The Beach Boys, a band that manages to capture the sounds of summer perfectly, are coming to the Fraze Pavilion on Monday, July 1 for their “Endless Summer Gold” tour.
The Beach Boys are among the most recognizable groups in rock and roll and pop music history, with many hits and standout songs immersed in our common culture. The group was among some of the first to go into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted alongside The Beatles and Bob Dylan, and their landmark album, Pet Sounds, was ranked as one of the best albums of all time by Rolling Stone.
Their era-defining hits like “I Get Around,” Fun, Fun, Fun,” “Surfin’ USA,” “California Girls,” “Do It Again,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Good Vibrations” and “Kokomo,” to name just a few, are woven into the fabric of pop culture and act as the soundtrack to some of America’s highest ideals. Additionally, all of those feature Mike Love on lead, or shared lead vocal, with many co-written by Love with his cousin, the great Brian Wilson.
Love has been on a stage standing out front with a microphone, looking out over a crowd from underneath one of his ever-changing signature hats, pantomiming, dancing and acting as the spokesperson of the group for decades. He has toured the world singing these songs, connecting generations of audiences to The Beach Boys’ music for a lifetime.
Love has had a life filled with presidents, politicians, gurus and music legends, and our talk reflects that, covering a wide range of topics, including his relationship with Wilson, the beginnings of the group, the band’s famous rivalry with The Beatles, his experience in India with the Maharishi, the new Disney+ documentary, the current tour and more.
In conversation, Love is much like he is onstage: lighthearted, comical, heartfelt and slightly mischievous with a touch of half-joking bravado — overall full of energy and life.
CityBeat: Is this Mike Love?
Mike Love: This is Dr. Love, that’s correct. Making a house call.
CB: What kinds of things got you interested in rock and roll, singing and music as a kid?
ML: Well, music has been a part of my life since, it was prenatal, since I was in my mom’s tummy. My mom used to sing light opera and it was a big deal because they sang it on the radio and then her brothers — my uncles — sang in a quartet. So, music has been a part of the Wilsons’ life since [birth]. My mom was Emily “Glee” Wilson and her brother was Murray Gage Wilson, who was the father of Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, who were my first cousins. Their mom Audrey was a fantastic musician; she could hear something and sit down and play it at the piano after hearing it once.
My mom loved opera music. She woke us to go to school by playing opera music really loud. (Laughs)
As a consequence, I was traumatized by opera music. Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Enrico Caruso at 6:30 or 7 in the morning is pretty tough, I’ll tell you. (laughs)
CB: I’d say so.
ML: But anyway, every family gathering, every birthday, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, every New Year’s, every Easter, there was always a get-together. We’d have a ping pong table downstairs in the house I grew up in filled with food and we’d invite all the aunts and uncles and cousins and nephews, and everyone would come over. In our living room, we had a grand piano, an organ and a harp. I have two sisters that play the harp and so it was always about music. There has never been a time in my life that it wasn’t about music.
Of course, growing up and becoming teenagers, my cousin Brian and I were attracted to The Everly Brothers and his brother Carl loved Chuck Berry because of the guitar and I loved his music and his stories, you know. He influenced us a lot. And then there was Jerry Lee Lewis, of course Elvis Presley and man, there were so many great artists back in the day. Little Richard, for crying out loud, blew the radio apart! (laughs)
Ironically, all those people are the same people that influenced The Beatles over in England. They would get their records, you know, smuggled in or taken in or whatever, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney were listening to the exact same things we were listening to except we had more R&B and blues.
So, yeah, music has always been a part of our life and we took the elements of all of the artists that I mentioned and their influence and inspiration and added to that, the doo-wop harmonies and The Four Freshmen. In particular, The Four Freshmen did this close four-part harmony with the high falsetto part and the low part. When we do Four Freshmen-type songs, I always did the bass part, Brian did the high part, Carl and Allen did the middle parts and so they were a huge influence on us. We’d take their four-part harmonies and put them to our rock beats and that was unusual because there were two-part harmonies, the Everly Brothers, a nice blend, and three-part harmonies with Three Dog Night and maybe The Byrds and stuff like that, but four-part harmonies with rock music is unique. That gives the Beach Boys that sound. There’s that harmony sound and the blend, which we were obsessed with recreating.
