It’s hard to know when it’s time, as David Lee Roth, Frankie Valli and Motley Crue have shown us recently. But seeing Mike Love this weekend was a sad one for Beach Boys fans.
As they say, it’s complicated. Apparently Love, 85, insisted on taking the stage despite his declining health and the urging of friends that he rest.
And so there he was, onstage in Cincinnati and Nashville, after being helped to a chair by honorary Beach Boy John Stamos and Love’s son Christian, where he sat mostly motionless as the current version of the Beach Boys — no Wilson brothers (who are dead) or Al Jardine (who tours in a separate group) — shuffled through “Fun, Fun, Fun” and “Do It Again.”
Love didn’t appear to sing but thanked the crowd after the first song. The appearance elicited a slew of comments on social media, as some recounted Love’s role as the sometimes villain to fragile genius Brian Wilson and others wondered why he even appeared. But perhaps, as Stamos alluded to on his Instagram, this was his way of saying goodbye after 7,000-plus shows. And if that’s the case, maybe Love deserved some credit for recognizing what so many others can’t accept.
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