I am very sorry to hear about the untimely passing of Davy Jones, a great performer who loved his fans.

In May 1986, as a 17-year-old Monkees fanatic, my starry-eyed dreams came true as I got to spend a few days trailing Micky, Peter, and Davy at the start of their American tour. The opportunity came thanks to a friend of a friend—Rodney Bingenheimer, the disc jockey on L.A. station KROQ who, back in 1966, was Jones' stand-in on the "Prince and the Pauper" episode of the band's TV show. The Monkees were in New York City to kick off their 20th anniversary tour—their first time touring together since the 1960s—and Rodney came to town for the occasion along with Monkees historian Gary Strobl.

I got enlisted as Rodney's local guide (which I took as an honor, knowing he was rock royalty back in L.A.), and ended up getting to go to not only the Monkees' press conference, but also their interview at WNEW-FM and the sold-out first show of their tour, at Atlantic City's Tropicana Hotel & Casino.

It was a heady time for a teenage girl who mourned over having missed the mod, mod, world of Sixties pop. Sadly, I do not have any photos of me with the Monkees, but I do have a video clip from the afternoon of May 27, 1986. Strobl quizzes me as I prepare to give Rodney and his friends a tour of my favorite East Village haunts.

As you can see, the nightclub that I am showing Rodney in the video, formerly known the Fillmore East, is called the Saint. Little did I know that there would come a time when the saints would outshine the stars in my book (literally).

A couple of days later, at the WNEW studios, Rodney got the Monkees to do station IDs for his radio show. You can hear me giggle as Davy cracks, "If that doesn't make them turn their radios off, nothing will!"

Davy was by far the friendliest of the group, and also the funniest. He was also the most sentimental, a sign of which is that he saved mementos—like the jacket he wore in his guest spot on the "Brady Bunch." Hanging out after the Monkees' press conference, I overheard him tell Strobl that he had even saved the drum head from their movie "Head";  it bore the helpful legend "DRUM."

He was clearly thrilled to be back on the road again. As you can see in the clip above, he also liked to take the wind out of his bandmembers' sails. I wrote in my diary of watching Davy clown around as he, Micky, Peter, and Rodney shared a couch in the WNEW lobby:

When Peter mentioned some people he'd seen in California, including [rock impresario] Kim Fowley, Davy pretended to keel over, falling with a thump onto the floor. As he got back up, Peter asked him why he did that.

Davy affected an L.A.'ed back accent: "All those names, man, it just blew my mind."

Goodbye, Davy, and thanks for all the smiles.