There's a long article at the Washington Post about Mickey Dolenz, his work on Broadway in the musical Aida, his thoughts on the Monkees from a few decades out, and other stuff, but this bit is what jumped out at me:

"The Monkees really becoming a band was like the equivalent of Leonard Nimoy really becoming a Vulcan," Dolenz says. "It was that weird. Mike used to say it was like Pinocchio really becoming a little boy. We transcended the imaginary and became this supergroup."