Do You Ever Get Over Your First (Celeb) Crush?

Growing up in the 80s, I loved watching the re-runs of The Monkees that aired on MTV and Nickelodeon. This made my mother happy, as she grew up on them when they first came out in the 1960s. I remember being home from school and watching them with her. I loved them. I knew all of the songs. My parents bought me a cassette tape (yes, you read that right - a cassette tape) of The Monkee's Greatest Hit's. I played it over and over and over again on my little brown Fischer Price cassette player and sang along with it, thinking I was the fifth (and female) Monkee. (We still have that tape, by the way, and yes, it still works.) I wished I had a Monkee-mobile. That thing was so cool! Of course, back then, I couldn't have driven it, being in the single digits...but hey, I'm sure my parents wouldn't have minded it, right? I was happier than a pig in mud (I'm from the South, it's a metaphor we use) when I could watch The Monkees or hear their music.

I can honestly say I think Davy Jones was my first celebrity crush. I was in love with Davy Jones. I mean, what girl wasn't in love with Davy Jones? Yeah, the other three (Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork - who is my mother's favorite, by the way) were cute...but Davy? Davy was just the bees knees! I think he was the one that started my love for British men and their accents. And he was short. I've always been short, height wise, so that was cool too. But the eyes, the smile, and voice just cemented my love for him.

Fast forward to 1996. We found out that their 30th reunion tour was going to be stopping in Charlotte, NC, which isn't too far from us, so we got tickets. I was a teenager by now but I still loved The Monkees. I was THRILLED to be seeing them live. To say I loved the concert would be an understatement. I FREAKIN' LOVED the concert. We had really close seats so that was really, really awesome.

In May 1998, Davy Jones came to Greensboro, NC, to some women's show. I don't remember much, thanks to wonderful memory problems. All I remember was being super nervous to meet him but then when I met him...the nervousness went away. Poof - it was gone! I even got up the courage to ask him for a kiss! Of course, when I asked him for the kiss, I said, "Can I have a kiss to make my mother jealous?" He laughed and gave me a kiss. I was in Heaven. I think I was the happiest 15 year old on the planet that day.

In July 2011, I was on Facebook (best question is when am I NOT on Facebook?) when our local classic rock station announced that they were going to be doing a giveaway...and the giveaway were going to be tickets to The Monkees concert in Durham, NC on September 01, 2011. I waited until they gave the prompt, typed the keywords: HERE THEY COME!, pressed enter...and WON! I screamed so loud I woke the dog up! I then proceeded to call my Daddy and tell him the good news. He couldn't believe it when I told him, he thought I was joking. Of course, I wasn't! Then he said, "you and your mother have fun!" (it was only a pair of tickets) because he knew I would be taking my Mama. Then I called my Mama and left her a voice mail, since she was at work. When she called me back and I told her, I thought she was going to wreck the car! We squealed like little girls! Here it was 15 years after we first saw them in concert, we were going to see them again! We were happier than pigs in mud!

But sadly, it wasn't to be. The Monkees cancelled the rest of the tour about a month before our scheduled date. First it was initially reported as "internal group issues and conflicts" but then changed to business reasons. Either way, my Mama and I were bummed. It would have been awesome to have seen them again but we understood.

February 29, 2012. I remember playing on my usual, favorite game site - Pogo.com - and I had Facebook up in another window, in the background. All the sudden, I get a notification that I've been tagged in a post. One of my good friends said, "My heart goes out to you right now, Jamie." and she posted a link that said, "Davy Jones, dead at 66." I freaked. Of course, I immediately went to Google and Yahoo. Didn't see anything there. Not that I didn't believe my friend, it wasn't that. I just did not want it to be true. It COULDN'T be true, it just COULDN'T. Then I called my mom, who was in the process of getting ready for a funeral for a church member. "Mama," I said, "I've got some bad news. I'm fine. Harley (my four legged child) is fine. The husband is fine. It's nothing like that. But there's reports that Davy Jones has died." There was a pause. "What? You're kidding?!?" "Mama, I wish I was. I'm Googling and everything now. More things are popping up. It's true." I'm close to tears at this point. This was one of my childhood idols. One of my mothers childhood idols. Someone who we both loved. And now he was gone. I couldn't wrap my head around it. I refused to believe it. I didn't want to believe it.

But it was true. My first celebrity crush was gone. I couldn't believe it. I still don't believe it.

I've been in a music "rut" lately. It's not a bad rut, no, not at all. I have listened to nothing but The Monkees for the past three or for days. I'm up to 331 listens now on Spotify. (If you don't know what Spotify is...I recommend you Google it. It is AWESOME! I'd link it but apparently I'm too dumb to figure out how to link stuff.) I've mainly listened to Music Box because it has all of their hits, or most of all of them. My husband gave me a look earlier like, "you're listening to them again?"

I can't help it. I've been missing Davy Jones lately. I need to borrow my Mama's DVDs and have a Monkees marathon some time soon.