Beefs 2012: Beach Boys' Mike Love Responds to Accusations of Firing Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks

Published Oct 05, 2012

Last month, Mike Love caused a major stir when he announced that the Beach Boys would follow up their 50th anniversary reunion by touring without members Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks . The outgoing musicians were evidently disappointed by Love's decision, and a petition was launched to reinstate them. Now, Love has spoken out to address the critics and share his side of the story.In a lengthy editorial published in the Los Angeles Times , Love explained that he didn't publicly "fire" his bandmates. Rather, they had always planned to exit following the reunion tour, with Love planning to take a group of hired guns to some smaller cities. "Brian and Al would not be joining for these small market dates, as was long agreed upon," Love wrote.He continued, "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."The two tours with different lineups were originally scheduled to be months apart, but they ended up running into one another after the anniversary jaunt was extended by 25 shows.Love's letter details his joy at reuniting with his bandmates and his continued mission to take the group's music around the world to markets both big and small. As he reminds us, touring with alternate lineups "is not new for our band," as Wilson has frequently sat out tours since 1964.Read the full letter here In other exciting news, Love reports that Wilson is working on a new solo album.