Happy Birthday wishes to the Monkees' Mike Nesmith who celebrates his 70th birthday on today (December 30th). Sadly, Sunday also would've been the late Davy Jones' birthday as well. Jones died of a sudden heart attack on February 29th at age 66. Earlier this month, Nesmith and surviving Monkees Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork reunited for a 12-date North American tour. The trek marked Nesmith's first road trip with the band since 1997.

 

Nesmith is currently a trustee and vice-chair of the American Film Institute. He's also a trustee and president of the Gihon Foundation, an entrepreneurial philanthropy group started by Nesmith's mother, Bette C. Graham, the inventor of Liquid Paper correction fluid. Nesmith was one of the major catalysts behind MTV, and won the 1981 Grammy Award for Video Of The Year -- the first-ever Grammy awarded in that field.

 

He's performed very rarely with the Monkees since their original split in 1970, except for the group's ill-fated 1997 reunion, which included their Justus album, the TV special Hey Hey We're The Monkees, and a brief UK tour.

 

In addition to his many Monkees classics, Nesmith is best known for writing Linda Ronstadt's breakthrough hit, "Different Drum" -- a 1967 Top 20 hit for her early group, the Stone Poneys.

 

Shortly before his death, Davy Jones spoke frankly about Nesmith's talents: "He's a friggin' genius, OK? And most geniuses are unpredictable and very difficult, and they're never satisfied with what they do."

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