Michael Nesmith

Robert Michael Nesmith December 30 1942 December 10 2021 was an American musician songwriter actor producer and novelist He was best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and costar of the TV series The Monkees 19661968 His songwriting credits include Different Drum which became a hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys After the breakup of the Monkees Nesmith continued his successful songwriting and performing career first with the seminal country rock group the First National Band with whom he had a top40 hit Joanne and then as a solo artist He often played a custombuilt Gretsch 12string electric with the Monkees and afterwards Nesmith founded Pacific Arts a multimedia production and distribution company in 1974 through which he helped pioneer the music video format He created one of the first American television programs dedicated to music videos PopClips which aired on Nickelodeon in 1980 He was asked to help produce and create MTV but had prior commitments with his production company In 1981 he won the first Grammy Award for Video of the Year for his hourlong television show Elephant Parts He was also an executive producer of the film Repo Man 1984 Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Nesmith licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia