According to a report by the American ROLLING STONE, Micky Dolenz, the last living member of the legendary bubblegum pop band The Monkees (after the death of Michael Nesmith in 2021), has sued the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI).
According to the US colleagues’ research, Dolenz has filed a lawsuit demanding the release of a document that federal authorities kept on the band.
A heavily redacted and edited version of the official FBI file on the Monkees was released from the vault back in 2011.
In June 2022, Dolenz submitted a request for access to the complete file. This was not complied with. As a result, his attorney, Mark S. Zaid, is now suing the FBI for access to the full document and all other files relating to Band, Dolenz the person, or his bandmates.
“This lawsuit seeks to obtain all records that the FBI has filed and/or possesses regarding the Monkees and their individual members,” the pamphlet reads. “Mr. Dolenz has exhausted all necessary administrative remedies.” The so-called “Freedom Of Information Act/Privacy Act” regulates the relationship between US citizens and government agencies in the US.
“The Monkees, especially in their later years with projects like ‘Head’, reflected a counterculture. That called into play the institutional authority of the time,” Zaid told ROLLING STONE. “And J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, particularly in the 1960s, was notorious for its tight surveillance of the cultural counterculture. Whether she committed illegal acts or not.” The project in question, Head, is a satirical pop culture adventure film that satirically pokes fun at the current situation with Monkees stylistic devices.
Subliminal Messages?
The redacted document describes an account by an FBI informant who attended a 1967 concert of the mushroom-headed band’s first tour. The Ami-IM writes in its report: “During the concert, subliminal messages were displayed on the screen which, in my opinion, represent a left-wing intervention of a political nature.”
And further: “Messages and images showed the riots in Berkeley, anti-American messages about the war in Vietnam, race riots in Selma, Alabama, similar to this, but which met with disapproval from the audience.”
According to research by US-STONE, there is a second Monkees document that has been made completely illegible.
“The blacked out information could be irrelevant to us,” said attorney Zaid. “Some of them are likely to reveal the identity of the informant (…). In theory, however, EVERYTHING could be in these files. We have no idea what documents even exist. (..) But we will see THAT soon enough.”