Micky Dolenz, Surviving Member of The Monkees, Sues FBI for Secret Dossier on Band

Singer and actor Micky Dolenz, the last living member of the 60s rock group The Monkees, is suing the FBI for access to the Bureau’s secret files on the band.

A heavily redacted version of the FBI’s files was declassified in 2010, but Dolenz, who starred as the drum-playing teen in the smash hit TV series The Monkees, wants to see more of the files and says there must be far more than seven pages.

The 77-year-old Dolenz filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI and a lawsuit against the Department of Justice on Tuesday seeking to find out just how deep the surveillance went on the band and those surrounding the group, the Washington Post reported.

There were only seven pages in the redacted files, but Dolenz’ attorney says that there is clearly much more as seen in some of the things mentioned in the seven-page release.

“It’s pretty obvious that there are other linked files,” said Dolenz attorney Mark Zaid. “Now, it may not be directly on the Monkees — it could be peripheral — but these files are connected to other files.”

“If the documents still exist, I fully expect that we will learn more about what prompted the FBI to target the Monkees or those around them,” said  Zaid, 55, who says he has been a huge Monkees fan since he was a kid.

The band reportedly came under the FBI’s microscope when Dolenz claimed that the song “Last Train to Clarksville” was an anti-Vietnam War song. The Monkees were far from the only rockers that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover surveilled. Stars including John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix were also spied upon for their anti-war activities.

The band started as a simple TV fantasy in 1966 but the show became so popular that the actors cast to portray the band actually began writing songs and performing them at live concerts. Two of the cast, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork, were already accomplished musicians when they joined the TV show, and Dolenz and final band member Davy Jones were both singers and musically inclined ahead of being cast as the wacky teenage TV rockers.

For a short time The Monkees were as popular as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other bands of the day and charted hits with tunes including, “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” “Daydream Believer,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” and the theme to the show, “The Monkees.”

The TV series soon fell apart and was canceled after only two seasons, and the band broke up in 1970. But in 1986, they came back with the song “That Was Then, This is Now,” which hit number 20 on the charts, and the following year their “Heart and Soul” reached to number 87.

Drummer and singer Dolenz is the last living member of the band. The first to pass was original frontman Davy Jones who died in 2012 at 66. bassist and guitarist Peter Tork passed in 2019 at 77. And guitarist and singer Mike Nesmith, who had a contentious relationship with the idea of being in the band and often skipped the band’s reunion tours, passed only a year ago in 2021 at age 78.

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