Grammy Award-winning Musician and producer Michael Nesmith has passed away at age 78. He rose to fame initially as a member of The Monkees, but went on to have a long and influential career in music, television and movie production.
Nesmith died of heart failure on Friday at his home in Carmel Valley, California.
“With Infinite Love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his family writes in a statement posted on Nesmith’s website. “We ask that you respect our privacy at this time and we thank you for the love and light that all of you have shown him and us.”
Along with his bandmate, Micky Dolenz, Nesmith recently completed a Monkees’ farewell tour. “I’m heartbroken. I’ve lost a dear friend and partner,” the musician said in a statement to PEOPLE. “I’m so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best — singing, laughing, and doing shtick. I’ll miss it all so much. Especially the shtick. Rest in peace, Nez. All my love, Mick.”
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The last two surviving members of the Monkees, Dolenz and Nesmith embarked on a farewell tour together earlier this year, playing 34 shows between September and November.
The pair’s setlist included songs from their hit TV series, as well as some deep cuts and tunes from their feature film Head. The musicians lost bandmate Davy Jones to a heart attack in 2012, and Peter Tork to adenoid cystic carcinoma in 2019.
Nesmith was born in Houston, Texas, on December 30 1942 and was an only child. After his parents divorced when he was 4 years old, he and his mother moved to Dallas to be closer to her family. When Nesmith was 13, his mother invented the typewriter correction fluid known commercially as Liquid Paper. Over the next 25 years, she built the Liquid Paper Corporation into a multimillion-dollar international company, which she sold to Gillette in 1979 for $48 million.
Nesmith participated in choral and drama activities at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas, however, he enlisted in the Air Force in 1960 without graduating. He obtained a GED certificate and was honorably discharged in 1962.
He then enrolled in San Antonio College, where he met John Kuehne and began a musical collaboration. They won the first San Antonio College talent award, performing a mixture of standard folk songs and a few of Nesmith’s original songs. Nesmith began to write more songs and poetry, then he moved to Los Angeles and began singing in folk clubs around the city.
His career began to take off and he was offered a publishing deal for his songs. During the same time period, he was told about upcoming auditions for a new TV series called The Monkees. In October 1965, Nesmith landed the role as the wool hat-wearing guitar player “Mike” in the show, which required real-life musical talent for writing, instrument playing, singing, and performing in live concerts as part of The Monkees band. The Monkees television series aired from 1966 until 1968, and has developed a cult following over the years.
In 1969, Nesmith formed the group First National Band with Kuehne, John Ware, and Red Rhodes. Nesmith wrote most of the songs for the band, including the single Joanne, which received some airplay and was a moderate chart hit for seven weeks during 1970, rising to number 21 on the Billboard Top 40. The First National Band has been credited with being among the pioneers of country-rock music.
Nesmith was the executive producer for the films Repo Man, Tapeheads, and Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, as well as his own solo recording and film projects.
Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for (long-form) Music Video in 1982, for his hour-long Elephant Parts and also had a short-lived series on NBC inspired by the video called Michael Nesmith in Television Parts. Television Parts included many other artists who were unknown at the time, but went on to become major stars in their own right. Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Whoopi Goldberg, and Arsenio Hall all became well-known artists after their appearances on Nesmith’s show.
In 1998, Nesmith published his first novel, The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora. It was developed originally as an online project and was later published as a hardcover book by St Martin’s Press. Nesmith’s second novel, The America Gene, was released in July 2009 as an online download from Videoranch.com.
Nesmith continued to record and release his own music. His final album, Rays, was released in 2006. In 2011, he returned to producing, working with blues singer and guitarist Carolyn Wonderland. Nesmith produced Wonderland’s version of Robert Johnson’s I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom on her album Peace Meal.
Nesmith’s memoir Infinite Tuesday was published in 2017.
Nesmith continued to record and perform even, occasionally, showing up onstage with The Monkees, after a 20th-anniversary revival (itself sparked by a marathon run of the band’s show on MTV) catapulted them back into the public consciousness.
Monkees tour manager Andrew Sandoval said the group had just recently been performing.
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Many fans and colleagues took to twitter to share their condolences.
Nesmith’s first marriage ended in divorce in 1975. His marriages to Kathryn Bild, in 1976, and Victoria Kennedy, in 2000, also ended in divorce.
Michael Nesmith is survived by his three children from his first marriage, Jonathan, Jessica and musician Christian Nesmith; a son from his relationship with Israeli-born photographer Nurit Wilde, Jason Nesmith; and two grandchildren.
