Ron McNeil (musician)

Ron McNeil (born Ronald Mendonça) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known for being the co-founder of The Fab Four,^[1] a California tribute band dedicated to the Beatles,^[2] and The Monkee Men, a tribute band dedicated to The Monkees.^[3] He impersonates John Lennon.^[1] McNeil has received acclaim from critics and audiences for his portrayal of Lennon, along with ensuring his tribute bands' attention to detail and musical accuracy, leading to both bands' successes.^[4]

Ron McNeil was born and grew up in Westminster, California in 1965. In his early childhood, McNeil would often spend time in his house watching episodes of The Monkees, and would sometimes go around the house singing their theme song.^[5] He often listened and "borrowed" some of his older sister's records of the Beatles, he once recalled the first song he listened to was "I Saw Her Standing There".^[6]

When he was a preteen, his father took him to a performance of Beatlemania in Los Angeles, and he mentioned in an interview that he was inspired by that to form a Beatles tribute band.^[7] He also mentioned in another interview that after seeing Beatlemania he went to see Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles, in which he was interested.^[8] Shortly after, his father brought him a guitar and keyboard, and McNeil learned to play them all by ear.^[9] Lennon brought his first John Lennon guitar at age 30 in 1992.^[10]

In early 1992, McNeil and his friends Stu Forman (George) and Neil Burg (Ringo), started a Beatles tribute band for the first time called "Imagine: A Tribute to The Beatles". They recorded a demo cassette tape playing Love Me Do, Please Please Me, and I Feel Fine with McNeil doing the John and Paul parts. They would later recruit Robert "Mac" Ruffing (who is now in 1964 the Tribute) as Paul. Their first gig was at Cheers Entertainment, Simi Valley on September 6th 1992.^[11] The band was presumed to break up in pre-1997.

In the years leading up to 1997 and after Imagine's breakup, McNeil had the idea of forming The Fab Four after noticing Paul McCartney impersonator Ardavan Sarraf singing McCartney's Coming Up and winning the prize money at sound-alike competition at The Fest for Beatles Fans (formerly Beatlesfest) in Los Angeles.^[1] The year prior, McNeil performed Lennon's song Imagine at the competition.^[12] McNeil said that "He sounded so much like Paul my hair stood up on the back of my neck". McNeil later got Sarraf's number and phoned him about his idea, in which Sarraf at first declined to. However, after many conversations, Sarraf eventually said yes, leaving to Mc co-founding the Fab Four with Sarraf and his friends Rolo Sandoval and Michael Amador as Ringo Starr and George Harrison.^[13] Before then, most of the original members, including McNeil, were in separate Beatles tribute bands.^[14] In an interview in 2013, despite the growing fame of the band, McNeil mentioned "It's no big secret our rivals are a group called Rain," being the band's main competitor Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles.^[8]

In 2018, McNeil said "After 25 years, I want to be home a little more. But I'm still president of the company, and everybody who started this with me are still my business partners, even though only Ardy's still on stage. So it'll be carrying on, which is great." He approved of Newcastle-born Adam Hastings (originally from the Bootleg Beatles) as his replacement,^[15] though McNeil comes back to perform whenever Hastings is unavailable.

According to an interview in February 2024, McNeil stated he wanted to form a tribute band that was interactive to the audience and that he was a fan of The Monkees. He then created The Monkee Men, a tribute band dedicated to The Monkees.^[3] McNeil then contacted his friends Jon Fickes, Doug Couture, Joshua Jones, and his brother Frank Mendonça from The Fab Four and asked them if they could join his band, which they eventually agreed to. He also contacted original Monkees member Micky Dolenz about the idea, in which Dolenz gave him "his full blessing" according to McNeil in an interview in August 2023.^[16] The band first performed at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank, California on July 22, 2023, opening for The Fab Four,^[17] with McNeil seen performing as "the Fifth Monkee", as most of The Monkees' songs require more than four musicians.^[5]

According to an article in 2012, McNeil had a wife named Cassie and a son named Ozzie.^[18][19] In 2013, during an interview with Chris Carter during Breakfast with the Beatles, he mentioned he had another son named Taylor, who was also present during the interview.^[20] During his 2018-2020 hiatus, he mentioned that during his retirement he spent more time with his wife and sons than he did when he was portraying Lennon.^[18] In 2020-2022, according to several Instagram and Facebook posts online, McNeil later dated a St. Louis resident, Kaitlynn Underwood. McNeil proposed to her in December 2022 after two years of dating. He has since moved to St. Louis, where he currently resides.^[21]

• Rutlemania (2007) – Ron Nasty,^[22] also musical director^[23]
• 50 Summers of Love (2017) – John Lennon, also musical director^[23]

• The Beatles: Rock Band (2009) – Motion capture for John Lennon^[24]

• The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute (2012) – John Lennon, also writer^[25][26]
• The World's Greatest Tribute Bands (2012 and 2017) – John Lennon^[27]

• Yellow Submarine (2012; cancelled) – Motion capture for John Lennon^[28][29][30]

• Ron McNeil on the Monkee Men