and I'm driving through the fog at about twenty to six in the morning and the sun is just coming up and there's fog on the road and I'm driving down the road and where I live in Florida there's a lot of Mexicans, a lot of Guatemalans. And I'm driving down the road and I see this little Mexican guy and he has got just his pants and his shoes on. No top and he's dirty and he's staggering all over the pavement and going into the road and I pass him and I thought, you know something? That guy’s going to get arrested. He'll be back on the boat and on his way back to Guatemala or wherever so I swing over and I park my car for one second and I had a sweater on and a t-shirt. So I took the sweater off, took the T-shirt off and put the sweater back on and pulled along the side and opened my window up just enough and said, "Hey," and he said, "I don't speak no English."  And I said, "Well, where do you live?"  I'm thinking I'll be late to feed my horses but I say, "get in" and he's drunk and I knew that if he had walked another block and a cop car went by that he would be in the wagon. And so it's New Years morning and I got him to get in the car and he got in and I said, "Where do you go?  Where do you come from?"" and he goes, "I don't know," and he's crying and he's upset and he's been drinking too much and he must of woke up in the bushes or whatever. So I said, "Put this on," and I gave him my t-shirt but it didn't matter. So I drove him down and I was thinking, "Where am I going to take him?  What am I going to do?"  So there is this gas station owned by three Mexican guys and I pull up in front of the gas station and I say to the one guy, "Do you speak Mexican?" And the guy says, "Hey man, sure we do.”  “Alright!" I say, "Can you talk to this guy?" And he says, "Where do you live?" and the guy in my car says, "Guatemala," and the other guy says, "No, where do you live in Florida?" And the guy tells him the rest and the gas attendant says, "Hey, it’s okay. He just lives two streets down the road." So I give on the gas and get him home and he says to me, "Thank you so much," and he had that down anyway and so I started the New Year with a good feeling, y'know, helping someone who was less fortunate than I was. Well, I've never been in that bad of a condition. I've been in bad conditions. I remember some New Years mornings when I was like, "Oh god!  Why did I have that last beer?" but we've all been there. It’s like, "Give me the bathroom floor so I can put my face on the tile." But things like that, some of the things I've experienced, not because of being a Monkee but because I just fall into these different situations and I don't just toss them out of my mind and let them go. 

Verne:  Well things happen for a reason. I'm a firm believer of that and I think, again, obviously you've got a good heart and you've got a good soul and you’re a nice person and I think for things like that people are meant to fall into those situations.

Davy:   Well I was, and I see a lot of stuff going on and I when see someone pulling a kid around in a supermarket and I say, "Excuse me but...." and they say, "Mind your own business," and then you can't go too much further than that because it is my business, okay? Stop pulling him along like that and then you've got to calm it down a little bit because I've done that a number of times when I see people pulling on kids. Y'know, pulling them wherever just because they’re playing on a rope or something wherever, on a barrier at a bank or something. Because it’s the parent who is embarrassed. It's not what the kid is doing, it's just that they’re not. I mean, I can't imagine going in a supermarket as a kid with my mother and getting on the floor and going, "I want some candy." You think it's doing that kind of stuff? I can understand that but I'd pick him up and take him right home. Not whack him, because you can't hit children. It’s not an example you want to set because if they see things like that happen kids go on and do that kind of thing in their later life. It becomes an example of what they have so then they think it’s alright. Y'know, it sticks in your mind. I mean, I've got so many things in my mind from over the years and you can see in my book, which you can get on www.daveyjones.net, that it's like over the kitchen table.  I want everything to be normal when I go out there on stage. Under the right conditions the thought in my mind is to try to be consistent. Let it roll along. Just make it as tough as you can for the next act to come on, y'know? My dad always told me to make it harder for the next guy to go on and I'd say, "Yes, Dad."  He was never pushy; never stagy my parents. I left home when I was fourteen. Obviously I missed out on those normal things; school proms if there is any such thing in England, which there wasn't. I missed out on all the early dating and that kind of thing.  I was thrown straight into a dressing room on Broadway and on the West End Stage on the, what is it, Magpie Theatre? 

Sam:  The Hummingbird.

