The family of Beach Boys creative force Brian Wilson announced June 11 that he’d died at age 82. On Thursday in New York City, Wilson’s cousin and bandmate, Mike Love, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame by actor and musician John Stamos, who’s been performing with The Beach Boys on and off since 1985. On the red carpet, Stamos shared that he was the one who broke the sad news to Love.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking. I was with Mike at the airport … when I got the text and I had to tell him,” Stamos told ABC Audio. “And I’ve never seen him that quiet. He just shut down. Y’know, 84 years with his cousin.”
But Stamos said that recognition of Love’s lyrical contributions to the Beach Boys’ music had been a long time coming. “He painted the cinematic tableau of California … and it was all about love and positivity and optimism and joy,” Stamos said.
“Mike is a songwriter’s songwriter. Brian Wilson was the biggest genius that ever walked this earth. He was so big and he was so powerful that sometimes Mike got overlooked,” Stamos said. But he noted that Wilson was always quick to say, “Mike wrote that, Mike did this, Mike did that.”
“He loved his cousin. They loved each other,” he added.
“Brian, well, he was a mastermind of, particularly the tracks,” Love told ABC Audio. “If you were to listen to the tracks of Pet Sounds, it’s mind-blowing. You’d say, how the heck did he ever do that? But he did it, and then we slaved over the vocals.”
He also noted, “If … Brian came up with the track for ‘California Girls,’ I’d be out in the hallway writing the words.”
Told that Bruce Springsteen had, in his tribute to Wilson, called The Beach Boys “America’s greatest band,” Love said, “Well I think that’s a wonderful thing for him to say. He’s The Boss.”
“But you know what Elton John recently said, was that he believes that Pet Sounds will be the only album that will be played forever,” Love added. “That’s pretty amazing, coming from Elton John.”
At the ceremony, Stamos and Love performed a medley of “California Girls,” “I Get Around,” “Kokomo,” and “Good Vibrations.”
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