Micky Dolenz has said he does not want his 60 Years of the Monkees tour to be framed as a “memorial”.

The 80 year old performer is preparing to tour in 2026 to celebrate six decades of the Daydream Believer band, but he is keen to avoid focusing on the fact that he is now the final surviving member following the death of Mike Nesmith at the age of 78 in 2021.

Speaking to Billboard, he said: “I feel it’s time to take off the black armband and just celebrate the whole Monkees project.

“The show’s not gonna be a memorial. It’s not going to be heavily tributed. I’m just gonna sing the songs and tell the stories.”

Micky explained that the tour, which is currently scheduled to run from February through November next year, will feature “videos from the original episodes” of The Monkees television series, as many people still misunderstand how the group came together and evolved.

He said: “I’ll be focusing more on the chronology and on the TV show, using videos from the original episodes.

“I still have people ask, ‘So what was it like when the group got the TV show?’ I’m like, ‘Omigod, have you ever heard of a thing called Wikipedia?’ [laugh]

“There’s still a lot of people who are surprised when I explain how it came to be, that it was a musical comedy sitcom on NBC with us cast in it, not a band in the traditional sense.”

Back in 1965, Micky and Nesmith were brought together with Davy Jones and Peter Tork after responding to a casting call for actors and musicians, forming what would become the I’m A Believer hitmakers.

Micky added: “Even at the time, frankly, people didn’t get it… because it was the first time anything like that had happened.

“It’s happened many times since, Glee for instance. They create the act and then have the acts go out.

“I want people to understand how the Monkees came about, so I’ll be focusing on that, as well as the songs.”