Fresh from the Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967, Hendrix paired up with the Monkees on their American tour. At the time, Hendrix was not widely known in the US, but had developed a strong following in England. After a couple of shows in the south, which weren’t that well received — given his psychedelic performance and the playing of his guitar with his teeth, the teeny-bopper fans of the Monkees, drowned out Henrdix’s riffs with screams of “We Want Davy (Jones)!”
What were they thinking? Answer: The Monkees wanted respect, and Hendrix wanted publicity. Despite the notoriety from his guitar-burning appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival the month before, Hendrix was better known in England than in the United States, and was far less popular than the Monkees, who had been created for a television sitcom and whose fans consisted mostly of prepubescent girls.
According to an account of the incident in "Oops," a new chronicle of modern fiascoes by Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger, Hendrix's temper boiled over at Forest Hills. The problem wasn't the performers, who got along pretty well. It was the Monkees' fans, who had little interest in the scary psychedelic dude who preceded their idols. Hendrix's riffs were drowned out by screams of "We want Davy!" (Davy Jones was a Monkee.) Finally, Hendrix gestured obscenely, with words to match, and stomped offstage, going down as one of the most bizarre pairings in pop music history.
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