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[00:00:00]

Our next guest has been having fun, fun, fun, performing on stages across the world for more than 60 years. Now, the story of the Beach Boys is finally being told in a new Disney+ documentary. Here's a clip.

[00:00:13]

That was our band. Our first thing we ever learned was a tune called Their Heart's Were Full of Spring. There's a story told of a very gentle boy Mike Love is here.

[00:00:33]

Beach Boys co founder and Chief Lyrisist Mike Love in the studio is joining us now and singing along to that clip, which is pretty neat to hear you do right here, live in a person. I have to tell you, Mike, I was introduced to the Beach Boys when you guys were on Full House a number of times as a kid. You were introduced to a new generation back then, and here it is. It's happening again. How does that feel?

[00:00:57]

It feels fantastic. We're so blessed to be able to do our music for a lifetime. It was a family hobby when we first started out. We would literally get together in Christmas Carol around the neighborhood, or for every birthday party, or a Thanksgiving New Year's Eve, whatever it was, it was always about music. The point being that music has always been a part of our lives, and the generation before us, our generation, and subsequently as well. It's just a blessing to to be able to do what we love to do, which is harmonize and sing together for six decades now.

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And all of that music leading to the Beach Boys. There is so much archival footage used in this film that's on Disney Plus. How did you feel watching it back and reliving your journey, your story, and to see the global impact that you've had?

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Honestly, the feelings were varied because there's a couple of guys that aren't with us anymore. My cousin Dennis passed away in 1983. My cousin Carl died, I think, a little over 25 years ago from lung cancer. Those are tragedies. So you're sad But then there's the wonderful part of it, the getting together and the singing, the success and record after record that comes out on the radio. Being known all around the world. We had fan letters from Russia. Our records were played in China. A guy from the Middle East said, We had your LPs in Iran. In the summer, we'd play them at the beach, whatever beach they went to. It's worldwide. It transcends ethnic groups, religions, cultures, you name it. It's been our honor to express those good vibrations to everyone.

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Let's talk about Pet Sounds. It is revered as one of the best albums of all time, but the label didn't originally believe in it. How was that for you to know that you had something so good? But here you had another naysayer saying, No way, it's not going to work.

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The thing was that they have a marketing department, they have promotion people and stuff, and the ANR guy, Artist and Repertoy, who's the nicest guy you'd ever meet in the music business. His name is Carl Engelman. He says to Brian and I, after we played the record, he says, Gee, guys, that's nice, but couldn't you do something more like California Girls, or I Get Around, or Fun, Fun, Fun, or Surfing USA, or whatever? And well, no, really. But it took forever, not forever, but a long time for it to become a gold album and then a platinum album. But the thing was, it was really listened to by our peers. It was, in fact, Bruce Johnston, who took Glenn Campbell's place, who had taken Brian's place, my cousin Brian departed from the touring group in late 1964. Well, Bruce took the album Pet Sounds to England and played it for Paul McCartney and John Lennon. They played it twice through, and they became our biggest promotion men because they loved the album. Paul McCartney said, God only knows, it was a perfect song, if not his favorite, one of his favorites, which is high praise coming from Sir Paul, who's very talented.

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You mentioned earlier that you're still performing. You recently performed at Stage Coach to a crowd of more than 80,000 people. It was huge. You're still touring. How does it feel to have so many people of all different ages still singing your songs?

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It's totally awesome. In fact, in Stage Coach, our sound mixer had to turn up the volume to compete with the sound of the crowd who was singing along on some of the songs. Yeah, it was amazing.

[00:05:07]

That is really neat. And I am going to start playing the Beach Boys for my boys because they need to know these songs, and then we can all sing along. That's right. Thank you, Mike Love. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate meeting you and speaking with you. Congratulations on your success.

[00:05:21]

And I'm wearing my CoComo cap because-I see it. Cocomo... Club CoComo spirits. Yes. I need to find a hat like that.

[00:05:32]

Thanks, Mike. You can see Mike on tour with the band this summer and in the fall. Of course, the documentary Beach Boys starts streaming on Disney+.