Beach Boys’ War Of Words Unfolds In LA Newspaper

Last week the news of Mike Love taking The Beach Boys out on the road without Al Jardine, David Marks and the band's creative centre point Brian Wilson was met with a mixture of disgust, confusion and sadness from the band's massive contingent of fans and from the ejected members of the band themselves.

In order to clear the air, Mike Love wrote an open letter to the LA Times to try and justify his decision further. In the letter, Love says that he didn't fire Brian Wilson and that he does not have the power to do such a thing.

“Let me get right to it: I did not fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys,” Love writes. “I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I am not his employer. I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I love Brian Wilson. We are partners. He's my cousin by birth and my brother in music.”

Wilson's response to this is pretty simple; essentially stating that, no, he can't be fired, but he kind of feels like he has been anyway.

“As far as I know I can't be fired--that wouldn't be cool,” Wilson writes. “The negativity surrounding all the comments bummed me out. What's confusing is that by Mike not wanting or letting Al, David and me tour with the band, it sort of feels like we're being fired.”

Love went on to say that the media release that outlined that Wilson, Jardine and Marks' would not be playing with the band any longer, was sent at the request of one of Wilson's representatives.

“To avoid public confusion, and at the request of Brian's representative, we had a press release sent out detailing the differences between the two Beach Boys tours and its varying lineups. I was surprised that Brian and Al said they were surprised by this announcement. Some media outlets interpreted all of this as me firing the band.”

While Wilson says that his attorney did recommend a press release to clarify the line-up of The Beach Boys for the shows Love had booked, he said he was blindsided by what actually came out of Love's camp.

“After Mike booked a couple of shows with Bruce, Al and I were, of course, disappointed. Then there was confusion in some markets when photos of me, Al and David and the 50th reunion band appeared on websites advertising his shows. At that point my attorney merely suggested to Mike's attorney that a possible press release in those markets might be appropriate to stop the confusion, which was in no one's best interest. That's it, plain and simple, and a strategy was open for discussion, which never happened.

“That's why I was completely blindsided by his press release. I had no idea that it was coming out, since it was crafted by Mike's personal PR firm without my knowledge or approval. No one in my camp would have approved it or the timing.

“I'm disappointed that Mike would now say that the release was done at the request of my representative. The first I heard about it was at the Grammy Museum event. We hadn't even discussed as a band what we were going to do with all the offers that were coming in for more 50th shows.”

While the professional relationship between these two cousins seems to have hit rocky ground once again, both parties have assured in their respective letters that there is love amongst this animosity.

“If you ask any couple who have been married 50 years or longer, they will tell you they've experienced it all,” Love writes. The same is true of the Beach Boys. We caught a romantic wave of success, the likes of which few have ever known. And since that time, we have collectively experienced profound joy, love, heartbreak, betrayal, anger, bitterness, pride and eventually resolve.”

While Wilson can't help but continue to express his confusion and disappointment.

“While I appreciate the nice cool things Mike said about me in his letter, and I do and always will love him as my cousin and bandmate, at the same time I'm still left wondering why he doesn't want to continue this great trip we're on. Al and I want to keep going because we believe we owe it to the music.