“(Remember that it isn’t money that’s the root of all evil, it’s the love of money.) Hanging together in brother - and sisterhood is so happy-making you want to sing right out loud.” - Peter Tork, Ask Peter Tork (2008) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DUQ4dIkCDl.... Photo by Nurit Wilde

“I wanna be a rock ‘n’ roll star,’ Tork said, lightly. ‘Actually, I’m exaggerating. It’s not about being a rock ‘n’ roll star. It’s about getting to play the music full time.’” - Los Angeles Times (October 20, 1992) Read more at www.instagram.com/reel/DUOT56J....

“‘[‘I’ll Spend My Life With You’] is heartfelt.’ Peter provided the song’s intricate acoustic 12-string opening, harmony vocals, organ, and celeste solo [on the album Headquarters].” - Headquarters 2007 CD liner notes Here’s Peter performing the song in the ‘90s:

“Philosophy is the thing. How you carry on your day to day life. I read Lao for mental exercise. I feel that destructive things are destructive — no matter how minor or little they might be.” - Peter Tork, Teen Life (June 1967) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DUJKBfXjGl....

“I’ve grown not to believe in tragedy. I’ve grown to believe that all things work out for the best.” - Peter Tork, Fave (April 1968) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DUGkGPyDAa.... Pictured: Peter in Phoenix, January 1967, photographed by fan Marcianne. #PeterTork #TheMonkees

:)

“Peter wasn’t tall, dark or handsome, but he made up for his liabilities with his great warmth, enthusiasm and sense of humor.” - Lance Wakely, 16 Magazine (March 1967) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DUBaJynDNY....

“The handful of people who carry hate and send out hate vibrations only deserve to be pitied because they’re missing out on the whole groovy, love-filled happening called life!” - Peter Tork, interviewed by Audrey Hulse, Fave (May 1968) More at thislovintime.tumblr.com/post/8068244....

“I’m both really relieved and really, really apprehensive. I’m terribly glad and also terribly sad.” - Peter Tork after leaving The Monkees, New Musical Express (January 25, 1969) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DT8ReWkDI_....

Clip from “Monkees In The Ring.” #PeterTork #MickyDolenz #MichaelNesmith #TheMonkees

“…there’s never been a time where the blues wasn’t important to me.” - Peter Tork, Daytona News Journal (2009) Read more at www.instagram.com/reel/DT3HC1q.... Footage courtesy of torkwenches.

“I started getting the idea that this guy [Peter Tork] is kind of genuine; sincere, the real thing.” - article by John Elder, Countdown (April 1987) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DT0kDlTDNd.... Photo by Paul Natkin.

“I think they’re four of the grooviest guys around and I know that before long they’ll be the biggest things on television. I was privileged to meet them and I want to tell everyone how nice they are.” - Lisa G., KRLA Beat (October 22, 1966)

“[In the early ‘80s] I felt that a lot of the musicians, you know, disrespected him. […] [J]ust condescending, like, ‘Oh, you were the Monkee, pfff,’ you know. And… and I know it troubled him.” - James Lee Stanley, The Monkees Pad Show Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DTvZwIljPU....

“In life, experience is the only teacher. I mean, you don’t really know how it is to fall in love just by reading a book about it.”- Peter Tork, The Cincinnati Enquirer (January 7, 1967) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DTs2mZ4DEg.... 📷: contest winner Karen McCabe and Peter; photo by Ron Shuller

Q: “At what times do you feel that there’s hope for the human race?” Peter Tork: “All the time. Are you kidding? What’s the alternative?” - Together (November/December 2010)

“If you’re not willing to behave sternly, people who won’t stop short of stern behavior are going to keep on going. It’s taken a while for that message to sink in.” - Peter Tork, When The Music Mattered (1984) Read more at thislovintime.tumblr.com/post/8060087.... Photo by Nurit Wilde

“The human race strives toward growing equal. And the question is, ‘Are we going to be equal in comfort and mutual support or are we going to be equal in squalor and misery?’ And I for one don’t see any reason to make my neighbor unhappy.” - Peter Tork, Columbia Daily Spectator (1982)

“I am a trained musician, somewhat trained. I took piano for six years and French horn. I took music theory for about three years. I learned to play the bass and the five-string banjo while I was learning a few other instruments here and there.” - Peter Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DTihLIyDJoR/

“…after Headquarters nobody wanted to be a recording group anymore. I did what I could, but I didn’t feel like there was any reason for me to be there anymore. I wanted to be in a rock group.” - Peter, Head CD liner notes (1994) More at www.instagram.com/p/DTf7sHVDMf....

“I think [the Tork songs ‘Can You Dig It?’ and ’Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?’ are] the best songs in the movie [Head]. I love both of them. […] When those two songs start up in the movie, it comes alive for me.” - Michael Nesmith More at www.instagram.com/p/DTdYJQIDKO....

“[Peter] did that [‘Your Auntie Grizelda’] all in one take — no second take, that was it what you heard there. He made up the whole thing. I was in a total state of shock when I heard it.” - Jack Keller, More of the Monkees 2006 liner notes Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DTazPsfDLD....

“Peter was my favorite person to ever open for. […] He will always be my favorite person I shared the stage with. He encouraged me to always be myself and shine.” - Laura Cheadle, unratedmag (March 25, 2021) More at www.instagram.com/p/DTYOCmJDKJ....

