With farewell tours abounding and one over-70 rocker after another heading for their rockers, it’s an inevitable question to ask: Is there a time when Mike Love will call it a day after more than 60 years of being a Beach Boy?
“As long as you have your health and you enjoy doing what you’ve done for a lifetime, then there’s no reason to stop doing it,” Love said by phone last week from his home in Lake Tahoe, Nev. “I enjoy doing what we do.”
Love, who turned 82 in March, is the sole remaining original member of the Beach Boys, having teamed up with his cousins Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson to form the group in 1961, along with their friend Al Jardine. The band’s epic saga has been fodder for a small library of books, more than one movie and a Broadway musical. Originally known for fun-in-the-sun hits like “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Fun Fun Fun” and “California Girls,” the band was driven later in the 1960s by Brian Wilson’s innovative sonic explorations, culminating in “Pet Sounds,” an album which is mainstay on critics’ best-of-all-time lists, and the single “Good Vibrations.”
Though never quite reaching the same artistic apex again, the Beach Boys have carried on in the decades since, despite the deaths of Dennis and Carl Wilson, and Brian Wilson’s sporadic participation. Their most recent album, 2012’s “That’s Why God Made the Radio,” saw Brian Wilson return to the producer’s chair, and it peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, the best showing for a Beach Boys disc since “Surfin’ USA” in 1963.
The Beach Boys lineup that will be at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Sunday, Aug. 6 at 4 p.m., will be fronted by Love and Bruce Johnston, who joined the band in 1965. Also in the lineup is Christian Love, Love’s 55-year-old son.
“We do a lot of music,” Love said. “We’ve got a ton of great songs to perform and we love doing them. The best thing about the deal is the audience response. All ages will turn out.”
Though the Beach Boys have not released a new album in more than a decade, there has been no shortage of product to sate the faithful. “Pet Sounds” was the subject of a five-disc box set for its 50th anniversary in 2016, with the original album remastered in stereo and mono, along with outtakes and live performances from the era. Other Beach Boys albums have gotten the deluxe treatment, with the most recent being 1972’s “So Tough” and 1973’s “Holland,” both of which were combined into last year’s box set “Sail On Sailor – 1972.” It also included a never-before-released recording of the band at Carnegie Hall in New York on Thanksgiving Day in 1972.
“Capitol Records is always looking for ways to shine some light on some of the historical albums that we’ve done over the years,” Love said. “I’m not sure what is next. … I haven’t usually been that much involved.”
Like other veteran musicians who were accustomed to a reliable stream of royalties from record and CD sales, Love is less than happy with the paltry returns he receives from streaming. He calls it “highway robbery,” and explained that “the big companies make a fortune and they give very, very, very little to the artists. The writers’ share is even more minuscule. So it’s kind of a drag.”
Nevertheless, Love has uncorked a geyser of his own new music in recent years. He has released four solo albums since 2017, with the most recent being “Mike Love Not War.” Ticket buyers to the Beach Boys’ Palace Theatre show will receive a free download of the album.
A lot of his songs “are dealing with the situation on the planet right now, that is disgusting,” Love said. “The awful war going on in Ukraine and there’s saber-rattling going on just about all the time. To me, it’s a sad state of affairs because the human race has been at it for several thousand years and we haven’t figured out how to get along. So that’s just pathetic.”
He continued, “I hold on to that hope, that one day enough people will rise to the occasion and figure out ways to eliminate all the negativity that comes along with war. War is the absolute enormous failure of humanity.”
Despite the plethora of new and archival music coming from Love and the Beach Boys, Love said his job still centers mostly on live performance. The Palace Theatre show is happening two weeks after the group’s latest run of shows kicks off, and it will continue through the beginning of November. Along the way, the Beach Boys will be playing at fairs, festivals, casinos and more.
“My effort is mainly planning upcoming tours, future tours and stuff like that,” Love said. “I’ve always been a big fan of the live music part of the Beach Boys’ career. The recording process has been great, but the spontaneity and the participation of the audience and the appreciation of the music, to me that really means a lot.”
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