Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Al Jardine have disavowed the current touring group, led by Mike Love, which is performing at President Donald Trump's fundraiser in Newport Beach, Sunday.
“We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero,” Wilson and Jardine said to 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 for the event range from $2,800 per donor to $150,000 per couple for co-chair status.
The final time that the Beach Boys performed together with all original members was in 2012. In the time since, Love, who holds the license for the group, has led another version without the remaining founding artists.
Love has been a vocal supporter of Trump throughout his presidency.
“I don’t have anything negative to say about the president of the USA,” Love said in a 2017 interview. “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.”
[Via]
