The WOW Report

  • WOW Report
  • RuPaul’s DragCon
  • RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!
  • WOW Presents Plus
  • What to Watch
    • Backyard Envy
    • Dancing Queen
    • Fashion Photo RuView
    • Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles
    • Ministry of Evil
    • UNHhhh
    • Watch RuPaul’s Drag Race
  • Store
You are here: Home / Misc / #Flashback67: Did You Know Jimi Hendrix Toured with The Monkees?

#Flashback67: Did You Know Jimi Hendrix Toured with The Monkees?

By Trey Speegle on July 31, 2019 7:05 am

HEY! HEY! Davey Jones, Mike Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz & Peter Tork

The Monkess started out as a parody of The Beatles, created for TV in 1965. But in a short time, the other Fab 4 –Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, Davy Jones, and Michael Nesmith-– mastered playing and taught themselves to write their own original songs.

In the summer of 1967, at the height of Monkeemania, the band went on a 28-city tour through the United States and England. They opened at the Hollywood Bowl only five days after their TV show picked up two Emmy awards.

And for just eight dates –now a rock legend, then a virtual unknown here–Jimi Hendrix, opened for the band with his newly formed band Experience. Really!!? Why?

The Monkees needed cred and Hendrix needed an American audience.

But Dolenz had saw him play and was impressed. (Peter Tork saw him too, but not so much.) When Dolenz suggested Hendrix for the tour, his manager Mike Jeffery jumped at the chance, thinking he could leverage The Monkees’ huge crowds to break Hendrix in the US. Hendrix himself was not thrilled, after having called The Monkees’ music “dishwater” in an interview.

But Monkees fans, mostly kids, had no idea what to make of Hendrix. Dolenz says in his autobiography,

“Jimi would amble out onto the stage, fire up the amps and break into ‘Purple Haze, and the kids in the audience would instantly drown him out with, ‘We Want Davy!!’ God, it was embarrassing.”

Peter Tork later came around, it seems and was ecstatic to have Hendrix on the tour, be recalls the pairing as a singularly bad idea:

“This is screaming, scaring-your-daddy music compared with The Monkees. It didn’t cross anybody’s mind that it wasn’t gonna fly. And there’s poor Jimi, and the kids go, ‘We want The Monkees, we want The Monkees.'”

Hendrix got on very well with The Monkees, just not their tween fans. On July 16, 1967, Jimi flipped-off the Forest Hills, Queens audience, threw down his guitar and walked off stage.

A few months later, Melody Maker presented Hendrix with a “World’s Top Musician” award, and his music hit the U.S. mainstream market. The Monkees finished the tour and went on to make Head, the soundtrack to the Jack Nicholson directed film that regularly lands on Strangest Movies Ever Made lists.

Photos, publicity, snapshot; via Open Culture)

Show the love:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Misc

More

#QWERRRKOUT Tuesday: Many-Faced Goddess LAUREL CHARLESTON

#QWERRRKOUT Tuesday: Many-Faced Goddess LAUREL CHARLESTON

by Paisley Dalton on January 19, 2021 7:13 am

#BornThisDay: Gay Icon, Ethel Merman

#BornThisDay: Gay Icon, Ethel Merman

by Stephen Rutledge on January 16, 2021 3:03 am

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Trending


UPDATE: Armie Hammer’s Ex Courtney Vucekovitch Says “He Wanted to Barbecue and Eat Me”

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Premieres This Year on WOW Presents Plus, Stan, TVNZ OnDemand

Bill Maher Writes an Instructional Children’s Book for Trump – “Pack Your Sh*t & Go” Watch

#LGBTQ: Matthew Camp’s House Completely Torched By Arsonist in an Apparent Hate Crime

Deven Green Shares a Final Goodbye From Last Lady, Mesopotamia Trump. Watch

About

From the creators of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster, Million Dollar Listing, RuPaul's Drag Race, I Am Britney Jean, Big Freedia, and more.

Sarah Jessica Parker! Nicole Kidman! Kamala Harris! It’s the WOW Report for Radio Andy!
Stacey Abrams! Kimye! Chaos at the Capitol! Georgia Goes Blue! It’s the WOW Report for Radio Andy!
The Top Ten Things You May Have Forgotten Happened in 2020!
“Santa Fa La La” from “The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special” is a Sexy Xmas R&B Grind. Watch
Tom Cruise! Meryl Streep! James Corden! Ann Reinking! Harry & Meghan! The WOW Report for Radio Andy!

© 2019 World of Wonder Productions, Inc | World of Wonder is a trademark of World of Wonder Productions, Inc | Privacy

Copyright © 2021 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in