Monkees bass player Peter Tork dead at 77

LOS ANGELES -- Peter Tork, a talented singer-songwriter and instrumentalist whose musical skills were often overshadowed by his role as the goofy, lovable bass guitarist in the made-for-television rock band The Monkees, has died at age 77.

Tork's son Ivan Iannoli said his father died Thursday at the family home in Connecticut of complications from adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer of the salivary glands. He had battled the disease since 2009.

"Peter's energy, intelligence, silliness, and curiosity were traits that for decades brought laughter and enjoyment to millions, including those of us closest to him," his son said in a statement. "Those traits also equipped him well to take on cancer, a condition he met like everything else in his life, with unwavering humor and courage."

Tork, who was often hailed as the band's best musician, had studied music since childhood. He was accomplished on guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, banjo and other instruments, and Michael Nesmith, The Monkees' lead guitarist, said Tork was actually the better of the two.

He had been playing in small clubs in Los Angeles when a friend and fellow musician, Stephen Stills, told him TV casting directors were looking for "four insane boys" to play members of a struggling rock band.

Stills, a member of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, reportedly told Tork he had been rejected because his teeth were ugly. He thought the handsome Tork might fare better.

When The Monkees debuted in September 1966, Tork and fellow Monkees Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones became overnight teen idols.

Producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider modeled the show after the Beatles' popular musical comedies "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!," seeking to create a band that would mirror them in cheekiness if not musical talent.

In The Monkees iteration, Nesmith was the serious one, Jones the cute one and Dolenz the zany one.

Tork said he adopted his "dummy" persona from the way he'd get audiences to engage with him at Greenwich Village folk clubs in the early 1960s.

He knew only one member of The Monkees before the show's debut, Nesmith, who had been running "Hoot Nights" at the Troubadour nightclub where Tork would occasionally perform after moving to L.A.

"As I write this my tears are awash, and my heart is broken," Nesmith posted on his Facebook page Thursday. "PT will be a part of me forever."

During its two-year run The Monkees would win an Emmy for outstanding comedy series and the group would land seven songs in Billboard's Top 10. "I'm a Believer," "Daydream Believer" and "Last Train to Clarksville," would reach No. 1.

Initially, The Monkees was a band whose members didn't play their instruments or write many of their songs, something that infuriated both Tork and Nesmith.

Eventually the two wrested control of the band's musical fate from Don Kirshner, who had been brought in as the show's music producer. By the group's third album, "Headquarters," The Monkees were playing their instruments and even performed live in Hawaii.