Brian Wilson, Al Jardine Distance Themselves From President Trump’s Beach Boys Event
Brian Wilson and Al Jardin have issued a statement in response to an October 18 campaign event for President Donald Trump in Orange County, Calif. that features Mike Love’s touring version of The Beach Boys.
In a statement to Variety, Wilson and Jardin said, “We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero. We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”
In said piece from The Los Angeles Times, the event in Newport Beach was used primarily as a way to help the Trump campaign fundraise as the November election draws near. Tickets for this event ranged from “$2,800 per person and peaked at $150,000 per couple for co-chair status.”
Former California GOP official Jon Fleischman said, “Everyone assumes he’s going to go to battleground states. No one really thinks about how Orange County, California, is an ATM machine.”
Love and his version of The Beach Boys have performed at other events affiliate with President Trump. Love said in a 2017 interview with Uncut magazine, “I don’t have anything negative to say about the president of the USA. We did attend the inauguration. [His version of the Beach Boys headlined one of Trump’s inaugural balls.] That was a moving experience. I understand there are so many factions and fractious things going on – the chips will fall where they may. But Donald Trump has never been anything but kind to us. We have known him for many a year. We’ve performed at some of his venues at fundraisers and so on.”
