The result of a multi-year excavation of Dolenz’s astonishing personal collection, I’m Told I Had A Good Time is a literal treasure trove of photography, artwork, handwritten lyrics, scripts and assorted ephemera spanning 1945-1978. Lavishly illustrated with more than 1200 images, it includes nearly 500 photos of Micky Dolenz, more than 200 of Davy Jones and over 150 of Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork (respectively). The majority of the book’s contents is previously unpublished, including all-new commentary and captions from Micky Dolenz, compiled from 20 hours of exclusive interviews conducted by Andrew Sandoval from February 2022 through June 2023.
Dolenz was not only an avid chronicler of The Monkees’ activities, but also the intensely creative circle around him. Included are more than two dozen unpublished images of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, photos of The Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones and Ron Wood, and several pages of Micky’s friends, The Buffalo Springfield. During 1967 and 1968, Micky also shot incredible unpublished photos of Otis Redding, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, “Mama” Cass Elliot, Eric Clapton, David Crosby, Jack Nicholson and Harry Nilsson. In the 1970s, he captured the likes of Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, Albert Brooks, Ringo Starr and Micky’s group: Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart.
In the book’s introduction, Micky explains his hidden archive: “I honestly don’t know why I started keeping this stuff! I just always kept things since I was a child. My mom did too. But I never had any intention of doing anything with it. I certainly did not keep it with any intent to produce anything. It just became a habit; I would just literally throw stuff into boxes. Maybe in the back of my mind I thought that someday I might stick everything into some sort of scrapbook. As far as the photos and films, I never thought I would do anything with them either, except maybe show them to the grandkids. The editors of this book found stuff at the bottom of boxes that I had no idea still existed. No one has been more surprised than myself with the rediscovery.”
