Micky Dolenz

George Michael Dolenz Jr., born March 8, 1945, at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood, California, is an American actor, musician, and Broadway performer. The son of actors George Dolenz and Janelle Johnson, he grew up in Los Angeles and has three sisters: Gemma Marie, known as Coco, Deborah, and Kathleen, known as Gina. As a child, Dolenz suffered from Perthes disease, which affected his hip joint and right leg, leaving that leg weaker and shorter than the other. The condition led him to develop an unconventional drum setup, playing right-handed while using his left foot.

Dolenz entered show business at age eleven, starring in the children's television series Circus Boy under the name Mickey Braddock beginning in 1956. He portrayed Corky, an orphaned water boy for elephants in a one-ring circus set at the turn of the twentieth century. The program ran for two seasons. After its conclusion, he made periodic appearances on network television and continued his education, graduating from Ulysses S. Grant High School in Valley Glen in 1962. In 1964, he was cast as Ed in the NBC educational drama Mr. Novak episode "Born of Kings and Angels," starring James Franciscus. He was attending college in Los Angeles when he auditioned for NBC's The Monkees, performing Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," which secured him the role.

Before the Monkees, Dolenz had fronted his own group, Micky and the One-Nighters, in the early to mid-1960s, serving as lead singer and writing original material. The band's live sets mixed rock, cover songs, and rhythm and blues. In 1965, he recorded two singles for the Challenge label — "Don't Do It" backed with "Plastic Symphony III" and "Huff Puff" backed with "Fate (Big Ben)" — though these went unreleased until 1967.

Cast in The Monkees television sitcom in 1965, Dolenz became the group's drummer and one of its two primary lead vocalists, a role he held through the band's original run from 1966 to 1970 and across subsequent reunions through 2021. He provided lead vocals on several of the group's major hits, including "Last Train to Clarksville," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," and "I'm a Believer." He also contributed original compositions to the catalog, most notably "Randy Scouse Git," which appeared on the album Headquarters. Dolenz purchased the third Moog synthesizer sold commercially — the first two having gone to Wendy Carlos and Buck Owens — and his performance on "Daily Nightly," from the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., stands among the earliest uses of the synthesizer on a rock recording. He later sold the instrument to Bobby Sherman. He is the only Monkees member who participated in every lineup from the band's formation and the only one with contemporary vocal recordings on all of the group's studio albums. Following the deaths of Davy Jones in 2012, Peter Tork in 2019, and Michael Nesmith in 2021, Dolenz became the last surviving member of the group.

In 1971, Dolenz began recording solo material for MGM Records, having reconnected with his former high school friend Mike Curb, then the label's head. Working from a home studio, he recorded tracks including "Easy on You," playing acoustic guitar, drums, and Moog synthesizer. Former Monkee Peter Tork contributed bass on some sessions. Over roughly three years, Dolenz released material through MGM, with some recordings credited to a group called Starship. Harry Nilsson contributed the song "Daybreak" to the project, also arranging and producing the recording, which featured Keith Allison on guitar, Chip Douglas on bass, and steel guitarist Orville "Red" Rhodes. By early 1974, Dolenz traveled to England and recorded four additional songs for MGM with Tony Scotti, including "Splish Splash," "Purple People Eater," "I Hate Rock and Roll," and "Wing Walker," though these tracks were never released. His MGM association ended when Curb departed the label for Warner Bros. Records.

Taking advantage of renewed interest in the Monkees catalog following the 1976 charting of The Monkees Greatest Hits on Arista, Dolenz and Davy Jones joined former Monkees songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart for a touring show billed as the "Golden Hits of The Monkees." Running from 1975 to 1977, the tour played state fairs, amusement parks, and venues in Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. The group released an album of new material under the name Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart, and Capitol released a live recording, Concert in Japan, in 1976. Peter Tork joined the touring group on stage at Disneyland on July 4, 1976, and again at the Starwood in Hollywood in 1977. A Christmas single credited to Dolenz, Jones, and Tork, produced by Chip Douglas, was also released in 1976 on Douglas's own label, featuring "Christmas Is My Time of Year" and a portion of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas."

In 1977, Dolenz appeared alongside Davy Jones in a stage production of Harry Nilsson's musical The Point! at London's Mermaid Theatre, playing the roles of the Count's Kid and the Leafman while Jones starred as Oblio. His stage career extended to Broadway, where he performed between 1994 and 2006, appearing in Pippin, Aida, and Grease.