Our musical director for a couple years now, his name is Brian Eichenberger and he worked 18 years with the recent incarnation of The Four Freshmen, who were big in the ‘50s, early ‘60s. Just some phenomenal records. With his experience with that, singing the high parts of The Four Freshmen, we can recreate those Beach Boys harmonies as good or better than we ever have.
CB: That’s great. Full circle there, too.
ML: Exactly, he’s great. We have a new lead guitarist, John Wedemeyer, and he’s a phenomenal guitarist, a really powerful guitarist, and we have a new drummer, a recent drummer by the name of Jon Bolton. John Stamos actually found him online — he does some Carl Wilson leads. He does “California Dreaming,” he does “Darlin’” from our Wild Honey album, and he does the song “Wild Honey” which we haven’t done in years. He’s a powerful drummer and singer. I call him a show within a show; he’s twirling his sticks like crazy and all this and he’s a great singer and fantastic drummer.
CB: Speaking of family, it was your writing partner Brian's birthday yesterday — how did that relationship as a writing team come to be and function?
ML: Well, we're a year apart. I'm 83, he just turned 82. He's always respected his elders, you know (he says laughing). But, he and I were so close growing up and were friends. When I had a senior trip in high school, I invited Brian to go with me because I wasn't that proficient, I wasn't that suave with the girls at the time. I mean, I liked them but was a little too introverted. I had some relationships but my friendship with Brian and our closeness was amazing. We used to have so much fun together. We'd crack each other up being silly and taking on stupid personas and funny things. We did a cut on an album one time, an earlier album that said, “Cassius' Love vs. 'Sonny' Wilson" (off The Beach Boys’ 1964 album Shut Down Volume 2). Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali, right, and [boxer] Sonny Liston. So, anyway, we would have fun together, but we'd also listen to music together and we sang Everly Brothers songs. My sister Maureen, who plays harp on a couple of our earlier songs, she and Brian and I would go to Wednesday night youth night at Angeles Mesa Presbyterian Church. We'd sing church songs there, but then we'd sing Everly Brothers and doo-wop and stuff on the way home. So, that was a lot of fun. There's never been a time in my life when there wasn't music because I grew up with music. Our relationship is very close but then his dad took over the publishing and he was abusive to his sons. He was great at getting us promoted and signed to a record company but he was not a very nice person and he didn't credit me on songs that I wrote like, "Surfin' USA" and "California Girls" — I wrote every word of that. "Good Vibrations" I wrote, and I did get credit for that but there were several songs I didn't, like "I Get Around,” "California Girls,” "Be True to Your School,” "Little Saint Nick” — all those. I mean, it was a drag but I had to go to court to get the credit for what I did.
CB: Sure, yeah
ML: For the most part, quite a bit was rectified, but not a hundred percent. My cousin Brian wanted to rectify it, but he was unable to because he was in conservatorship back then because, you know, there were so many drugs being taken in the late ‘60s and stuff. He was working on an album called Smile with another guy [Van Dyke Parks]. I sang on the stuff, but he shelved the album because he was taking LSD and thought that he caused a fire, you know. It was weird. It was just too much weirdness.
CB: It sounds like it. I know John Stamos said in an interview that you came up with hooks in some of those songs, like "picking up good vibrations" (from 1967 hit “Good Vibrations”).
ML: Oh, absolutely. I did "round, round get around, I get around,” "inside, outside USA,” but (now partially singing) "I'm picking up good vibrations, she's giving me excitations” just like I did (singing again) “Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take you”, you know.
