The Monkees’ Drummer Mickey Dolenz Sues FBI For Surveillance Records Of Band

Mickey Dolenz, a musician best known as the drummer of The Monkees, is suing the FBI to obtain full records of their surveillance of him and his fellow bandmates during J. Edgar Hoover’s time as FBI director.

It was already known that the FBI investigated the band after a report that they flashed anti-Vietnam War imagery in a 1967 concert, along with a second redacted complaint according to Dolenz’s court docs.

A small portion of the FBI’s report on The Monkees was released to the public, but they failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for the full materials filed by Dolenz earlier this year.

Dolenz is the only surviving member of the band, which once consisted of Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith, Davy Jones and Dolenz.

The band was first conceived alongside their sitcom of the same name which the members all starred in as well, and their first albums were tightly controlled by music supervisor Don Kirshner. They eventually took control of the band for the production of their third and fourth albums in 1967 at the height of their fame.

After those albums, the performers began to lose interest in performing as a group together and eventually disbanded in 1970.

They reunited several times over the years, however, as interest in the group kept reigniting and they eventually cemented a legacy as a influential band to come from the 1960s despite their sitcom origins.

The FBI has yet to formally respond to this legal escalation by Dolenz.