David Cassidy on the Web
This monkee horses around
Monday, May 07, 2007
By Sharon Wernlund
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
www.palmbeachpost.com
INDIANTOWN - In the 1960s, Davy Jones was a human magnet for screaming teeny-boppers as lead singer of The Monkees with his brown shag haircut, impish grin and cute British accent.
Four decades later, horses, not hordes of fans, greet the pint-sized performer at a remote ranch in this rural community where Jones, now a grandfather, is up to anything but monkey business.
Clad in cowboy boots, denim jeans and a faded "Manchester Boy" T-shirt, the former teen idol and ex-jockey arrives before dawn, after a jolt of strong Cuban coffee, to feed, water and exercise his stable of 11 horses.
These are no ordinary steeds. Four of them, including Indiantown Jones, are training for racetracks across the country. His horses have a history of wins, and it's no wonder. One, says Jones, is the retired offspring of the legendary Seattle Slew.
When Jones isn't here, odds are good that he's on a fast track to a gig somewhere and making mothers swoon.
"I was out here this morning at 6 o'clock and cleaned all these stalls," says Jones, 61, on a recent Wednesday, as he bares his blistered fingers. "Last Saturday night, I was in Phoenix, with a microphone in my hand, singing to 5,000 people."
Though The Monkees have had several reunions since disbanding in 1970, Jones is now a solo act.
This month, he returns to EPCOT's annual International Flower and Garden Festival in Orlando with a lineup of 1960s bands such as Paul Revere and The Raiders, the Turtles and The Guess Who.
Jones takes the stage May 11-15 for Mother's Day weekend with nostalgic pop hits I'm a Believer, (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone and his trademark tune, Daydream Believer.
Why is he still popular, 40 years later?
"One of the lines in the last song I wrote was 'Remember me the way you hoped I'd be,''" he says. "I think that's my secret."
At the ranch in Indiantown, Jones stows his fame as easily as his saddle. His passion for his horses - not his successful career - dominates his thoughts as buckets are filled with feed and water.
At 16, Jones was nominated for a Tony award for his Broadway performance as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! Monkee milestones include an Emmy award-winning TV sitcom, multimillion record sales and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The leap from stellar status to sweeping stalls is a self-imposed reality check.
"Once you're a celebrity, you become better-looking and more intelligent," he says. "You become all these things that you're not. And then, that's what destroys people.
"So I'm doing this so that I can keep in touch with the world. And because I'm 61 years old and I don't want to be a little fat guy."
Jones visited Indiantown for decades before buying a modest home here about five years ago.
While training his race horses at nearby Payson Park, he discovered one of Martin County's poorest communities and was enchanted.
"You see the Mexicans and the Guatemalans going out to work for minimum wages and take care of their kids and their families. It makes you proud that you're still living in a world that cares."
The entertainer, who confesses to dying his graying locks, has retained the good looks that were once plastered on everything from Tiger Beat magazine covers and lunch boxes to bubble gum wrappers and trading cards.
And though he yearns to be anonymous, he's gracious when fans spot him at a local restaurant or park and happily obliges with a handshake, autograph or photo.
"Even Michael Jackson can go into Publix just as long as he doesn't do it at 7 o'clock on a Friday night," he quips.
In April, Jones, in his jeans and cowboy hat, strolled freely through a crowd of 150 guests at Indian RiverSide Park in Jensen Beach as host of "A Groovy Night on the Ranch" fund-raiser dinner for the Indiantown Education Coalition.
The sold-out event, which he has hosted for three years, raised a record $7,500 for college scholarships and classroom grants. For an hour or so, Jones charmed the audience with songs and jokes as an aging teen idol.
While singing the band's theme song, "Here we come, walking down the street," Jones did the famous Monkee walk in the slo-mo style of a geriatric.
"Peter Noone (of Herman's Hermits) is now singing, 'Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely walker' and Paul Simon is singing, 'Fifty ways to lose your liver.' "
But all joking aside, Jones is serious about the mission of the coalition of business partners, educators and community members to send Indiantown's poorest students to college.
"It's just kids - OK. There's so much emphasis on how kids are not cooperating and how they're destructive and disrespectful. But you know something: You come to Indiantown and the crime rate is practically zero."
On April 26 the coalition, thanks to the dinner, a bike rally and other fund-raisers, awarded $14,000 in scholarships to Indiantown students graduating in 2007 from South Fork High School.
One $1,000 scholarship was awarded in honor of Jones' deceased mother.
"Most of these students are the first ones in their family to finish high school, so it's really a big deal," says Debbie Banta, the Martin County school district's special projects coordinator. "Because of him, we have gotten so much publicity and more donors than ever before.
"I remember the Monkees when I was growing up. I wasn't a big fan then, but I am now."
Jones, who also has homes in Pennsylvania and California, is no stranger to charity events. In other communities, he's supported a cerebral palsy camp for children and the fight against multiple sclerosis.
He's also been a regular on the charity sports circuit and even ran in the London Marathon.
Back in Indiantown, he's a good neighbor to Seagull Industries, where he leases his ranch.
When the nonprofit organization, which serves people with disabilities, recently held its annual picnic for clients and their families, Jones bought burgers, sang and recruited one of his band members to entertain.
With the proper safeguards, he's allowed people with physical and mental disabilities to ride his horses as part of their therapy.
"Everyone is disabled who's never learned to ride on a horse," he says.
Meanwhile, Jones is busy completing paperwork to become a U.S. citizen.
And though he's proud of his past as a Monkee, Jones doesn't want that to define his career or who he is.
"I don't want to throw away The Monkees and pretend I was never in it," he said. "It's part of my life. It's like the Mafia. Once you're in, you're in."
With his four children now grown, the twice-divorced Jones has no plans to retire into oblivion.
He hopes to again land roles in movies or a television series.
He was a guest star on the television series The Brady Bunch as well as the spin-off movie as Marcia Brady's heartthrob.
His many stage roles include Jesus in London's Godspell.
In 1995, he and Monkees Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork taped a Pizza Hut commercial with Ringo Starr.
He's writing songs and published a second edition of his autobiography, Davy Jones: Daydream Believin'.
His talents shine in short stories, photography and poetry, too.
"I don't want to talk about the past. I want to talk about the future. I would love to play in Oliver! at the Lyric Theatre. Funny enough, I'm talking right now with David Cassidy about working together and going out on the road."
And with a grin, he says, "We'd call ourselves the ultimate idols."