Davy:  Oh, sorry. The Hummingbird Theatre. And I'm meeting these girls in g-strings and topless, walking around and then, y'know, I've got three sisters so I'd seen a lot of that stuff so I was a little late in maturing as a young man. I mean I probably didn't have a sexual encounter until I was about seventeen or eighteen which is pretty normal. That's pretty normal but I'm pretty consistent with that thing. I mean, if I'm with someone than I'm with them and I've never been a very promiscuous person. You couldn't be in the Monkee days because all the kids were so young and, again, as I say, I don't want to be the guy who has to set the example but at the same time it’s important that people have some sort of guideline. It’s sort of like when people talk about Bach or Beethoven and all these people, well those were the only guys who had a piano! Y'know, it’s sort of like my belief on religion - how the Bible was there as a reference so people can look at one point of view and have it as something that they can understand and follow so they had some sort of protocol. And then it got to be opening the doors for the ladies and being respectful and then you had the men's smoke room and you have this where everything is just one big mess and then there just wasn't that many people anyway. And so my view on religion is that I believe very strongly that this is the afterlife. That this is the reward we've been given. It couldn't get any better then this! I mean you've got to be joking! I mean this is heaven on Earth if there is any such place. I believe in ears and eyes and mouths and heads and noses and all those things but what is a soul? A soul, we've worked out, well we've blew the word up so we're saying that "he's very soulful, he's got a great heart.  He's got a great soul," whatever. So it’s a word we've manufactured to relate a feeling or an emotion. Howard Houston said that “there is more feelings and emotions than there are words to express them." So change the way you look at things and the things you look at are changed. You got to think from the end because the things you do affect somebody else. I say it's happiness. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. You get over it, you make mistakes, you get over it. If I have a problem I take that problem and I put it over there and then I have all this fun and I go play and I have a ball, y'know.  I'll go swimming and I'll do this and I'll do that, I'll sit down and write something and then I'll wake up in the middle of the night and I'll go back to that problem and I'm in a different frame of reference. I mean, what's the problem? It's very simple; I really believe this is heaven. I mean look at that lake out there. Look at all these people having Sunday lunch. Y'know, everybody is where they want to be and there are a lot of unfortunate people in the world and there are twenty million people who are homeless and who are living in tents, being persecuted but it has always been that way. You talk about the war to end all wars. I mean that was just an idea because they didn't think it could get any worse than this. I mean, my grandfather was killed in the trenches in 1916 and he was thirty years old and he left four kids and a wife but it was always the labourers that were pushed out on the front lines but there were so many other ways to go but we keep falling into the same trap. I mean what can you do? Life is so precious and you got to live it to the fullest and just be considerate to other people. So do you have any questions for me?

Sam:  I mean, I do but this is just wonderful - listening to your points of view and philosophies on life.

Davy:  Well, I heard something on the TV the other day. It was like a talk show and it was Henry Winkler and he was on this show and it was this new guy on television and all of a sudden he asks, "What would you do if you had three wishes?"  Henry Winkler says, "Well, number one I would get all the boys home from Iraq and number two...” and I'm thinking that I don't want to hear his politics! I don't want to hear political views from people in Hollywood!  It’s sort of like Cher or this guy or this girl supporting the presidency of this guy. Y'know, if it makes a difference and people look at that and then all of a sudden you become a celebrity and all of a sudden you become more attractive, you become better looking and you become more articulate and you become all these things that you’re not really; but then again when I think about politics I think it should get off the stage in front of audiences and stuff. When I say you got to change the way you look at things it’s political in a sense. It’s speaking my idea but it’s a place to go which is comforting. So why not be comfortable? But to endorse a presidential or a cabinet going into office, y'know, it’s your point of view and if some people don't want to listen to you than that's fine. I don't want to offend anybody with my views on anything; I just want to share the way I feel. I don't think there is any problem with that, so anyway. 

Sam:  So, back to my questions. Well, why don't we talk about the Monkees for a few minutes?

Davy:  Yup.

Sam:  Now, I know the story that there was an ad in Variety that you guys all answered but one time I heard a story that they already had seen you and had you in mind and that you didn't have to audition for the Monkees.

Davy:  Well when I did the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, the same night the Beatles appeared, and I saw all this chaos and you got to understand that the Beatles were the first manufactured band. Brian Epstein got rid of the drummer, Pete Best. He brought in Ringo, who's a dear friend. I like him very much and he's a real sensible kind of guy. He loves to play. He loves to get out there. He loves show business. He's not aloof or separate. Anyway, I saw what happened and every night out of "Oliver's" backstage door there were like twenty kids or when I went to the edge of the stage there was a tremendous applause when I came to take my bow because that was the part. That applause would happen for no matter who played it and in anybody's eyes they would say that was great. Different Dodgers did different things and they were all appreciated in different ways.  I thought my Dodger was pretty good and I thought my Fagan was even better. It was not as good as Alec Guinness but it was pretty good.

