NEW YORK (AP) — Mike Love is trying again fondly on Brian Wilson, his cousin and Seaside Boys collaborator who died Wednesday at 82.
“It’s a tough one,” Love informed The Related Press Thursday. “Life ends for all of us, but he had a wonderful life in terms of how creative he was, and I had a great time cocreating with him, so we have a lot to be, you know, we have a lot of blessings.”
Love is being inducted Thursday evening into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame, which welcomed Wilson in 2000. He will likely be launched by actor and musician John Stamos, who has collaborated with the Seaside Boys in recent times and is showing at choose dates on their tour, which resumes Friday in New York.
“I cut together a really beautiful video of Mike and Brian doing the song that Brian, Mike wrote called, ‘Brian’s Back.’ And I’d like to show that with his permission at the front of the show,” Stamos said. “I think it’ll start off, but it’s gonna be very difficult, I would think emotionally to get through it.”
He added of his admiration for Wilson and the band: “Without the Beach Boys, life would be a mistake. And that’s that.”
“It’s in the better late than never category, but I feel my cousin’s presence tonight very strongly,” Love informed the AP of his inclusion in Songwriters Corridor of Fame. “You know, we did it together, and so that part’s inseparable, and we always had a great love for each other. So it’s really nice to be honored, though, and recognized for my contribution to the Beach Boys music.”
Love and Wilson wrote the Seaside Boys’ first hit, “Surfin’,” in 1961. The pair feuded over songwriting credit for Love, who efficiently sued, contending he was disadvantaged songwriting credit on dozens of songs.
“This is a songwriter’s songwriter,” Stamos mentioned of Love earlier than the ceremony: “He painted this cinematic view of California that made the whole world wanna be us because of him. Optimism, positivity, good vibes.”
Stamos added: “Brian was a genius, but Mike was a little bit underrated because of … you know, Brian’s big genius.”
Love mentioned he enjoys witnessing the enjoyment the Seaside Boys music brings to followers on tour. “It’s wonderful because you see the audience response and people 60 years after we started are loving our music and that’s really a wonderful thing. You see how much joy, not only in America but around the world, that our songs have created with people. So it’s a fantastic thing,” he mentioned,
