10 Greatest Quotes From Micky Dolenz

The well-known actor and musician Micky Dolenz was born in Los Angeles, California, and rose to prominence as a vital member of the legendary rock group The Monkees.

In addition to being the band’s drummer and singer, Dolenz rose to fame in the 1960s by making important contributions to the television and music industry.

Thanks to his show business-focused upbringing, which allowed him to be involved in the entertainment industry from a young age, Dolenz has amassed a vast amount of expertise throughout his long career. Fans are naturally interested in learning about Dolenz’s biography, professional path, family ties, and viewpoints on the wider world, given his significant experience in the field.

The following is a list of 15 famous quotes by Micky Dolenz that provide insight into his distinct viewpoints and observations on a range of subjects related to his life and the wider world.

“When I look back on my life, I wonder how I survived—my mother said I had a guardian angel.”

This was one of Dolenz’s answers from the “health quiz” interview by the Daily Mail on March 2, 2010, titled Under the microscope: The Monkees’ drummer Micky Dolenz answers our health quiz.

When interviewer John McEntee asked the tough drummer, who was 68 at the time, if he had had any vices, Dolenz shared this quote as he marveled how he survived experimenting with drugs while hanging out with the likes of Keith Moon and John Lennon.

It was also in this interview that the former Monkees singer claimed that he has been “extremely lucky” having never experienced falling seriously ill—which is a miracle considering the industry he was in.

“My influences were Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry.”

Dolenz shared a heartfelt conversation with HuffPost contributor Tony Sachs, who was a Monkees fan. This 2012 interview, titled Micky Dolenz: The Man, the Myth, the Monkee… and Me, was originally published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform.

When Sachs asked the Monkees drummer-vocalist about his ”primary vocal influences”, Micky cited rock n’ rollers before his band, such as Eric Burdon, I was into Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs, as well as Little Richard, Jerry Lewis, and Chuck Berry.

When the Monkees came into the picture, he knew he had to shift his direction to pop, to the kind of music “designed for ten-year-old little girls”.

“They were looking for actors—real actors—who could play instruments. There was a lot of improvisation and scene work involved in addition to the music. The auditions went on for a long time.”

What Micky Dolenz was referring to in this quote was his time with the Monkees, which the musician/actor likened to a TV performance centered on musical theatre. 

He revealed this during a conversation with cultural reporter Simi Horwitz in the article Micky Dolenz: Former Monkee Tackles Broadway published on the career platform for performers called Backstage.

According to Dolenz, the program was innovative in a number of respects. He alludes to John Lennon’s statement that the Marx Brothers served as inspiration for the program. notably, however, “it was a comic story about a struggling band who wished they were the Beatles. And then the band takes on a life of its own outside the sitcom. We were a fictional band that became a real band.

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had an enormous interest in the sciences—everything from quantum physics to anthropology.”

In an article that originally appeared in Children’s Bookshelf on Apr. 27, 2006, Micky Dolenz took some time in between his busy Broadway schedule to talk about another facet of his multi-branched greatness: a picture book called Gakky Two-Feet.

When asked by Sue Corbett of Children’s Bookshelf about anthromythology, the strange and interesting subject of the book which she described as a “fictionalization of key moments in human evolution”, Dolenz shared the above statement, adding, “When my Scientific American arrives every month, I read it cover to cover.”

The book was about Gakky, the first quadruped in the history of evolution who stood up and walked on two feet. Dolenz had intended to make a whole series of similar picture books about anthromythology.

“I was an entertainer, ever since I was a kid.”

This is another snipped from Dolenz’s interview with the freelance writer Tony Sachs. The latter asked the drummer, “Did you consider yourself an actor or a musician before the Monkees?”, and he answered:

“I was an entertainer, ever since I was a kid. I mean, my first instrument was Spanish classical guitar. My father got me into that and I was doing that… and then I discovered the Kingston Trio, and then I was into singing [laughs]. So my sister and I, we would sing, and I had a friend, and we used to play at some private parties.”

Micky had then transitioned to rock n’ roll and had even gone on to join two cover bands before his Monkees gig. The bands were called Micky & The One-Nighters and the Missing Links, and often sang Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”, and The Animals’ “House Of The Rising Sun”.

“I’ve never been one to chase awards or anything like that, to be honest.”

Micky Dolenz has always been a straightforward rockstar, and when rock journalist Ray Shasho of Classic Rock Here And Now asked him if ever The Monkees deserved a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he said:

“Oh …it’s not for me to say. I’m very flattered that people, fans, and even the press have gone out there, signed petitions and stuff like that. I’ve never been one to chase awards or anything like that to be honest.”

This June 2012 interview with Shasho was in the middle of the drummer’s Happy Together Tour with co-headliner Gary Puckett of The Union Gap.

“What happened was, my parents after Circus Boy decided to take me out of show business for two years to go back to normal school. It was the smartest thing they ever did.”

Did you know that Micky Dolenz once starred as a young lead character named Corky in Circus Boy, a family adventure western series that graced prime time on NBC before transitioning to ABC, where it aired from 1956 to 1957, spanning two seasons?

It was one great feather in his acting cap, but it was also something he probably did not want to go back to. When Shasho in the above interview asked him if he regretted not continuing to act in kid roles, Dolenz had this to say:

“No, I don’t at all. What happened was, my parents after Circus Boy decided to take me out of show business for two years to go back to normal school. It was the smartest thing they ever did. Because those are the years …after you have a hit show and you’re young, those are the tough years trying to make it, people think you’re too old for this part or too young for that part and you’ve already had a show so you’re kind of already a has been at 12.

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“The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is not a public democratic organization; it’s a private club basically. It’s like a private golf club and they decide who they’re going to let in the club.”

This a continuation of one of the quotes above about whether the Monkees deserved to earn a nod in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Dolenz explained:

“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not a public democratic organization; it’s a private club basically. It’s like a private golf club and they decide who they’re going to let in the club. Like I say, it’s not a democratic decision it’s a very private -one. Like a golf club … like Augusta deciding if they’re going to let women in the club.”

The drummer also shared that, as a business, the organization is free to admit or reject anyone they like. Although he sees them this way, Dolenz also conceded that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an admirable organization and he had even donated to some of their humanitarian endeavors.

“No matter how tired I am, I can only sleep for four hours at a time.”

This is a testament to how much of a tough cookie Micky was. This was another quotable snippet from his interview with the Daily Mail with John McEntee.

When the health quiz asked the legendary drummer if he sleeps well, Dolenz replied, “No matter how tired I am, I can only sleep for four hours at a time. I then wake up, answer emails or write some music for an hour – then go back to bed for another four hours. My mother was the same. When she woke up, she would do pottery.”

The Daily Mail article shows more of Micky’s healthy status at the time, and it still probably rings true to this day, seeing that he is the last surviving Monkee at 78.

“Many people have fond memories of The Monkees. I fondly remember it, too.”

This was the conclusion of the interview by Sue Corbett of Children’s Bookshelf, an answer to a really important question her editor exhorted her to ask: Who was Micky’s favorite Monkee?

But the drummer evaded the answer gracefully, saying that it was an impossible question to answer. “You have to understand the evolution of those Monkees. We were cast together in a TV show. It wasn’t a band in the classic sense,” Dolenz explained.

He then went on, “You know, like every few years Yul Brynner would star in The King and I again. Many people have fond memories of the Monkees. I fondly remember it, too. It was huge! But it was a very, very brief period in my life.”

Watch Micky Dolenz perform the Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” live at the CabaRay Showroom below: