Overview

• The 80-year-old Monkees drummer says he was the runner-up for Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in a 1973 audition alongside Henry Winkler
• Dolenz credits Winkler’s authentic New York–New Jersey greaser persona for clinching the part over his Southern California background
• After The Monkees ended in 1968, Dolenz shifted his focus to directing and producing to counter early typecasting in television
• He first rose to fame at 11 as the star of NBC’s Circus Boy before joining The Monkees in the mid-1960s
• His Songs & Stories tour, which launches August 11 at Ocean City Music Pier in New Jersey, will mix classic Monkees hits with personal industry anecdotes