So, yeah, I was doing some of the lyrics and the hooks. I was the most well-read kid in my school, a lot of literature. No science, no math but literature and history and social studies, they called it. I was even into poetry, so, it always fascinated me. Brian was gifted at music. He could sit down at a piano and structure those harmonies and those chord progressions and he was brilliant in the studio with the musicians. My forte was more the lyrics and the hooks and the concepts, so it was a great partnership there.
CB: Oh, absolutely.
ML: Effectively there were two groups: there was the recording group, because Brian left the touring group in late ‘64, so there was the recording group that he was absolutely the head of and then there was the touring group which my cousin Carl was the musical head of, but I took the hand in doing the bookings, the promotions of all the shows and I’m lead singer on a lot of the songs. So, I always liked the live music aspect of it because you see people having a great time in person, in the present, you know.
CB: It’s just like a standup comedian, you get that response right away.
ML: Yes, immediate gratification, exactly. So, it’s wonderful for me to see the songs that we worked on so many years ago. For instance, this is the 50th anniversary of our Endless Summer album and we’re calling the tour, “Endless Summer Gold.” I mean, that was 1974 and that was 15 years after, well 14 years after, we started and that was a hugely successful album. I think it sold 3 million copies in the U.S. and a million in Great Britain alone. So, it’s so fantastic to see those songs still appreciated, and by multiple generations. I bet you at Fraze, there’ll probably be four generations that show up.
CB: I bet, that’s beautiful.
ML: You’ll see the 80-year-olds out there, I’m 83. My son Christian (Love) is singing with us. He does “God Only Knows” because Carl passed away 25 years ago, but we have the video of all the guys, just like the documentary [Walt Disney Studios documentary The Beach Boys].
CB: I thought that documentary turned out great.
ML: Thank you. It really shows the origins of the group and the thing about our show, even though there’s a couple of guys that are no longer with us, you see them represented on stage, in the video, which is good, I think. It shows everybody’s contribution, even though they’re not with us anymore. The great thing about music is if somebody can play a part or sing a part perfectly, then you can recreate those songs. So, we’re in charge of reincarnating songs every night. (laughs)
CB: Speaking of the documentary, how was the reunion that it brought on the beach at the end of the film?
ML: That was very sweet. My cousin Brian, I mean he’s got physical problems, so he’s not in great shape physically but his long-term memory is sure there. He was remembering things about our high school experience that I had forgotten, you know, I didn’t remember, so, it was really sweet. We sang “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring” together, we did “Surfin’ Safari,” we did a couple of other songs together and at the Paradise Cove, which is the sight of our original album cover [1962’s Surfin’ Safari]. Frank Marshall has a trailer there — Frank Marshall’s the filmmaker. He’s one of the most successful filmmakers. He’s done the Indiana Jones franchise, he did Bridges of Madison County, he did the Bee Gees documentary and I thought he did a beautiful job on that. Well, he took over the Beach Boys documentary and I think he made it into something special. He said he has a trailer, and so did Jimmy Buffet, at this Paradise Cove place.
CB: Oh, really?
ML: Yeah, and there’s a sign where they go to get their hamburgers, their burgers at the restaurant there, a sign talking about ‘the Beach Boys got their start at Paradise Cove.’ So, to go back there 60 years later was pretty amazing and to sit there with David Marks and Bruce Johnston and Al Jardine and my cousin Brian, I sat next to Brian, and we sang a little bit and reminisced a bit. It was a very sweet thing. It’s the end piece of the documentary.
CB: And a perfect one too. I found the YouTube video for the 1980 Independence Day concert in Washington D.C. a few years ago and for some reason it just struck me how much joy and the lack of any type of negativity or irony was there. It was just that music and the band, something about it just really stuck with me. I mean, The Beach Boys represent some of the highest ideals of American culture and connections to some innocence and some of the most fun aspects of American culture, could you speak to that at all?
