This summer, Mike Love is back on tour, leading the Beach Boys across the United States on a tour that will take them to over 70 cities.
At 83, Love is the last member of the classic 1960s Beach Boys lineup still touring with the group. He owns the Beach Boys name and oversees the band’s business affairs.
The Beach Boys perform at the Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs on Friday.
The only other touring member with ties to the early edition of the Beach Boys is Bruce Johnston, who joined the group in 1964 to replace Brian Wilson, who had decided to retire from touring to concentrate on his role as the primary songwriter and producer of the Beach Boys’ music.
Ford Amphitheater expansion is the latest addition to Colorado Springs’ ever-changing music landscape
The Beach Boys are reportedly on tour to celebrate two projects, one of which is the 50th anniversary of “Endless Summer,” the greatest hits album that revived the band’s career in the mid-1970s after the Beach Boys’ popularity waned in the years following the groundbreaking 1966 album “Pet Sounds” and its innovative follow-up single, “Good Vibrations.”
“We’re probably playing 18 of the 20 songs on this album at our concert,” Love said in a phone interview this summer.
The group is also touring with a new documentary simply titled “The Beach Boys,” which will stream on Disney+.
Opening night at the new venue in Colorado Springs a crowd puller
The documentary has been criticized in some reviews for glossing over or omitting some less positive elements of the Beach Boys’ story, including the drug use of several band members, Brian Wilson’s problems with drugs and mental health issues, which initially culminated in a breakdown after the completion of “Pet Sounds,” and the controversial role that psychiatrist Eugene Landy played in managing Wilson’s life in the years that followed. In addition, the deaths of Dennis Wilson by drowning in 1983 and Carl Wilson by cancer in 1998 are only mentioned in a note at the end of the documentary.
But Love is pleased with the film’s outcome. He feels that it addresses aspects of the group’s history that have not been addressed in many other documentaries about the Beach Boys.
“I think it showed my commitment a little more than I have on other projects, and there were some false claims made about me, like that I didn’t like the album ‘Pet Sounds,’ which was stupid because I called the album ‘Pet Sounds’ and went with Brian to pitch it to Capitol Records,” Love said.
“I think this documentary really shows what it was like, what it was really like, with the harmonies and the family connection, and it tells the story of how the music came about in a little more detail.”
The Ford Amphitheater opens its first-ever concert season this weekend: Here’s a look at the opening program
