Six Degrees of Davy Jones

First Whitney Houston, now Davy Jones. I know they weren’t the same age or popular during the same era but I was a fan of both. I especially loved Davy and watching him and the rest of the Monkees in reruns. That’s RERUNS, folks. I’m just shy of being old enough to have been around for the originals. Many Saturday mornings were spent watching them and often the theme song would become stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Hey, hey we’re the Monkees and people think we monkey around…

So in memory of “the cute one”, I thought I would share a connection I have to him. You know what they say about six degrees of separation, right?

In the mid-eighties (1986, I think), my husband John attended a Monkees concert at the Starwood Amphitheater in Nashville. He went with his girlfriend at the time, which was not me. I shan’t reveal her name, which was actually quite an unfortunate one. Anyway, their seats were close to the stage and when they arrived their friends, who were already there, pointed to the stage and said, “Look!”

John looks and sees Mike Nesmith (it was publicized that Nesmith would not be joining his band mates on tour) and says something really hip like, “Cool. He came!” His friend shouts back (apparently John and his girlfriend had arrived late enough that the concert was already in session), “No! Look again.”

And that’s when John notices that it is actually NOT Nesmith on stage, but instead one of his own best friends who would later serve as a groomsman in our wedding. John, again very hippily I’m sure, says, “Oh my gosh! That’s Chris O----!” You see, his friend, Chris O., could have passed for Mike’s twin, so much so that he won some contest that allowed him to take the stage with the band for a while. Which I do think is kind of cool.

And there you have it. I was practically friends with the Monkees.

RIP, Davy.


P.S. Wanna hear something else that ranks in the really cool category...Even though the 1986 tour for the Monkees was a huge financial success for Davy, Peter, and Micky you shouldn't feel sorry for Mike. It seems that Mr. Nesmith had recently inherited about a gazillion dollars from his mother's estate. His mom was a typist. Oh, and she INVENTED LIQUID PAPER!!! IN HER KITCHEN!!! IN HER BLENDER!!! Told you it was cool.