It might sound like one of those made-up stories that gets passed around on social media every once in a while, but there was actually a time when Jimi Hendrix went on tour with the Monkees.
The year was 1967, and Hendrix had just made his first major concert appearance in the U.S. at the Monterey Pop Festival. Accounts differ on who arranged for the odd pairing (some claim it was Hendrix’s manager, Michael Jeffery; others say Micky Dolenz had a hand), but the Jimi Hendrix Experience officially became the Monkees’ opening act on July 8.
However, it doesn’t appear as though Hendrix was enthusiastic about this collaboration at any point. He’d even reportedly trashed the Monkees in the press a few months prior, saying that he hated the group and referring to them as “dishwater.” “I really hate somebody like that to make it so big,” he continued. “You can’t knock anybody for making it, but people like the Monkees?”
Jimi Hendrix Opened for the Monkees and Absolutely Hated It
Pretty early on during this joint tour, it became apparent that things weren’t clicking with Hendrix and the audience. The Monkees fans in attendance at these shows—many of whom were teenage girls—weren’t impressed with what Hendrix had to offer and would constantly yell things like, “We want the Monkees!” and “Where’s Davy?” (as in Davy Jones). Hendrix would only make it seven or eight stops before pulling out of the deal.
According to Michael Nesmith’s 2017 memoir Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff, everything finally came to a head when Hendrix and the Monkees performed at the Forest Hills Stadium in New York later that month. It was there that Hendrix reached his breaking point with the increasingly disruptive crowd and flipped off all the young, starry-eyed Monkees fans who were so eager for him to leave. Nesmith had previously recounted the incident while speaking to MTV in 1986, adding that Hendrix also “muttered an expletive” as he walked off the stage.
Hendrix addressed the situation himself shortly after it happened, telling NME, “We decided it was just the wrong audience. I think they’re replacing me with Mickey Mouse!”
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