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Peter Tork and Davy Jones may have had personal differences throughout their years as members of The Monkees. However, neither could deny the other’s musical gifts. Tork defended Jones in the press and to fellow musicians who dismissed the singer as having no musical skills. He said Jones “just knew” how to do more than just front the group.

Davy Jones and Peter Tork at a press conference at The Royal Garden Hotel, London, 29th June 1967.
Davy Jones and Peter Tork | Michael Putland/Getty Images

Peter Tork and Davy Jones had a rocky relationship

In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Peter Tork discussed a tense event between him and Davy Jones. Their rocky relationship once came to blows.

Tork admitted, “Yeah, I hit him once.” He joked, “My conscience was stricken for years.” Tork followed that statement with, “Of course, the little sucker hit me first.”

He continued, “He hit me in the jaw with his forehead. Davy did this thing called a nutter, which is a soccer hooligan maneuver. You use your forehead.” Tork reportedly followed up Jones’s strike by defending himself.

However they handled their issues, Tork regularly stood up for Jones and castmates Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz to other musicians who tried to dismiss The Monkees’ musical competency.

Peter Tork defended Davy Jones’ musical skills to other musicians

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‘The Monkees’: Peter Tork Opens Up About His Fight with Davy Jones: ‘The Little Sucker Hit Me First’

Peter Tork discussed Davy Jones’ music skills in a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone. He defended his bandmate to a reporter who discussed a dig at the Monkees by the Byrds in their 1967 hit “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star.”

“No. Nobody ever said anything like that to me. I took it at face value. Maybe they thought about The Monkees,'” he said

Peter said all of the band members had plenty of music talent. “I’d been playing music of one sort or another time I was nine. Michael played continuously for several years before that; he was a folkie,” Peter continued. He spoke of The Monkees drummer Micky Dolenz and his music skills, including “folk guitar, fireside guitar, you gave him a guitar, and he could play anything,” Peter shared.

Then, Tork defended Jones. He admitted his bandmate didn’t officially play any instruments. However, he “had been on Broadway. He was the American original Artful Dodger in Oliver, and that’s not nothing as musical ability.”

He continued, “When we said, ‘We need a bass player for this,’ he said, ‘How do I play bass?’ We said, ‘You put your finger here and pluck this string here.’ He was onstage with us, playing bass within five minutes. Davy just knew and was among the most fabulously musically adept minds I have ever met. That’s not nothing.”

The bassist revealed the ‘best natural musician’ of The Monkees

In an interview with Guitar World, Peter Tork named Davy Jones the “best natural musician” of the Monkees. This compliment came after a discussion in the piece about Tork’s many musical skills, which include guitar, bass, keyboards, banjo, and other instruments.

Tork assessed, “The best natural musician in the bunch was Davy. He never hit a bad note. My pitch is not as certain, and Micky’s isn’t as secure. Mike’s is, but he doesn’t have the emotional range Davy had.”

He continued to praise Jones’ talents. “Davy could sing Broadway, ballads, and rock. He could do anything. What I am, among these guys, is the best trained, the only one who could read and write music.”

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