ML: Oh, yeah, we’ve had several concerts in Washington D.C. celebrating July 4. That was my idea in 1979. I said we’re gonna do a free concert in Washington D.C. at the monument grounds to celebrate the Independence Day July 4’ because the country has given us so much, people have given so much in terms of supporting our music and the radio playing it and being on TV and on Full House later on, you know. So, I was thinking we should do a free concert, so we got some sponsorship from Amway. A friend of mine was Appointments Secretary to President Ford and he was the assistant to President Nixon, but Nixon had to take a sabbatical. (laughs) His name is Bill Nickolson, he worked for President Ford, and he went to work for Amway. He made two calls, one to (Rich) DeVos and one to (Jay) Van Andel, the owners of Amway, and they put up the money to do this concert in Washington D.C. What was brilliant about that is we got a standing ovation before we even did anything. (laughs)
CB: That’s how you do it, there.
ML: That’s pretty special. And you’re right, Americana has been all around the world through our music. I mean, the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., in 1975, I met him in Washington D.C. Prince Bandar. He said, ‘I had your cassettes when I was going to college in England in my Austin-Healey.’ (laughs) So, we’ve had fan letters from Russia, fan letters from China. Our music was played in Hong Kong all the time because it was British radio for many years. We had top 10 records in Israel. We would look at Cashbox and Billboard Magazine and say, ‘Oh, wow, our album went to #1 in Spain,’ or Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, you know, France — all these places all around the world. We had hits all over the world. We have yet to go to some of the places where our music has been popular. Like, for instance, Iran. A real estate agent from Iran, I met him, he said that he used to have our LPs in the summer at that body of water they went to in the summer in Iran, I’m not even sure whether it’s the Black Sea or what sea it is (laughs). It’s phenomenal, the reach of the music. We sang songs about the beach and surfing and California girls and cars. There are more classic American cars from the ‘50s and the ‘60s in East Germany than there are anywhere in Europe. Which is amazing because they were suppressed by the USSR; there was the Berlin Wall which eventually came down thanks to Ronald Reagan. So, it’s ironic because America meant freedom and positivity around the world.
CB: Speaking of being big in other countries, the British Invasion comes in and you have a #1 with “I Get Around” right after that and you were the biggest band in England in 1966. There’s rarely been a relationship or a rivalry in art or culture like the one between The Beatles and Beach Boys. What was that like from your perspective?
ML: It was actually very cool because John Lennon and Paul McCartney listened to the Pet Sounds album before it was even released. Bruce Johnston went to England and Derek Taylor was The Beatles’ publicist but he moved to the U.S. and became our publicist, and Bruce was set up with a dozen interviews or more in England for the Pet Sounds album and he was running around with Keith Moon and Keith said, ‘You better get up to your suite because Lennon and McCartney are there waiting to hear the album.’ So, they listened to Pet Sounds a couple of times through and that influenced them on Sgt. Pepper’s. There was a poll by Rolling Stone magazine, the ‘Top 500 Albums of All Time.’ No. 1 was Sgt. Pepper’s, No. 2 was Pet Sounds. Other than demanding a recount, I’d say that’s pretty good company. (laughs)
CB: I’d say so. Not too shabby at all.
ML: No, not bad at all.
CB: Speaking of The Beatles, you visited India with The Beatles and Mia Farrow and Donovan — what was that experience of learning transcendental meditation like, and does that still come in handy today?
ML: Absolutely, I do it everyday. Every day since 1967. The Maharishi taught several of us in Paris, at Hotel Crillon in Paris. In fact, a couple of weeks later, we found ourselves going to New York and Linda Eastman McCartney took a photograph of us sitting with Maharishi, who was sitting on a sofa and we were below him, and she took this iconic picture. Then he left from New York to Boston, and in Boston I called the hotel where he was staying. He actually answered the phone in his room, and he says, ‘Are you coming to India? I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, are we invited?.’ He says, ‘Yes, come to India and bring the group.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know if the other guys will come but I’ll be there.’ I’d never been to India and when I got there, The Beatles were all there much to my surprise. In fact, George Harrison and I both had our birthdays in the spring of 1968 — his on Feb. 25 and mine on March 15 so we’re both Pisces. So, I wrote a song which I’ve done in concert many times called “Pisces Brothers.” It’s a very emotional song because he’s not with us anymore. He was a great guy and we had a fantastic time together in India and The Beatles did a birthday song for me called “The Spiritual Regeneration Movement Foundation.”
