(The Hill) — The Monkees singer Micky Dolenz is suing the FBI in an effort to “obtain any records” the agency has on the 60s hit band and its members.
A lawsuit filed by Dolenz, the last surviving member of the band, noted the performer had “exhausted all necessary required administrative remedies”after submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to receive the files from the FBI.
“We just want to know else they were deciding about The Monkees and why, in fact, were they surveilling,” Dolenz’s attorney, Mark Zaid, told NewsNation’s “Rush Hour” on Tuesday.
Portions of an FBI file on the “I’m a Believer” singers were released in 2011 and included references to anti-Vietnam War rhetoric and “subliminal messages” depicted on a screen at a 1967 Monkees concert that an informant claimed featured “left wing innovations of a political nature.”
Dolenz believes the FBI is withholding far more files on the Monkees.
The FBI was known to keep tabs on several famous faces during the 1960s and 1970s under then-Director J. Edgar Hoover, including anti-war musicians such as John Lennon and John Denver, among others.
Zaid said that because The Monkees were friends with and performed with some of those other figures, such as The Beatles, he isn’t surprised his client’s band came under suspicion.
“The question we’re gonna find out now is how much suspicion were they under, and how large were their files,” Zaid said Tuesday on “NewsNation Prime.”
Zaid told Rolling Stone that the 77-year-old entertainer and the last surviving member of the band had originally submitted a FOIA request in June to obtain the full file from the FBI. The lawsuit was brought after the FBI failed to follow through with the FOIA request within 20 working days, as is legally required, Zaid told the music publication.
Zaid wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he has been a Monkees fan since the early 1970s, calling it a “pleasure to be representing” Dolenz.
“Why was the FBI monitoring the band back in the late 1960s? We will find out!” Zaid said.
“It is about some serious stuff, as to what the FBI was doing, in the, at least to late 1960s, and it may very well be the thread that unravels a lot of other files,” Zaid said Tuesday.