The last surviving member of The Monkees, Micky Dolenz, has filed a lawsuit with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to see what they have on his band.
The 77-year-old vocalist and drummer for the pop-rock band that soundtracked the 1960s has sued the FBI, hoping to gain access to the Bureau's intelligence on The Monkees.
With part of the un-redacted file on The Monkees being publicly visible, Dolenz wanted to do some investigative research of his own to truly figure out what the FBI was saying about him and his bandmates.
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Earlier this week, 29 August, Dolenz filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to seek out exactly what information the FBI had gathered on him.
Back in 2011, the FBI publicly posted a redacted document on The Monkees titled, 'Additional Activities Denouncing the U.S. Policy in the War in Vietnam'.
The visible text details the conclusions drawn from an FBI informant who attended one of the music group's live concerts all the way back in 1967 – slap bang in the middle of the Vietnam War.
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The informant references 'subliminal messages' that played on a screen behind The Monkees' set.
According to the document, these 'constituted left wing innovations of a political nature'.
The lawyer who first filed the lawsuit against the FBI on Dolenz's behalf, Mark Zaid, told Law&Crime that the majority of people 'might not think' the process of taking legal action 'would reveal what our government was up to'.
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However, Zaid noted that the files shows that the Bureau "was actively monitoring war dissenters, perceived radicals and anyone counter to [former bureau director] J. Edgar Hoover’s cultural beliefs, and that included The Monkees!”
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Zaid – who was the source to let Dolenz know about the redacted files – also noted that the documents 'just kind of reinforced for me that there was actually something here'.
"We’re still fishing, but we know there’s fish in the water," he added.
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“Theoretically, anything could be in those files. ... It could be almost nothing. But we’ll see soon enough," the lawyer concluded.
Die-hard fans of the band came out in numbers to show their support of The Monkees while questioning the motives of the FBI.
One Facebook user commented about the 'I'm A Believer' group: "Subversive? No! They’re too busy singing to put anybody down. They’re just tryin' to be friendly."
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Others pointed to the ludicrous nature of the file, with another writing: "I can't get past the fact that such a file exists.... on The Monkees? I mean... I just can't!"
"The FBI had too much time on their hands," said a third.
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Rhiannon Ingle