Sam:  When did you do Fagan?

Davy:  I did Fagan in 1989 for the first time at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City and then in the Moonie in St. Louis, and then I went back a couple of years later and did it again and then I did Fagan in Miami and here and there and everywhere but I thought my Fagan was as good as anyone’s.  It was.  I knew it was.  To play a seventy five year old man and the reviews said if you go to see Davy Jones forget it because you’re not going to recognize him. And I did it in soft funny happy way. I did all that fun stuff. Y'know, the Monkees ruined my acting career. People are always looking for this little chirpy chap with stars in his eyes and this little man so maybe when I get to be seventy or sixty maybe I'll finally get these opportunities but I've already gotten one of them. I bought myself a church in Pennsylvania. It’s a massive church. As big as where we're sitting right now. Two floors. I'm turning it into a memorabilia museum and children's theatre. One floor is going to be memorabilia. I've collected things from the area and it’s not just going to be Monkee memorabilia. I'll get a jacket from Roger Daltery or a pair of shoes from Elton John. All I got to do is contact them and tell them what I'm doing. It’s not going to be from any e-bay sale. So put your money where your mouth is. Shut up. Stop complaining. If you haven't changed it you can't change it. But you know, in the 70's when we first finished the Monkees you see these young producers coming in because now the studios are being rented out because the unions spoiled the business and now they go to Canada, which is a great place to film, they go to Mexico, because why would you turn yourself inside out with rules. "Don't move this. Don't touch that cable. We need a break now." That's not what theatre or movies are about.  It's about spontaneity. Actors can't take that break when they get to that point. They want one more take or whatever. That's why I like the stage or theatre because there's not one more take. Whatever you say is what you said. It's just like this!  Live interviews! Once you've said it than that's it. Once you've said it don't say, "Oh, forget I said that." There's nothing that I say to you or to anybody else that I don't want anybody else to not hear. Even if I am hung over from the next night and I'm mad at the world and all of a sudden I come out and I'm a little grumpy old man. So if I've said it, I've said it and if you want to print it, than print it. Y'know, there's more good in the world than there is bad. You shift through that clutter to find the heart and soul of the matter - there's that word again. The soul. If you can find where it comes from than it’s understanding. When we went out on tour as the Monkees in 1997 as the four of us we sold out Wembley Stadium, Newcastle, Manchester, the NCC Center and the critics said, "same old, same old," but the audience went wild! They were on their feet by the end of the show. They weren't thinking about someone's silly opinion. Some guy came up to me the other day and said, "Hey!  I love the Monkees," and he was like forty one, and he was like, "I used to watch it all the time when I was a kid every Saturday morning."  Well, then I knew he was second generation because it was on Monday nights when it was on TV.  He says, "Yeah, you guys were great. Not like the kids these days. They don't even play their own music! They’re singing to tapes and doing this." And I was like, "Yeah, right." I mean there is an audience for everything. Now, back in the 60's we were knocked for not playing our own music. We were a TV show about a band. Do you understand? We weren't a friggin' band! We were a TV show about a band. So it blew up. I think we did about two hundred concerts with just the four of us standing on a stage with the Cowsills just about to go on. Do you know how hard it is to play the bass line of "I'm a Believer"?  It’s like nothing! Well you can sing any song that Neil Diamond ever wrote to "I'm a Believer." I mean, "Cherry Cherry" was "It's a Little Bit Me, It's a Little Bit You." Well if you go through all those different albums there are so many different songs on that style. We got writers all over. We didn't want to use just one writer. The reason we got all those great songs from all those great writers was because in the 60's before the Beatles hit, those writers were writing everything for everybody. It wasn't singer/songwriter like Gordon Lightfoot or somebody like that. A singer who did his own songs was called a folk singer. Bob Dylan never really hit it off right away, but now he's out there again and they ask him what he thinks of folk singing and he changed the face of folk singing. He got a little bit more adventurous and he wrote lyrics that were a little bit more risqué and opinionated. 

Sam:  Well, he was the man who told the Beatles that they didn't actually write anything.

