Monkees
Singer Peter Tork Dies At 77 After Being Diagnosed With Rare Tongue Cancer 10
Years Ago
By
LEAH SIMPSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6730277/Monkees-singer-Peter-Tork-dies-age-77-diagnosed-rare-tongue-cancer-10-years-ago.html
PUBLISHED: 11:21 EST, 21 February
2019
UPDATED: 12:54 EST, 21
February 2019
·
The Monkees singer Peter Tork died Thursday at the age of 77
·
His sister Anne Thorkelson confirmed the news but not the cause
of death
·
Tork was diagnosed with rare cancer adenoid cystic carcinoma in
2009 but his regular check-ups showed he was clear in 2012
·
He survived by his fourth wife Pam Tork as well as children Ivan
Joseph Iannoli, Hallie Luia Tork, Erica Marie Tork
·
Davy Jones, the group's lone Brit, died of a heart attack in
2012 at 66 as they prepared for a reunion tour
·
Same year Tork told Daily Mail 'I'm an alcoholic' who was '34
years clean'. 'Once I pick up the first drink, something gets triggered and I
have no resistance'
Monkees bassist-and-singer Peter
Tork died Thursday at the age of 77, his sister Anne Thorkelson has confirmed.
Tork's sibling did not clarify
the suspected cause of his death but in 2009 the musician was diagnosed with a
rare cancer that affected his tongue.
'It is with beyond-heavy and broken hearts that we share the devastating news
that our friend, mentor, teacher, and amazing soul, Peter Tork, has passed from
this world,' a post on his official Facebook page read.
He celebrated his birthday last
Wednesday and survived by his fourth wife Pam Tork as well as children Ivan
Joseph Iannoli, Hallie Luia Tork, Erica Marie Tork.
Pam was there to support Peter six years ago when he battled adenoid cystic
carcinoma – a rare cancer that occurs in the head and neck.
His regular check-ups showed he
was clear in 2012 and they married in 2013.
'When I heard I had this cancer,
I had a bloody good cry, and then it was a case of, "Right what do I do
now?"' he previously told Daily Mail. 'They performed the surgery and I
couldn't talk for about a day or two, but Pam came with me to hold my hand.'
David 'Davy' Jones, the group's lone Brit, died of a heart attack in 2012 at 66
as they prepared for a reunion tour.
The same year Tork admitted he
was an alcoholic.
He told Daily Mail: 'I'm an
alcoholic, and that means once I pick up the first drink, something gets
triggered and I have no resistance, so the answer is to not drink at all. I'm
34 years clean and dry now. I was awful when I was drinking, snarling at
people.'
Tork was the oldest member of
the group in 1966 when their NBC show The Monkees first aired, the 24-year-old
helped spark Monkeesmania with an offshoot of merchandise, top-selling music
and tour tickets from the TV hit.
Although it only ran for two
seasons, the Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider-produced program won an Emmy for
outstanding comedy.
As well as playing bass for the
four-piece - also made up of Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Mike Nesmith - Tork sang
lead on some of the band's tracks including Long Title: Do I Have To Do This
All Over Again.
He penned the tune for the
four-piece's 1968 movie, Head, which features cameos from the likes of Dennis
Hopper, Frank Zappa and Jack Nicholson who wrote the film allegedly while
tripping on LSD.
The Daydream Believer hitmakers
surged in popularity past the likes of the Beatles and Rolling Stones in 1967
with their album selling 35 million copies, a round double that of their rivals
combined.
Titled Monkees, the LP featuring
hits such as I'm a Believer and Last Train to Clarksville, resulted in several
no. 1 singles for the group.
While trained musician Tork also
played keyboards in the group, the Washington DC man was said to be 'mortified'
when he joined and realized they would not actually play their instruments.
The manufactured band had tunes
written by the likes of Carole King, Neil Diamond and Jeff Barry when they
first emerged on the music scene and had used session musicians for their debut
release before Tork had even signed up.
The men had answered an advert
for 'four insane boys aged 17 to 21' to star in a new TV series.
The show became an instant
success with fans including singer-songwriter Tom Petty and John Lennon, who
nicknamed the Monkees 'the Marx Brothers of rock'.
They would go on to have Jimi
Hendrix as a tour support act. But it wasn't enough for Tork who longed to be
taken seriously as a musician.
After the release of their
second album More of the Monkees in 1967, the men fought for more songwriting
and performance control and their third release Headquarters was a reflection
of their chops.
By 1969 Tork had left the Monkees and his venture into a new group called
Release proved unsuccessful in 1970. The Monkees split.
Dolenz told Daily Mail: 'When it
came to Daydream Believer, which was really Davy's song, we told the audience,
"We can't sing this song any more – it belongs to you now," and they
sang it instead.'
Reunion tours in 1997 and 2001
reportedly dissolved into bickering, but there was no real animosity. 'There
were moments of tension,' admitted Peter. 'But the Monkees never promised to
stay together. People forget we started out as the cast of a TV show.'
Trained musicians Tork and
Dolenz were cast as the members of a rock band who found themselves in one
crazy adventure after another as they struggled to make it big.
In 2012 Tork admitted they
smoked substances strong than cigarettes during their height of fame.
Tork found himself in trouble
when he was arrested for possession of hashish and spent three months in prison
in 1972.
'Well, we were young adults in
the ‘60s so there may have been a quick toke before we read our lines, but we
couldn't do our job properly if we were wasted on drugs, so we did work really
hard,' he confessed.
When Tork, Jones and Dolenz toured the US in 2001, Tork quit early, unable, he
said, to put up with 'the drinking and difficult behavior offstage'.
'The truth,' Peter said in 2012,
'is that I'm still confused about my own behavior then and I'm not sure that I
had all my own faculties at the time, sober or not. The drinking itself was not
an issue and if it were, I would not have rejoined them.'
And he'd always found the fame
hard to handle. 'I gave a lot of my money away when I was younger – just left
it in bowls around the house and people would help themselves to handfuls of
it,' he said.
'I wasn't thinking too clearly
at the time and it might have been my low self-esteem, thinking that I didn't
deserve to keep the money, but it wasn't really that bright, was it?' he
laughs. 'I mean, there's nothing wrong with giving money away to people, but
give it where you can do some good.'