At the end of it they’re saying, “Happy birthday Michael Love, Happy birthday Michael Love, Michael Love.” Totally amazing, you know. I was sitting at the breakfast table one morning and Paul McCartney came down with his acoustic guitar and he’s saying listen to this, ‘Flew in from Miami Beach B.O.A.C. didn’t get to bed last night.’ So, he played me “Back in the USSR” and I said, ‘Well, in the middle part, you got to talk about all the girls around Russia, the Ukraine girls and Georgia on mind and that kind of stuff’, which he did. Turns out, Sir Paul can craft a tune fairly handily. So, it was an amazing trip. The most amazing thing is meditating several hours a day. Prudence (Farrow Bruns) took it very seriously, she meditated three days in a row. Maharishi would say meditate for as long as you comfortably can. I would maybe meditate for eight hours a couple of times.
CB: Wow
ML: I didn’t even know it, but it was a teacher training program which is what I was invited to and The Beatles came to. It took me a couple more years to go to an actual teacher training program but Alan Jardine and I both went and became qualified to teach transcendental meditation, which I did many years ago. I haven’t lately but I really do it greatly. I feel so much better when I meditate than if I miss a meditation. I’m irritated with myself because I feel so much better because you can actually lower your metabolism, your breath rate goes down to a level of rest twice as deep as deep sleep. So, it’s profoundly relaxing, profoundly restful but also refreshing. It gives you more energy and clarity, so you feel good. So, I like that. It’s completely legal and has no involvement with any drugs or anything. (laughs)
CB: It seems to be doing its trick. I mean, 83 years old and you sound great.
ML: And I sing the songs in the same keys as I always did.
CB: Do you really? That’s great.
ML: It’s nice when somebody can really keep doing it at that level, like Johnny Mathis is pretty good, you know. He’s what, 90 or something?
CB: I read The Beach Boys once did four shows in one day between Dayton and Columbus, so I know you’ve done a lot of dates but do you have any memories of playing Ohio?
ML: Oh, no I absolutely remember because when the group became two groups, the recording group and the touring group, I was completely into booking dates with our promoter and the agency. I would spend a couple of days a week if I was at home, at the agency or either with our promoter or both. If you went to Cleveland, you had to go with the Belkins because they owned that town, the promoters, but we could do Akron and Canton ourselves, which we did with our promoter…So, we would say, ‘Ok, we can do Akron at 1 o’clock and Canton at 4 and then back to Akron for 5 o’clock and down to…’ you know just back and forth. We would go back and forth and do four shows in one day and we actually did that, absolutely.
So, it’s been fascinating. The live music part of it’s been unbelievably great and there’s been no documentary to really focus on that. I’m hoping to do a documentary myself to focus on the live stuff, particularly the July 4 kind of stuff in D.C., that kind of thing.
We’ve had some amazing experiences and continue to do so. The documentary just touched upon it but it gave a good synopsis of everything that led to the creation of the Beach Boys and it’s just an amazing blessing to be able to do our music so many years after we first started.
CB: Yeah, absolutely. It’s a blessing that people can go see it, you know, so, appreciate you coming around and taking the time to do these kinds of things. It’s a blessing to get to talk to you.
ML: Well, I appreciate you getting the word out. I really do, sincerely, look forward to coming to the Fraze Pavilion
The Beach Boys play Fraze Pavilion on July 1 at 7:30 p.m. Info: fraze.com.