Davy:  That's right! And so they stopped! They stopped and they stopped singing Johnny B. Goode and they stopped covering Little Richard, and Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino so all of a sudden Neil Diamond, Harry Nilsson, Neil Sadaka and all these people had no place to put their songs. Hello! Here comes the Monkees.  And then Mike Nesmith took up the cause in the second year and started wanting to write songs for the B side of every single. He made thousands! Lots of money from that. Y'know, the first check I got in 1967 was forty thousand dollars! So what he got as a writer and publisher, I have no idea. Then in the second year we blew it because instead of taking five days to shoot the show we only spent three days and instead they filled it in with all those "Monkee runs" which are now called music videos. But it was all done before - Bobby Rydell, Bobby Vinton, Fabian. They all had these little videos that they showed on the jukebox. They were all filmed with just one camera and then the guy sang and that was sort of an extension of the Monkees. Now imagine if the Marx Brothers put out records? Now that would have been amazing, y'know? They would have had a different sort of career. Now people don't get it. Even a group like the Marx Brothers wasn't selling tickets at the box office anymore and they were dropped by the company and they were told to go on the road and develop new material and so they would do five days on the road. Now, when I saw the Beatles, just to get back to your question, when I saw the Beatles at the Ed Sullivan theatre...

Sam:  What was it like that night?  Crazy?

Davy:  Yeah, because Brian Epstein had put four hundred young kids in that theatre. Well, the next week the audience all looked like traveling salesmen and they were all over fifty.  But on that particular night they had put all those kids in that theatre and they went crazy and the police were out there and it was all staged and the thing was put together for that particular reason. Music needed something new. Music needs something new now. John Lennon said that he didn't want to be forty and singing in Vegas. Well, now he would change his mind because Elton John is there, Celine Dion is there and the people come to you when you get older.  Unless you have a couple of days in Peterborough or some town similar where you can look at the lake and take a walk and relax and do your laundry. I mean, every time I pack my clothes up and leave a show I think to myself, "Do you think Elvis did this?" I mean, if you go up to my room right now I got a stack of socks and underwear. I got a stack of other stuff. I've been on the road for nine days. I am going to the laundry room in the hotel tonight. I don't want anyone else touching my shorts. I am doing my own underwear and my own socks, y'know? I don't want to mix colors, y'know. I want everything to be the way I want it to be and it all goes back to my little system in my little case and if I need to grab a shirt or whatever everything is in order. Many times I'll be sitting there, like I will be tonight, talking to my sister and I'll say, "What are you doing?" and she'll say, "You know what I'm doing.  It's Sunday night.  I'm doing the ironing," and I'll say, "So am I."  Don't mess with my shirts. I have to iron my own shirts. My own fresh shirts, because I've been doing it my whole life and my mum passed away and my sisters taught me how to do that. They taught me how to cook and taught me how to do my own clothes and taught me how to keep in reasonably good shape and, then again, you can buy five t-shirts for ten dollars but if you buy one t-shirt for forty dollars and look after it will last for a long time. You don't have to have a stack of stuff. I mean, every time my rule is, well, I just bought a new pair of sneakers because I'm starting to run again. I was always a little bit of a runner but I've had problems with my calves and things and so for my ratty old sneakers, instead of keeping them to walk in the mud, I'll leave them behind. I mean, when you’re traveling or on the road don't ever take more than you can carry. That's the golden rule because you might have to leg it on your own sometime. It's great having a car waiting for you and it's great having all of this but the thing was I saw the Beatles on the Sullivan stage and I thought that that was different. I mean, I thought the ultimate thing was being on "Coronation Street," and then I thought "Oliver," and then Broadway, and then the Tony nomination. I mean a Tony nomination! Can you believe it? But then I think that I wanted to be a part of this thing I was seeing!  So I had just been signed by Columbia Pictures for a seven year contract because they had seen me as the Artful Dodger and they signed my up and I went to see a guy named James Frawley who directed some of our stuff. He directed "Butterflies Are Free." That was one of the things he was doing and some other stuff but the English accent got in the way. I mean, tell that to Enroll Flynn playing an American cavalry officer. So it all depends who you’re talking to, specifically in the movies. Now, there are all sorts of internationals so it doesn't matter. You got Sean Connery playing a Russian submarine captain. 

Verne:  It’s like Boris Karloff playing an Asian, or Bela Lugosi playing one.

Davy:  There's another thing - I was offered to do Mrs. Saigon and it was just about the time there was a conflict because Jacqueline Price was playing on Broadway and they asked me to take over to do it and also there was a massive conflict about getting an Oriental....ah, it’s now Asian. Right. It was like, y'know, wherever. I meant Oriental and it’s now Asian. I keep getting confused. I don't know what to call anyone anymore. I just call them by whatever they are at this point.

