So eventually she invented what would
be become White Out and made millions of dollars on this. In 1962 Bette married
Robert Graham. Distraught, Mike ran away to California leaving a very upset mother
and stepfather. When he got back to Texas his mother enrolled him in the air force for
some hopes of discipline. He soon quit the air force. But during his time in the air force
he would get passes to leave on the weekends. He would go to the local clubs in
Oklahoma where he would listen to country music. He liked the sound of a guitar so he
wanted to get one, but with his stubbornness he wanted to teach himself. When he got
back to Texas he got his GED then he moved to San Antonio with his uncle Chick and
His future wife Phyllis Barbour was also attending this school, and when she saw a flyer
in her dorm it read "Come watch Michael Nesmith play Folk Songs in the Auditorium".
At the time he was only playing for 3 and half weeks and was already writing songs, just
with 2 chords. During his enrollment Mike and Phyllis would read to a blind history
teacher. Mike left school after his second year. They got married in 1964.
He started play for grocery store openings and stuff like that under the name "The
Mike Nesmith All Stars" with bassets John Kuehne. Just before he left for Cape Cod he
played a radio show. After Cape Cod he went to LA. He then released his first single on
Your Highness Records. He released a couple more till he realized his music is going
nowhere. So he went back to Dallas to work for his mother who was still with Liquid
Paper. They then moved out to LA for good.
They rode to LA with John, John's bass, pregnant Phyllis, 400$, no job, no
contacts and most importantly no place to live. They didn't know any one out there
except for John's friend, Keith Allison. When they got into town they stayed one night
with Allis...