Michael Nesmith, Monkees Singer-Songwriter, Dead at 78

Michael Nesmith, who was a singer and guitarist of the Monkees, died from natural causes. He wrote many of the songs that were later performed by the band, and he also helped create country-rock music with his solo project First National Band.

We are sad to say that Michael Nesmith has passed away. He died this morning in his home. He was surrounded by family, and he died peacefully and naturally. We ask that you respect our privacy for now and thank you for the love and light you have shown him.

Nesmith was the Monkee with the green wool hat. He wrote songs like “Mary, Mary” and “Circle Sky.” But he was angry that the group didn’t have control of their albums. In 1967, he led them to fight against record producer Don Kirshner. The group then released albums they made themselves, like Headquarters and other albums that they created without Kirshner’s help.

In a Rolling Stone interview from 2012, Nesmith explained why he wanted the Monkees to write and perform their own songs. “We were kids with our own taste in music. We would rather sing a song we liked or wrote than a song that was handed to us,” he said. This became an issue, but it should not have been since the band had more fun performing their own songs, and they knew what they were singing about better than someone else might have.

A song by Michael Nesmith was not a Monkees song when he first wrote it. When he finally joined the Monkees, they told him that it wasn’t a good fit for them. He gave the song to Linda Ronstadt, and she made history with it.

The Monkees broke up in the late 1960s. The Monkees might be famous, but it was hard to escape their shadow because people always thought about them. There were three albums recorded, but they broke up shortly before the Eagles became famous with “Take It Easy.”

“I was very sad,” Mr. Nesmith said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I could not even say the word ‘Eagles.’ I loved Hotel California, and I love the Eagles, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Sweetheart of The Rodeo, all that stuff.” That is what he does best. He was so sad when this happened: The Eagles now have the biggest-selling album of all time, and he sits in a closed record company?

In the Seventies, Nesmith recorded many solo albums. In 1977, he had a clever idea for a song called “Rio.” He made a video to show it off. The idea was that radio is like TV, and people could hear his song on the radio. So he put together some programs and sent them to someone who might be able to help him get on TV so people could see his video. But before long, MTV was born!

In 1980, his mother died. He inherited money from her. He used the money to invest in other things, like movies and businesses. His pop past led people to think he was ashamed of his past when he didn’t participate in the Monkees reunion tours of the Eighties.

“Quite the contrary, Rolling Stone says that he told them in 2013. “It was a nice part of my resume. It was fun for me, and it was a great time of my life. I mean, where do you want to be in the Sixties except for being in the middle of rock & roll? London was a lot of fun, and so was Los Angeles.” There were so many things going on back then.”

The Monkees are a TV show. A man played in the show for a while, but he left in 1996. Then in 2012, they made an album, and he sang with them again. He was not sure if they were really a band because the band was started by TV producers.

“All three of us have different ideas,” he told Rolling Stone in 2016. “This being, ‘What is this thing? What have we got here? What’s required of us? Is this a band or a TV show?’ When you go back to the beginning of this thing, it was a TV show because it has all those traditional beats. But something else happened, and it struck a chord way out of proportion to the original swing of the hammer. You hit the gong, and suddenly it’s huge.

The Monkees gave their farewell show to fans at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles on November 14th.