Sam:  I believe Asian is the politically correct term.

Davy:  Okay. Whatever it is. It’s sort of like Bill Maher. He didn't come up with the term politically correct but he'll be connected with that term forever. And he happens to be a dick, y'know, but that's another story. I mean, he was doing guest spots on "Happy Days" back in the 70's. And so was the leadsinger of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He was into acting before that. He's only an act, now Flea’s a good friend of mine, from the Chilis. I believe him to be a friend.  He respects me and I respect him and what he's done but the lead singer, y'know, Anthony? Anthony is standing outside of his house in Beverly Hills while it’s burning down because he's on heroine. He says, "Wow, what a great fire this is." I know because his former manager is my friend. He was in "Oliver" and his mother and dad were like second parents to me and he quit because he got them a two million dollar deal about five or six years ago to go to Sweden and just put these jeans on for an ad but they were all, "No, no, we don't want to do that, no," and so they had a little hiatus for about six years. But then they came back and will they with stand the test of time?  But the Chilis came back. That's what they did and Anthony was a moderate song writer but he got together with a good producer. It’s like "Fame," y'know, David Bowie. It was a country and western song when he first started it but he got together with a producer and he changed it and all of a sudden he's got another hit. So look, back to your question. So the thing was that um, I saw the reaction to the Beatles on the Sullivan stage and within two weeks of doing that I was in the studio recording an album. I did this first album and I just did a bunch of songs that the girlfriend liked and, y'know, it was a Bob Dylan song “It Aint Me Babe,” and it was like “Put Me Amongst the Girls,” and other songs like that - just stuff that I came up with. And then Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider got the idea of doing the Monkees.  Rafelson was sort of a moderate sort of film maker who could do documentaries and stuff like that. Bert Schneider was the son of Abe Schneider the head of Columbia Pictures and it was the first outside company to come into studios and rent sets. It cost us thirty five thousand dollars to make the Monkees episodes the first year. Thirty five thousand dollars. Everything. Can you believe that? So anyway, I saw this and went and made an album and it was in '65 when I did this.

Sam:  I saw you in a clip from Shin-Dig on YouTube singing a song from that album.

Davy: Yeah, it’s crazy, y'know, so whatever, and I went from there and all of a sudden Bert and Bob came on the scene and gave them the studio to do whatever they wanted.  “Hard Days Night” was playing at the time so that was a great idea. Put “A Hard Days Night” on television, and they just held auditions like “America Idol”, but it wasn’t. Well, “American Idol” is a distant cousin of the "Gong Show", and Ed McMahon "Celebrity Search" or something and you know its taken forty five years to get here and it’s the follow up. There has been no foreplay for these kids. I’m sure the guy that won it this year, Taylor Hicks, has had some experience on the stage and sang lovely and done whatever and he’ll do pretty good, but talk to me in twenty five years from now and lets see what goes on because it’s a process. Show business is like a fish bowl, you have a success and you go way up there and you’re looking over and how big is the top of the mountain? So I know what it’s like, and I still feel up there because to me it’s no different from the school play. Everything I do is no different. This is NBC, y'know. International news, and there we are, millions and millions and millions of people see this. I mean people don’t know that I perform and do the things that I do. I always say, most people think I’m dead but you can’t be everywhere, unless you’re in that TV thing, or that radio thing. People don’t know where you are or what you’re doing. Well, I’m doing.  I’m working.  I’m looking for answers and I do it through my work. Through my horses I ride all the time. I’m a good jockey. I know how to treat horses. I look after them well.  I’ve sort of nurtured my life and my career to being a consistent on going long term. So I went like that to the top of that fishbowl and I looked over and was like, "Whoa, this is okay. I made it. Whoa, look down here." So I went down there and all of a sudden you’re going like this and all of a sudden you find a comfortable little notch and that’s where you operate from and people are enriched and I am empowered by people knowing they can approach me and it will only give me another boost. The next thing, "Whoa, okay now I’m gonna do something if I want to and put more time into it and make an album that she’s gonna like. That she’s gonna buy."  That’s songs like, “Once I had a Secret Love.” I’m working on an album right now with just a guitar, bass, piano, maybe some vibes, no heavy drums going or anything. Something that’s listenable. It's like Ringo, “now it’s time to say good bye, good night sleep tight,” y'know, so just so it’s simple. Don’t try to do something you can't do. I don’t think of myself as a great singer. I’m an interpreter of songs, and an entertainer all around. That’s what you’ve got to be these days when you’re competing with Michael Jackson who’s dancing like a fool.  I’ve never been choreographed but if you give me a dance to do, I will choreograph. I will do it, I’m a much better dancer than when I did "Head." 

