Michael Nesmith

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Robert Michael Nesmith (born December 30, 1942) is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series The Monkees (1966–1968). Nesmith's songwriting credits include "Different Drum" (sung by Linda Ronstadt with the Stone Poneys).

After the break-up of The Monkees, Nesmith continued his successful songwriting and performing career, first with the seminal country rock group The First National Band, with whom he had a top-40 hit "Joanne", and then as a solo artist.

He is also an executive producer of the cult film Repo Man (1984). In 1981, Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for Video of the Year for his hour-long television show, Elephant Parts.

Nesmith was born in Houston, Texas in 1942  He is an only child; his parents, Warren Audrey Nesmith and Bette Nesmith Graham, divorced when their son was four. He and his mother moved to Dallas to be closer to her parents, sister, aunts, and grandmother.

Bette took temporary jobs ranging from clerical work to graphics design, and developed very good secretarial skills, including shorthand and, auspiciously, touch typing. When Nesmith was 13, his mother invented a typewriter correction fluid later known commercially as Liquid Paper. Over the next 25 years she built the Liquid Paper Corporation into a multimillion-dollar international company, which she finally sold to Gillette in 1979 for US$48 million. She died a few months later at age 56.

Nesmith was enrolled in the Dallas public school system in 1949, at the age of six. Describing himself as an indifferent student, he nevertheless participated in choral and drama activities during his years at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas.  He also began to write verse poetry. When he was 15 he enrolled in the Dallas Theater Center teen program, where he was featured in several plays.[citation needed]

Without graduating from high school, Nesmith enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1960. He completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, was trained as an aircraft mechanic at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, and then was permanently stationed at the Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base near Burns Flat, Oklahoma. While in the Air Force, Nesmith obtained a G.E.D. and was discharged under honorable conditions in 1962. He enrolled in San Antonio College, a community college, where he met John Kuehne (later to be known as John London) and began a musical collaboration. The duo won the first San Antonio College talent award, performing a mixture of standard folk songs and a few of Nesmith's original songs. He met another SAC student, Phyllis Ann Barbour, whom he later married.

While in college, Nesmith began to write more songs and poetry, and after he and Phyllis married in 1963, the two of them decided to move to Los Angeles so Nesmith could pursue his songwriting and singing career. At the time, Phyllis was pregnant with their first child, Christian DuVal. Nesmith began singing in folk clubs around Los Angeles and had one notable job as the "Hootmaster" for the Monday night hootenannies at The Troubadour, a West Hollywood night club that featured new artists.

Here Nesmith met, socialized, and performed with many different members of the burgeoning new L.A. music scene. Randy Sparks from the New Christy Minstrels offered Nesmith a publishing deal for his songs, and it was while Nesmith was at this publishing house that Barry Friedman, also known as the Rev. Frazier Mohawk, brought the ad for The Monkees TV series auditions to Nesmith's attention. In October 1965, Nesmith landed the role as the wool hat-wearing, guitar player "Mike" in The Monkees TV series, which required real-life musical talent (writing, instrument playing, singing, recording, and performing in live concerts as part of The Monkees musical band). The Monkees television series aired from 1966 until 1968 and has developed a cult following over the years.

When The Monkees TV series ended in 1968, Nesmith enrolled part-time at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and studied American History and Music History. Michael and Phyllis's second son, Jonathan, was born in February 1968. Nesmith's third son, Jason, was born in August 1968 to Nurit Wilde, whom he met while working on The Monkees TV series.

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 a single titled "Joanne" that 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.

Phyllis's third child, and Nesmith's fourth, daughter Jessica, was born in September 1970. Circa 1972, Nesmith started the record label Countryside Records with Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra Records. Also, in 1972, Nesmith and Phyllis were divorced and he moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. In 1974, Nesmith started Pacific Arts Records and released what he called "a book with a soundtrack," titled The Prison, as the company's first release.

In 1976, he married Kathryn Bild. In 1988, following the ending of this second marriage, he returned to Los Angeles where he met Victoria Kennedy. They moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1992 and then returned to Carmel, California, in 2000. They were married in April 2000 in Monterey, California. They separated in 2011 and Kennedy filed for divorce.

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Joanne was the only Top 40 single for Michael Nesmith as a solo artist. The single was issued by RCA Records in 1970, from the album Magnetic South, the first album released by Nesmith and The First National Band after he left The Monkees. In the United States, the song peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 on 3 October 1970. It went to No. 4 in Canada, No. 7 in Australia, and No. 1 in New Zealand. In the U.S., it was the most successful solo chart hit for any member of The Monkees.

"Joanne" was the second single issued from Magnetic South, following the release of "Little Red Rider" (which did not chart). On the B-side of "Joanne", the track "One Rose" appears.

The song would be a regular on all of Nesmith's solo concert tours and has appeared on all three of his live albums: Live At The Palais, Live at the Britt Festival and Movies of the Mind. Nesmith would also spoof Joanne on his home video, Elephant Parts, with the song Rodan.

The song was covered by crooner Andy Williams for his 1970 album, The Andy Williams Show.