“The guitar starts off [mimics guitar] and then the banjo cuts in [mimics banjo] and suddenly, you’re in a whole new realm. To me, building those kinds of textures is what music is all about.” - Peter, Guitar Player (2016) More at www.instagram.com/reel/DTVpm-u.... 🎥: “You Told Me” live (1968)

“To us, he wasn’t famous, he was just Peter. […] He was just a sweet, dear man that, you know, everybody loved… He was just a good guy.” - Marla Hunt Hanson, interview with the Nesmith Tork Goffin & King podcast (2020) More about the Fairfax Street Choir at www.instagram.com/p/DTTFqFgjN4....

“It’s only fear, lies and bad leadership that keeps us all from loving each other and from seeing each other clearly and purely with the eye of the mind and the love of the heart.” - Peter Tork, 16 Magazine (December 1968) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DTQfkbRjH0....

“[Peter] was so very excited about our going to Caracas. It was for the Christmas holidays and Peter went out each day looking over the Southern Andes mountains.” - Catherine McGuire Straus, Monkees Monthly (No. 19) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DTN7Z7CjJ_....

“There's a song on Headquarters called 'Early Morning Blues and Greens.' I look back and I think, 'I should've fought to do that song.' It has me written all over it, and I should've been the guy who sang it." - Guitar World (July 26, 2013) Footage from 1997 courtesy of not old but ripe.

“[Peter’s dressing room was] wall-to-wall musical instruments and assorted paraphernalia. Keyboards, guitars, amps, microphones, tape recorders, sheet music.” - Micky Dolenz, I’m A Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music, And Madness (1993) More at www.instagram.com/p/DTI05XFDDg....

“[George Harrison] invited me to his house. He played the sitar and said: ‘I’m working on a soundtrack album, I’d love to have you play a little banjo.’” - Peter Tork, The Guardian (March 23, 2017) Read more at www.instagram.com/reel/DTGMKxd.... 🎥: Peter’s banjo contribution for Wonderwall Music

“Pete has had a great effect on the way I perform. The way he used to move, the way he used his accent, his whole attitude toward the theater, the entire theater…” - Stephen Stills, Tiger Beat (June 1967) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DTDozUoDFW.... Photo by Nurit Wilde

“This was a gentle and articulate Monkee who talked like a Websters’ Dictionary.” - Alan Smith, New Musical Express (January 13, 1968) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DTBE5pjDPX....

Ann [Moses]: “Peter, what do you have so much of you could afford to give some away?” Peter: “The only thing there is so much more of to give away.” Ann: “Which is?” Peter: “The power of love.” - Monkee Spectacular (February 1968) Happy New Year! Wishing you love, peace, joy, and optimism.

“everyone take care of yourselves and your loved ones, and even the occasional random passer-by, eh? xo, peter” - Facebook (November 10, 2018) * * * Thank you so much for visiting this page this year — wishing you a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year.

Remembering Michael and Davy on their shared birthday. Clip from Extra, 1995.

“…the cooperative good is good for the greatest individual good (with safeguards, to be sure), […] forgiveness is the route to true inner peace…” - Peter, Ask Peter Tork (2009) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DS2vXQADFw.... Photo by Gene Trindl.

Meet The Monkees contest winner Karen McCabe and Peter Tork; photo by Ron Shuller for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DS0KKzeDDE....

“There were a number of fine young performers that I remember seeing in the Village that summer, but one stands out in my mind — a young folksinger named Peter Tork.” - Alexander Bloom, Long Time Gone: Sixties America Then and Now (2001) More at www.instagram.com/p/DSxnkVODPQ....

The the Thorkelson siblings in Regina, Canada, winter 1966; scanned from 16 Magazine, April 1968. Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSvCoJZjE_...

A snippet of “I Remember Christmas” (written by Peter’s brother Nick), live in 1997. Footage courtesy of derekup. More at www.instagram.com/reel/DSnF_lH....

A snippet of “White Christmas” on VH1, while Peter was guest hosting with Rosie O’Donnell.

“Imagine spending a magical night singing with The Monkees around Regina’s Whitmore Park neighborhood in the late 1960s. That’s exactly what happened to a then-13-year-old Jim Sax.” - CJME dot com (2019) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSiJTTzDEr....

“A couple of days before December 25, Peter vanished. […] [Young Peter explained,] ‘I was going to find Santa Claus. I was waiting for him to come by.’”- Catherine McGuire Straus, 16 Magazine (1967) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSflH2bjNW....

“Those dimples though. And always such a beautiful smile on that fella.” - LA Art News (2020) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSdAamTDCd....

The Monkees in the UK, 1997. Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSaaye1DHb....

“…the best moments usually involved Tork getting down to business. A snippet of the lovely folk song ‘The Fox’ made me wish he had done the whole thing.” - review by Joe Sweeney, The Buffalo News (May 5, 2013) Read more at thislovintime.tumblr.com/post/8030194....

“Fame is not worth it to me now. If I have to be that famous to have that much money again, I’ll settle for much less, thank you very much.” - Peter Tork, Columbia Daily Spectator (April 2, 1982) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSQHzrRjP7.... Photo by Michael Ventura

“I was raised in a liberal family in the middle of the McCarthy era.” - Peter Tork, The Daily Oklahoman (November 11, 1983) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSNjgTLjLB.... 📷: Peter with his siblings

Q: “How would you describe Peter as a little boy?” 
Virginia Thorkelson (Peter’s mother): “Frenetic, charming, inquisitive, destructive, friendly...” - Tiger Beat (May 1967) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSK-W_rjBa....

“[As a child, visiting NYC] Peter would shout out the window [of the bus], ‘My name is Peter! What’s yours?’ Believe it or not, he usually got a very friendly response.” - Catherine McGuire Straus, 16 Magazine (July 1967) Read more at www.instagram.com/p/DSIaNXaDNe....