Sam:  I also saw "Daddy's Song" on YouTube.

Davy:   Yeah, yeah, yeah.  And because I can do it it just has to be directed the right way with a certain kind of presentation.  So you know, when that Monkees gig came along and I was with Ward Sylvesterton who was my manager at the time we then had to find three other boys. They had to be, they held open auditions. Everybody came. There were hundreds and hundreds of people like Steven Stills…

Sam: Paul Williams.

Davy: Paul Williams. The Lovin' Spoonful.  We were gonna use them. I was out of it at the time but I didn’t care.

Sam: The Lovin' Spoonful?

Davy: We were gonna use all of those guys but they didn’t want to act. They just wanted to play music. And they were into other things too you know, so therefore at the time maybe they were into, y'know, smoking the grass and doing whatever, but who didn’t in the '60s and if you now remember the '60s you weren’t really there. That’s what they say. You’ve heard that many of times but y'know, the thing would be that we found different people. You know, they had to be multifaceted talented in certain ways.  Now, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, at the end and the end of the day the four of them were put together and that was the combination, and so I’m not sure if the producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafleson were all together supporting of me being in it but at that particular time I had gone through the whole process. I was at Mike Nesmith’s audition when he came in with a bag of laundry over his shoulder and Indian boots with tassels on them.  “I can’t be here for too long, I got to do my laundry."  Y'know, who is this guy? This must be Forrest Gump before it ever happened. I thought Mike Nesmith could have been a great actor but he never showed up for the shows. He was always self important - did his own thing. Little did we know he was inheriting fifty million dollars from his mothers white out experiment, y'know, and now I guess they’re not using the white out too much anymore because of computers so I think he sold it just in time and he went on to important things. "Masterpiece Theatre,” and all kinds of other stuff. Mickey Dolenz is obviously an entrepreneur. Property. All kinds of other stuff. Peter Tork's so tight he wakes up in the morning and looks under the bed to see if he’s lost any sleep. He bought apartment buildings in the 60’s. I mean I didn’t throw my money around but these guys here, then all we got a few days off, three of four days off now and they’re all off on vacation and stuff. I could just say, “Hey man, spare some of your wages.”  Y'know?  “If you want the gig than you need to do that”.  But you know it's a great pay day and I make a lot more money than most but I have to keep working to support my lifestyle. So the Beatles changed my life when we did the Ed Sullivan show. I thought this is an easy way of getting close to all these girls and I just took it from there. We did the Monkees show and I was in it we did the first, and it was wonderful at the beginning. We all co-operated, but then after a while the guys weren’t so, I don't know. There are six hundred kids outside the studio every day every time we came out of the studio. Like, so you’re instantly famous. We couldn’t go out to clubs. We couldn’t go anywhere. We couldn’t do anything so I sat at home and had a bottle of beer and enjoyed company and my friends.

Sam: So when it came to the other Monkees, I mean, you guys were thrown together, now...

Davy: Y'know, not really because it’s not by circumstance the two of you guys are here, okay, because you’re friends and now y'know, you’re shooting the camera we’re talking questions here. A news caster, who’s gonna replace this one or that one. How do these TV shows get together? It’s all thrown together. It‘s all what fits. Who works with who? It's all manufactured show business. This isn’t something where we just bumped into each other in the hallway here and decide to do an interview. I mean, “Shoot, man, do you got a camera? Yeah.  Well I'm a reporter.  Okay."  We arranged to do this. So however you want to look at it, I gotta have that, you know, at least be considered the way it really happened no matter what it is in show business, as soon as that camera goes on, the sound man, the camera man, this man, that one, this and the other, it’s all put together. It’s all manufactured. This is show business. It's not real. It gives me a chance to voice some of my opinions about the way I feel about stuff but I’m not gonna go to the war with it.

Sam: Well, what I mean is the other guys from the Monkees - Peter, Mickey and Mike - do you still keep in touch with them on a regular basis or was it when you went your separate ways you were never really chums?

