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Beach Boys Perform at Trump Fundraiser, Get Slammed by Brian Wilson and Al Jardine

Former Beach Boys Brian Wilson and Al Jardine blasted the band for performing Sunday at a Donald Trump re-election campaign fundraiser in Newport Beach, Calif.

The two former members said the decision to perform at the event was made by Mike Love, an original Beach Boy who currently owns the touring rights and name for the band, Variety reported.

“We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero,” Wilson and Jardine told Variety through a spokesperson. “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”

Tickets to the fundraiser started at $2,800 and went for as much as $150,000 per couple for co-chair status.

The original lineup of the legendary 1960s surf rock band hasn’t toured together since 2012. It was their 50th-anniversary tour. But even that ended abruptly and seemingly with malice.

Their last appearance together was a rare and cordial interview they did in 2018, Rolling Stone said.

Not the First Time Strife Inside Beach Boys Bubbled Over

The Beach Boys are known for their feel-good hits. “Good Vibrations,” “Barbara Ann,” “God Only Knows,” and “I Get Around” come to mind whenever their name comes up. But it’s not all fun, fun, fun inside the band.

Earlier this year, Wilson and Jardine complained and signed a Change.org petition after Love took a headlining gig at the Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nevada. The keynote speaker was Donald Trump Jr.

“This organization supports trophy hunting, which both Al and I are emphatically opposed to,” Wilson said in a statement to Variety at the time. “There’s nothing we can do personally to stop the show, so please join us in signing the petition.”

Love is a longtime Republican, and an outspoke supporter of Donald Trump. Love’s iteration of the Beach Boys performed at Trump’s inauguration.

“I don’t have anything negative to say about the president of the USA,” Love said in a 2017 interview with UnCut Magazine. “We did attend the inauguration. 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.”

Wilson and Love have been at war for decades. Love successfully sued Wilson in the 1990s and was given co-writing credit on 35 Beach Boys songs and awarded millions of dollars, the Associated Press reported. It’s one of the many times Love has sued his former band mates.

Love’s Beach Boys are doing drive-in-style concerts because of coronavirus precautions make normal touring nearly impossible. Wilson and Jardine tour under Wilson’s name.