Beach Boys splinter over politics again
God only knows that, two weeks out from the presidential election, the stakes are high.
On Sunday, a version of the Beach Boys — the touring incarnation of the group led by co-founder Mike Love — performed at a last-minute fundraiser for President Donald Trump near Newport Beach, Calif.
Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, two other founding members of the beloved California band, were less than happy about the news.
“We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero,” Wilson and Jardine told Variety through a spokesperson Sunday. “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”
The L.A. Times published a story about the fundraiser Sunday, including the detail that Love’s touring version of the group would headline the event.
The Beach Boys formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, Calif., less than an hour’s drive from Lido Isle, the exclusive man-made island in Newport Beach where Trump’s campaign held the fundraiser.
But Sunday wasn’t the first time the “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” hitmakers divided over political differences. In February, Wilson and Jardine both signed a Change.org petition urging supporters to “Say No to Trophy Hunting!”
At the time, the request called for a boycott of Love’s group after it secured a headlining spot at the Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nev., where Donald Trump Jr. was the keynote speaker.