Davy: No, we were never really chums. We all worked on the same set. We were respectful to each other. We came to blows. Mike Nesmith and I never came to blows, but Mike gave Mickey and Peter a hard time from time to time.  Y'know, Peter once cold cuffed me on the set and I had seven stitches in my eye but I got my own back with him. He’s doing what he does, and he’s not a well rounded person.  Neither is Mickey Dolenz, and neither is Mike Nesmith, and they’re probably saying the same thing about me. They wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you right now. They wouldn’t be talking to people. They'd be saying, “Don’t disturb me. I’m having my dinner,” y'know?  Whatever.  People are nervous enough and they don’t really know.  In the middle of all this somebody can come and talk to us, as if you’re just another man. I mean that’s like familiarity that you can’t buy. That makes me feel good that they feel so causal about the idea. It’s sort of, y'know, empowering. It’s so depressing to be alone but I do get that way some times. It’s a very lonely life being in show business, y'know? I’m not out in the bar trying to pick up some dame. I mean, I flirt all the time but it doesn’t mean you have to go any farther than that. I’m very respectful. As I said, I grew up around lots of girls and my career was based on fan appreciation which is mostly female so I understand all about that. But I don’t socialize with the Monkees.  We never did when we were together. I did occasionally do things with them, but not to any great extent. You don’t think anyone on TV shows, you know Mike Lahr goes and hangs out with the other news casters. No, they go home to their families. They go home to their friends. They go home to their…hell.  I don't have many friends in show business because we’re all working and doing stuff and, yeah, you run into each other. I get written on a dressing room mirror y'know, messages from Johnny Rivers, or messages from Mark and Howie, y'know, the Turtles. I get messages from Gary Pucket from the door man who says that Gary says sorry he missed you and he hopes he sees you soon. Sylvester Stallone.  I was walking down the road with my daughter at a horse show and Stallone says, “Hey Davy! How you doin'? Good to see you.” It was like a big fair and he says, “Hey da wife," and points up to his wife and I say, “Hey!  How you doin' Sly? The daughter.”  "Hey you’re pretty funny," he says.  I said, "If I’m so bloody funny give me a part in your next movie, okay?" He thought that was funny. No it’s not funny! I’m serious. You know. I’m a contender! I could be champ. So it’s very strange and you would be very, very surprised about the people, both the general public and celebrities that so enjoy themselves, and if they do, I do. It’s a wonderful thing. It really gave me a sense of success. Not like Broadway didn’t. Not like "Coronation Street" didn’t. Not like every morning when I’m up there riding a horse and I’m up there on this twelve hundred pound horse and I’m riding beside different jockeys and people and I’m going down the track, picking it up, banging it. Boom, y'know. You go, "wow this is so unbelievable." Everything to me is a joy at this particular point. Well, not everything, but I’m talking about life and nature and my children that they turned out so nice. Everyone says they are so nice. I say why shouldn’t they be and they’re so supportive! I’ve been an absent father all my life. I talk to them. I cant call all four of them, but y'know, I’ll call one of them and then the next day I’ll call another, or the next week I might not talk to one, then I’ll realize that it’s been two weeks since I talked to my seventeen year old and I go, "wow," but she says, “okay dad”. She sent me a father’s day card that said, “dad - we both know that you’re the most uncoolest dad ever, but I still love you anyway." She called me up and she said, "Dad. I need this equipment." You know how kids go, "Dad I need this. I need that.” I say, "You know something?  I don’t think that’s right now Annabelle.”  Y'know, for instance, you should really just play it for a while.  Use what you got and then lets go on from there. She said, "well dad, you know what it’s like to be a starving musician." I say, "No, I don’t."  I don't have a perfect pitch. I really hum a note up when I sing or however it is. However, I play guitar and I write songs and I enjoy that. It doesn’t have to be "Top of the Pops" scene to be good.  I sold one hundred thousand copies with my first book. It would be on the best sellers list if I didn’t self publish it but I’m not interested in competing. Nobody does what I do. Nobody. There are not many song and dance men around, except maybe, you know, all the guys that are doing all those...

Sam: Bringing back the dances or whatever.

