Micky Dolenz and Paul McCartney came together in the ’60s.
The Monkees drummer, 80, is looking back at the first time he met the Beatle, 82, decades ago.
“The first Beatle I met was Paul [McCartney], the night before at dinner at his house,” Dolenz told People in an interview published Wednesday. “I’d gone over to England to do a press junket, just myself. As it turned out, a publicist got involved and made it a ‘Monkee Meets Beatle’ thing at Paul’s house for dinner. Just me, him and Martha the sheepdog.”
From what transpired next, it seems like the fellow musicians quickly formed a friendship.
“He invited me to Abbey Road [studios] the next day,” recalled Dolenz. “I don’t even know if he told me the name at the time, but they were working on ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ I just about peed in my pants, but I’m trying to be cool. I got all dressed up thinking … I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“I guess I thought it was gonna be some sort of Beatlemania fun-fest freakout psycho-jello happening thing,” the singer confessed. “So I got dressed up in paisley bell bottoms and tie-dyed underwear and my glasses and beads and hair. I looked like a cross between Ronald McDonald and Charlie Manson.”
But when Dolenz got to the session, things weren’t what he expected.
“I walk in and, well … there’s nobody there! I was like, ‘Where are the girls?!’ ” he shared. “It was just the four guys sitting there under fluorescent lighting, like my high school gymnasium, in the middle of the day. John Lennon looks up and says, ‘Hey Monkee Man, you want to hear what we’re working on?’ From then on he called me Monkee Man.”
Along with McCartney, the Beatles included the late John Lennon and George Harrison and Ringo Starr, 84.
Dolenz rose to fame after being cast in the 1966 television sitcom “The Monkees” before landing the role as the drummer and lead vocalist in the band that was created for the series.
The performer is the only surviving member of the group after Michael Nesmith died in 2021. Peter Tork passed in February 2019, and Davy Jones died in 2012.
The show ran for two seasons from 1966 to 1968.
Looking back at what he would tell his younger self when first being cast in “The Monkees,” Dolenz told the outlet, “Get a good lawyer. I am not kidding. I won’t say much more except this: Have you heard the term ‘unconscionable bargain’? How about the phrase ‘pact with the devil’? Faust? You know the musical ‘Damn Yankees?’ I’m doing one called ‘Damn Monkees!’ “
This summer, he is set to tour the country and sing those Monkees classics.
“I’ve tried so much different material over the years. It’s all about the audience, as far as I’m concerned … You know, I’m not the kind of artist who’s gone down the path of reinventing,” Dolenz said about what fans can expect.
“At least musically. We’ve all seen it happen with big acts. I’ve been to concerts for big acts who have a lot of nostalgic hit tunes and they don’t do ’em. Or if they do, they do it with some contempt. Like, ‘Oh, I guess you want to hear this piece of s–t.’ “
Content shared from nypost.com.