I know, I know. Just about anyone reading this blog has heard the story of my phone interview with Davy Jones of The Monkees. Anybody who wanted to hear it has heard it by now. But A) I wanted it to be on my new blog, B) it happened 10 years ago this summer, and C) besides–summer is for reruns anyway.
Sometimes, I get to interview people. Well, everyday I interview people. Nice, noteworthy people like Kyren Conley, Kathy Worley, John McGhehey, and other local notables. But once in a blue moon, I get to interview a celebrity, It happened just a couple months ago when I had country music star Sammy Kershaw on my morning show. It’s very exciting! For a long time my proudest celebrity interview experience was Conan O’ Brien in 1996. But in 2009 that all changed.
Cool Deadwood Nights is a classic rock and roll concert event in the gambling resort/western history mecca of Deadwood, SD. And in 2009 the headliners were Ron Dante (who sang on The Archies’ hits like “Sugar Sugar” and did lots of other singing on hit songs in the 60’s and 70’s) and Davy Jones. Corey Sorenson, to whom I will be forever grateful, arranged for me to interview them both. The Ron Dante interview went fine and was without incident. The Davy Jones interview happened a little differently.
I was given a day and time to call the Jones house. I called and there was no answer. Dejected, I figured it was simply not to be. But I did leave a message.
The following morning at 7:40am or thereabouts, in the middle of my live morning show, the phone rang, and it was Davy Jones. !!!! If you listen to the audio, I sound out of breath at the beginning because I ran like crazy to grab my interview notes from one of the other studios.
The interview is one of my favorites–not because it’s all that great an interview…we had to plug the Deadwood show enough times to make it worth their while. It’s my favorite because it was just incredibly awesome to shoot the bull with Davy Jones! I brought up his “Brady Bunch” appearance (because…well..you know) and I referenced some studio chatter that precedes “Daydream Believer”, which drew forth one of my favorite quotes from any interview I’ve done:
“It’s not that we’re short, Jason, it’s just that everybody’s so bloody tall!”
Davy Jones passed away a little less than three years after our radio visit, in February of 2012. Here’s the audio.
I didn’t know you had a blog! This is awesome!!!
totally awesome dude!!!