Davy: Y'know, whatever. You know they’re all doing something. They all say you’ve got to be a multitalented show person these days. I mean I like KD Lang. I like Elton John.  Y'know, cover tunes. I can’t look at him when I hear it but you know "This is my Song" was the best thing he ever did. After that he sort of went a little strange for me. I love listening to Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler.  My favourite singer is Chris Rhea.  Chris Rhea is a great singer and great song writer.  So I have my favourites, but I’m not in awe of any actors.  I think acting is stupid.  Get on with it.  Be real. Don’t make such a big deal out of acting. I mean, I think one of the great examples of someone who is getting on with it is Keanu Reeves.  You don’t ever see him at no award shows.  You don’t ever see him being nominated for anything but he works constantly and makes a fortune.  Anything he does he does well. He should be the next James Bond or the next Superman or something, but they’re not going to offer him that ‘cause he doesn’t want to go that legitimate because it would probably ruin his career.  Right now he does all these 'bang, bang shoot me up' psychedelic stuff.  He’s doing well at it.  I don’t think anyone could compete with that. Tom Cruise goes from sensible to silly.  "War of the Worlds" is probably the worst movie you would ever want to see, but it’s Steven Spielberg and in the early 70’s Steven Spielberg boasted that he never used celebrities.  His movies didn’t need them but as soon as he realized that he could make fifty million dollars instead of two by putting Tom Cruise in there or Tom Hanks or one of those people. There are a million people that auditioned for Forrest Gump.  You know Forrest Gump? There are twenty thousand actors that could have done Forrest Gump. It was about the product thing. Now, I’m sure that Tom's gone on to do other things that have been very important but it’s about the pieces, about the dialogue, about the script.  There are a million actors. When I went for my actors equity back in 1962 there were seventy five thousand members.  Now there are billions of them. So half of them, most of them, are out of work.  It’s not a very honourable profession, being an actor. It’s very touch and go.  Very disheartening.  As I said earlier it’s like a freakin’ mine field.  You got to be careful. I don’t want to go to Hollywood parties and walk up the red carpet. It’s like I got a red carpet at home.  All my friends tell me I’m an okay kind of guy and that’s all I need. I don’t need to be slapped on the back by a fellow actor or musician and you find that most musicians regardless of the fact of how they felt about the Monkees at the time will look back now and say, "Good things stand the test of time and you guys, all though you didn’t do this and you didn’t do that but you did do that."  If they gave awards for best TV musical groups we’d be right there. We’re never going to make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but who wants to be in Cleveland anyways?

Sam: I read once that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame won’t let the Monkees in but every year Michael Stripe from R.E.M. tries to petition to get in the Monkees.

Davy: Well, y'know, I don’t really know. I mean, I’m making an album now for the first time in my life. I’m not into awards that much, I’ve got loads of awards - Billboard, TV Land, Variety and this that and the other and whatever but I honestly feel that I’m making an album right now that’s worthy of a Grammy nomination.

Sam: When's the new album coming out?

Davy: When I finish it. Right now I have twenty two tracks that I’ve recorded. I’m just trying to find the right ones. Then I keep recording more. I’m singing right now an Edith Piaf song called "No Regrets."

Sam: Oh yeah, I know it. I'm an Edith Piaf fan.

Davy (sings):  ‘Oh no regrets’ and then y'know, songs like “she may be the face I can’t forget, sadness and regret” those classics. Not the Rod Stewart stuff with the big band.  Phil Collins used to drum with the band. Rod Stewart used to be the drummer. It all depends. People don’t know the history of what’s going on so you just gotta go forward with your head down and don’t swing too hard. Anyway, life goes on. Stay tuned.  There’s more to come.

And thus ended our formal visit with Davy Jones.  Davy walked us to the hotel parking lot and hands were shook, pictures were taken, and autographs were given.  However, thinking upon our morning with Davy one thing stuck with me about him as a man.  Through our time together, and even throughout the interview itself, we were interrupted a number of times by women who approached us to tell Davy how much they loved him, to get pictures taken and to get an autograph.  Now, normally one would feel that this would not be appropriate.  I mean, I've encountered a few celebrities in restaurants before and haven't dared approached them.  However, Davy was the complete opposite.  Now, the moment we were approached he was a bit different to the adoring public than he was with us, but only by the slightest degree.  He put his game face on.  He was a bit more zany, a bit more like the Monkee that they remembered.  However, he was always friendly and very, very approachable.  What Davy did differently was when we left the various areas that we were sitting Davy would seek out the individuals that had come to him and approach their table to speak to them a second time, this time on his terms.  He'd shake their hand again, say hello to everyone at their table, thank them for coming over and leave them with a certain glow that he really honestly appreciated that it was their fandom that kept him in the public eye.  I had never seen anything like this before.  It was, in my opinion, one of the kindest and most subtle ways of showing appreciation that I have ever seen from a celebrity.  It only proved to me that Davy Jones is more than a Monkee and more than a faded teen idol.  He is a true gentleman.