Beach Boys to play at Pala June 17

The current Beach Boys tour will include a June 17 performance at Pala Casino's Palomar Starlight Theater.

"Looking forward to it," said Mike Love, who has been with the Beach Boys since they were formed in 1961.

Past outdoor venues for the Beach Boys in San Diego County have included concerts after San Diego Padres games in what is now Qualcomm Stadium, at Humphreys By the Bay, and at the San Diego County Fair. Pala Casino is more inland than Humphreys or the fairgrounds in Del Mar, although the Palomar Starlight Theater is next to Pala's hotel swimming pool. "Water is H2O," Love said.

San Diego County is also a home away from home for Love. His primary residence is in Incline Village, Nev., and he owns a home in Rancho Santa Fe. The Beach Boys are also still touring extensively; during 2015 the band entertained audiences at 172 performances.

"We've been doing this for 55 years," Love said.

Last year's tour was the California Girls 50th anniversary tour, since California Girls was released in 1965. This year's tour, which included a Public Broadcasting System special May 29 in Washington, DC, is known as the "50 Years of Good Vibrations" tour. The Beach Boys song Good Vibrations was released in fall 1966. "We had some big hits in the 60s, but that was the biggest," Love said.

Good Vibrations was the Beach Boys' biggest hit until it was eclipsed by Kokomo in 1988.

The Beach Boys album Pet Sounds was also released in 1966. Although the single Barbara Ann was released in late 1965, it became a top 10 song in early 1966.

"We've got a lot to be celebrating," Love said. "That's a lot of history that we're celebrating this year."

Love is the only original member of the Beach Boys still touring with the band. Brian Wilson and Al Jardine are touring separately, Dennis Wilson passed away in 1983, and Carl Wilson passed away in 1998. The Wilson brothers grew up in Hawthorne. Love, who is their cousin, was raised in Baldwin Hills.

The current band includes Bruce Johnston, who joined the group in 1965. Johnston's first song with the Beach Boys was California Girls, and he also played Pet Sounds for the Beatles. "That was quite a big first year," Love said of Johnston.

Brian Wilson initially stopped touring with the Beach Boys in 1964. "Brian didn't want to go on tour, so he went more into the record production," Love said.

Glenn Campbell took Wilson's place before embarking on his solo career. "He was fantastic at the time," Love said. "He was so much fun and so gifted and talented."

Johnston replaced Campbell with the Beach Boys. The current band also includes Tim Bonhomme, John Cowsill, Jeffrey Foskett, and Scott Totten.

"We're doing really well and enjoying it a lot," Love said.

Although it is not conclusive that the Beatles song Back in the USSR was inspired by California Girls, Love was one of the first to hear the initial version of Back in the USSR. Love and Paul McCartney were both in India for transcendental meditation training, and McCartney sang a verse of the song to Love. McCartney had previously sang that verse only to his girlfriend at the time, Jane Asher, before singing it while playing the acoustic guitar during breakfast with Love. "It really proved out positively in terms of level of productivity," Love said.

Another member of the Beatles inspired Love's song Pisces Brothers. Love's birthday is March 15 and George Harrison was born on Feb. 25. Although Pisces Brothers has not yet been released on an album, Love often plays that song during his shows as a tribute to Harrison. "It's from the heart. It's just a lot of

nostalgia and a lot of sentiment involved," Love said.

Good Vibrations follows Pisces Brothers during the performances. Pisces Brothers was written in 2001 and later recorded. "I'm hoping to have it come out on an album," Love said.

The album is one of Love's near-term projects. "I'm working on it. It will be a Mike Love solo effort with hopefully a couple of nice duets," he said.

Love has also written an autobiography titled "Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy" which is expected to be released in September 2016. "They are taking pre-orders for the book. It's pretty wild," he said.

The surf music genre portrays a different lifestyle than many types of rock, which is what keeps the Beach Boys from turning into the Beach Old Men. Love avoids smoking, drugs, and alcohol and utilizes medication, yoga, and working out. "You have to stay in shape," he said.

Music has also slowed down the aging process for the Beach Boys. "The more you sing the stronger your voice gets as long as you get rest and don't do anything silly," Love said. "You don't have to deteriorate. You can keep in decent shape."

Other members of the band help maintain the higher notes during Beach Boys songs. "We're really covered in the harmony department," Love said.

Technology over the past 55 years has led to enhanced performances. "The sound systems these days are infinitely better than when we first started out," Love said.

Love's mother sang on KFWB radio broadcasts in the 1930s. "Music, it's been a lifelong pursuit," he said. "We grew up in a home with an organ and a grand piano and a harp."

The Wilson brothers' proximity to the beach provided familiarity with the surfing lifestyle. "The whole thing in Southern California was the beach life and girls and cars," Love said. "That's what we knew. That's what we were experiencing."

The surf music pioneers also included Jan and Dean, the Ventures, the Surfaris, and Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. "It wasn't just us," Love said.

"It was a mutual admiration society," Love said. "There was no negativity involved whatsoever. It was like a sport and the challenge was to get hit records."

Some surf music songs were performed by more than one of the bands, and in at least one case the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean complemented each other in bringing a song to fruition. "Surf City was started by my cousin Brian and Jan Berry got ahold of it," Love said. "It made it a style."

The musicians of other genres also considered the surf musicians part of the fraternity. "We were all friends and hung out," Love said. "There was no animosity or negativity at all."

His current residence near Lake Tahoe hasn't deprived Love of his Southern California beach mentality. "I love it there. It's serene and beautiful. But Southern California will always be home," he said. "I always love coming back to California because it's been everything to us."