Mike Nesmith

I was never really a fan of The Monkees but I’ve pretty much always known of them. There was cute little Davy Jones, drummer Micky Dolenz…….and the other two. I’ve learned recently that Mike Nesmith is the one who wears the wool cap. Cool. That leaves Peter Tork as the other one. Now I know them all! The end. Just kidding. This blog is about wool cap boy.

Robert Michael Nesmith was born December 30, 1942 in Houston, Texas. Fellow Monkee Davy Jones was also born on December 30th (1945). I wonder if they had big parties on the Monkee’s set. Anyway, Nesmith is best known for his stint with The Monkees, but he’s done a whole lot of other things. In addition to being proficient on the 12-string guitar, he is also an excellent songwriter. Nesmith is an executive producer of the film Repo Man, has authored numerous books, and much more. He’s a pretty happening dude.

Mom

Nesmith’s mom, Bette, was also a happening dude. Well, you know what I mean. She was a legal secretary and an artist. Guess what happens with you combine those two things? Mike Nesmith’s mom invented Liquid Paper correction fluid. How cool is that?

Legend has it that Nesmith arrived at his audition for The Monkees riding a motorcycle and carrying a bag of laundry. (He needed to stop at a laundromat after the audition.) He wore a wool cap to keep the hair out of his eyes while riding his motorcycle (this was before helmet laws) and kept the cap on during the audition. A big reason why he won the part was that he appeared nonchalant when he auditioned. I did something similar at a job interview when I showed up wearing sweats and flip flops. I didn’t want the job but wanted my parents to think I tried by going to the interview. Sadly, I was hired.  It ended up being a pretty cool gig.

Trivia

• Nesmith has been married three times.
• He has four children – Christian, Jonathan, Jason, and Jessica.
• Nesmith produced the music video All Night Long (Lionel Richie) in 1983.
• A few years later he produced Michael Jackson’s video The Way You Make Me Feel.
• He won a Grammy for his show Elephant Parts.

MTV

Mike Nesmith invented the idea for what became MTV. That’s right. A Monkee is responsible for MTV. After The Monkees, Nesmith recorded on his own and had a moderate hit in 1977 with Rio. He created a videoclip for Rio which gave him the idea for his television show PopClips. PopClips (not to be confused with Pop Chips) was sold to Time Warner who developed the show into MTV. Bam! Mom invents Liquid Paper and son invents MTV.

Health

Nesmith was touring last year [2018] with fellow Monkee Micky Dolenz. He had to cut the tour short by four dates due to a minor health scare. That minor thing turned out to be quadruple bypass heart surgery in which he was in the hospital for over a month. Dude, that ain’t minor.

Mike Nesmith is still doing his thing at 76 years of age. He is active on Facebook and still being creative and doing his music. I didn’t really know much about him before researching for this blog. I am now a fan. Go wool cap boy!