Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/819918
112 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 7 T he first generation of that singular brand of celebrity known as the "rock star" came into being in the early-to- middle 1960s. That group included a lot of Englishmen: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richard. But the Yanks had their share of rock royalty as well. Think Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix…and the world first saw and heard four others on September 12, 1966: Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith: The Monkees. Every one of those musicians who have sur- vived are still writing and performing music, in varying degrees of frequency and grandiosity. Nesmith, who now resides in Carmel Valley, has slowed down his touring schedule to a complete stop, but hasn't entered anything approaching retirement. In the latest of an astonishing string of accomplishments—any one of which would be enough to define the career of a successful entrepreneur—the 74-year-old iconoclast has penned "Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff," an often irreverent, frequently funny, always glib look at his life and times. "I've always thought of myself as a writer," he says. "I have a natural feel for it." Surprising to many, surely, but not to those who have read the two long-form novels he's published, or those who are lucky enough to be included among his 5,000 Facebook friends. He's the kind of writer Though proud of the work he did with the Monkees in the 1960s, and his own myriad later projects, he harbored other ambitions. "I always thought of myself as a writer. It comes easily to me." Photo: Michael Nesmith Personal Collection