One way to make a living in a box is to write interviews with famous people. Although I knew the boys well and saw them pretty much every day for a couple of years, the Monkees were nowhere around when I interviewed their instruments.

The rumor was that they didn’t actually play their own instruments, and in fact, they didn’t. Most of the tracks were laid down in Nashville and they were on tour totally elsewhere.

All they added were the vocals, and it was that way for a long time. They actually finally got to play at concerts without double-up backups behind stage, but not for long and not until the very end, long after the series had ended.

So I set about to interview their instruments — what better witnesses could you get? The novel idea caught on, and from then on, that was my style of output, and I never did a live interview of a rock star again, although I produced hundreds of articles and interviews.

Just spell the name right, and they’ll let you publish anything. Continue reading →