Quotes on Mike Nesmith from the “Total Control” intro
Dean Jeffries: “A rotten person. He was a very bad person. That’s my personal opinion of him…because I had run with him quite a bit. He was just nasty with people. I thought he was a prima donna but he had no reason to be that way. Mike Nesmith was just up and down. One minute he was pleasant to be around and then you would leave him, and two hours later, you’d come back and he’d be a rotten son-of-a-bitch to be around. […]. He did it a few times with me and that was enough.”
Bill Chadwick: “He saw it (The Monkees) as an opportunity, as a stepping stone. He took every advantage he could. Mike was a very intelligent guy. He was a real good businessman and a real talented person. He was going to make the best of it no matter what the situation was. The Monkees was his vehicle.”
Lester Sill: “I hold Mike responsible for breaking The Monkees up. That was his intention and I tell him this when I see him. We don’t see each other that often, but when he came up here to buy some of his songs back, which I refused to sell him, I told him that I thought he played the part of a cold-hearted Rasputin that did not consider Davy, Peter or Micky. I feel he was the catalyst in helping to destroy the group because he felt that the other boys were inadequate.”
Micky Dolenz: “He was always kind of the loner out there. He always had some problems with The Monkees.”
David Pearl: “Mike has always been outspoken and more often than not, Mike has pretty much been right.”
David Jones: “Mike could be quite tall when he wanted to be. Not to mention rude, arrogant, belligerent and aggressive, and that was on a good day.”
Shorty Rogers: “He’s a very groovy person, a great guy. He’s one of the good guys. In my case, Michael couldn’t have been nicer to me.”
Steve Blauner: “Mike was interested in music. Not a very nice person, but he was interested in music.”
Marilyn Schlossberg: “Michael was half and half. When he was good he was very good. When he was bad he was a horror.”
Ward Sylvester: “Michael always had an approach avoidance attitude toward the group. He resented it succeeding and he resented it failing. The Monkees didn’t present Michael in the way Michael wanted to present Michael.”
