MIDDLE-AGE TEEN IDOL

In the late 1960s, Davy Jones was a teen idol to compare with any era's. As the "cutest" member of the TV show/band The Monkees, he was chased by female fans on and off the screen.

Things haven't changed much. At a recent concert stop, a young female wearing a delivery cap and carrying a vegetarian pizza knocked on his motel room door. When he protested that he didn't order a pizza and isn't a vegetarian, she confessed to bribing a delivery guy so she could meet him.

Davy Jones is used to this. "We had a piece of pizza and talked," he recalled in a telephone interview Thursday.

Through TV reruns, fan websites, greatest hits CDs and memories shared between mothers and daughters, Jones seems to have retained some of his teen idol status.

"Now I've got 12- and 13-year-olds telling me I'm cute," he says. "It's difficult being 54 years old and being cute."

Jones performs Saturday night at the Southeast Missouri State University Family Weekend concert following the 6 p.m. Southeast-Western Kentucky football game at Houck Stadium.

The Monkees were a made-for-TV band composed of two actors -- English-born Jones and Mickey Dolenz -- and two musicians, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork. As an attempt to capitalize on the success of the Beatles, they sometimes were derisively called the Pre-Fab Four and their musical abilities were lightly regarded.

But before joining The Monkees, Jones had been on Broadway, where he was nominated for a Tony Award for playing the Artful Dodger in "Oliver!" He performed a song from the musical on "The Ed Sullivan Show" the same night The Beatles made their famous American debut. "Brian Epstein filled the 400 seats with Beatles fans and pandemonium broke out," he said.

The Monkees were on TV only two seasons but recorded nine albums and had 10 hits in the Top 20. Jones sang many of them, including "Daydream Believer," "A Little Bit Me -- A Little Bit You," "I Want To Be Free" and "Valleri."

In the years since The Monkees show faded away, Jones has toured with members of the band as a twosome and threesome, and all four eventually rejoined for the critically praised reunion album "Justus." Jones also has had a role in a touring company of "Grease" and wrote an autobiography, "They Made a Monkee Out of Me."

He has a new book, "Daydream Believin'," and a website, Davyjones.net. And there are hundreds of fan sites devoted to the Monkees and the individual members.

Backstage Saturday night, Jones has agreed to a surprise meeting with one of his youngest local fans, 6-year-old Atlanta Foskey, of Anna, Ill.

Atlanta has been a fan since seeing a rerun of a "Monkees" episode 2 1/2 years ago.

"She really liked the music and I guess it was their humor, the innocent kind of comedy," says her mother, Melinda, who wasn't a Monkees fan growing up herself.

"For some reason she picked Davy Jones as the one she's totally infatuated with. She has a real serious crush on him."

Atlanta's father, Wade, downloaded photos of Davy Jones from websites for her. An actual framed picture hangs on her wall. She plays the Monkees CDs for her friends, who have little idea who these old guys are.

Atlanta knows she's going to hear Davy Jones sing Saturday but she doesn't know she gets to meet him. She'll be the envy of many females in the stadium.

Fans have bombarded university officials with requests for autographs. He reportedly will sign autographs after the concert at his merchandise booth. He signed 1,000 at the German festival in Cincinnati.

While the Olympics are being staged in Australia, the president of Davy Jones' Australian fan club will be Cape Girardeau to see him perform.

Even Southeast football coach Tim Billings is looking forward to Jones' concert. In a recent column in the Southeast Missourian, he said he knows all the words to the Monkees' songs.

Jones now lives on his horse farm in a small town in Pennsylvania where he trains race horses.

He still sells more than 1 million records a year without even trying but continues to perform because that's who he is.

"I'm an entertainer," he said. "And the next one who comes along had better be damn good."