Jones, Monkees still busy singing

The interview with Davy Jones was to have begun at 10 a.m. sharp. But it took three different numbers and a bit of time to finally get connected.

The 65-year-old Monkee was warm and genial, explaining he was delayed because he was gathering paperwork on a horse he hoped to race.

He obviously has a lot going on, but he claimed during the interview that he was not a multitasker.

“Michael Nesmith was a multitasker, and I envy those who can do it, delegate a job to one person, take a phone call from another, and do this and do that. I just can’t do it,” Jones said.

Looking at Jones’ schedule, that’s very hard to believe.

Since the “The Monkees” television show ended in 1968, Jones has continued touring virtually nonstop for 40 plus years. He has toured either on his own with the Davy Jones Band, with fellow Monkees Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz as The Monkees, with friends and Monkees composers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart or with Peter Noone (of Herman’s Hermits fame) and other acts.

Jones also makes appearances in upcoming films “Jackie Goldberg Private Dick,” starring Jackie Mason, and the animated feature “The Dreamsters: Welcome to the Dreamery,” where he works with Ron Dante, Barry Manilow’s original producer.

Jones has also had a full theatrical career, with a stint in his youth as the Artful Dodger in “Oliver,” as well as roles in “Godspell” in the ’80s on the London stage and in “Grease” on Broadway in the mid-’90s.

When he’s not touring, Jones has been busy jockeying and racing horses in the UK and the U.S. He currently raises horses on his Pennsylvania farm.

His personal life has been equally active, marrying three times (first to Linda Haines then to former Playboy bunny Anita Pollinger and most recently to Telemundo actress Jessica Pacheco) and fathering four daughters (Talia, Sarah, Jessica and Annabel).

Now Jones has somehow worked into his schedule a 45th Anniversary Monkees Tour with bandmates Dolenz and Tork. This is multitasking.

Jones admits to some internal friction over the past 40 years, and the three remaining Monkees (Nesmith hasn’t toured with the group since a 1997 UK tour) have joked about the reunion tours being only about the “deal.”

But Jones contends it’s not just about the money. The journey for the four actor-musicians as the Monkees has created a truly unique bond, he says, especially for him, Micky and Peter.

Of Micky Dolenz he says, “He’s multitalented in many ways as a director, producer, singer, songwriter. He’s working constantly. He’s always doing theater.”

According to Jones, even in the early Monkees days he and Dolenz were the closest of the group.

“Our kids grew up together,” he said. “We always played softball on Sundays. But now it’s more of a professional relationship because he’s working all the time, but then again so am I.”

When Peter Tork was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma in 2009, Jones said he kept in touch. “I would inquire as to his progress and was obviously very concerned,” Jones says. “We have all had medical problems, but as we age there are things we all have to deal with. I had an operation on my spine. But now Peter seems fine and seems very happy being in Connecticut.”

Jones notes there’s been more tension with Nesmith, who abandoned a 1997 U.S. tour because his company was in the middle of lawsuit. During a 2001 VH1 interview, Jones said Nesmith “walked off the tour plane out of the terminal and I haven’t seen him since.”

But Jones contends the relationship really has not changed.

“At the time I was very disappointed that we didn’t tour with Mike in America and felt it did take the fire out of us,” Jones said. “But we continued the tour and did some good shows. Peter is much more adaptable to a jam session than Mike ever was. Mike was always ‘wood shedding’ as he called it, meaning rehearse. He doesn’t like to travel. To each his own.”

With the new tour kicking off, can fans expect to hear any new music on the horizon for the Monkees?

“Well a new song is certainly something that should be thought about,” Jones says. “I mean, we are going out on the road. There is a real opportunity here for a new song and it should happen.”

But, according to Jones, Monkees fans can definitely look forward to hearing all the Monkees hits once again on this new tour.

“We do all the classic tunes,” he said. “Everything we feel is appropriate and that the people who come to see us want to hear.”

The Monkees tour kicked off May 12 in Liverpool, England, and will end July 16 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, commemorating a 1986 concert that had been the first time in 20 years when all four Monkees reunited on stage. The band will appear June 10 at Mohegan Sun and June 15 at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

Jones will continue to tour with his own band, the Davy Jones Band, after the Monkees tour ends.

via Worcester Telegram & Gazette – telegram.com – Jones, Monkees still busy singing.