A little more Thirty years ago, Al Jardine looked out over the Pacific Ocean near his home in Big Sur, California, and recalled his youthful fun with Brian and Dennis Wilson. “I realized how much I missed them,” says Jardine, who at the time was actively touring with the Beach Boys, along with Mike Love and Carl Wilson. “Of course, Dennis had passed away, and Brian was away working. I was very emotional.”
He wrote a piece called “Wish” that he kept until last May, when his songwriting partner Larry Dvoskin suggested he finally complete it. Working together, they created a sweet, nostalgic ode to the Wilson brothers and days gone by. “I could see you standing there, smiling in the sun,” they wrote. “We were so young, so in love, when you gave us your precious gift, of radiant innocence. I owe you so much thanks for that.”
They recorded the song last May with Jardine on lead vocals and bass, Dwoskin on harmony vocals, piano and synthesizer, and Taylor Simpson on drums. It’s available now on all streaming services. “It’s a good message because we all wish things were the way they were, especially at our age, because our memories are great, our musical memories are intact, and it’s just important to finish these great songs that we’ve written,” Jardine says.
Jardine hopes the song will eventually appear on a follow-up to his 2010 solo album. Postcard from California“This song is kind of like an appetizer,” says Jardine, who noted that he will donate a portion of the proceeds from the single to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. “I’ve actually been working on a few unfinished tunes that are close to being finished. They come from different backgrounds and areas of my musical endeavors over the years. My hope is to release a vinyl record for Record Store Day.”
As Wish explains, Jardine still has a great voice, especially at 82. He attributes this largely to clean living, staying away from drugs and alcohol. “Brian and I were both diehard non-smokers,” he says. “We were hardcore. When Carl would come to a session with a cigarette, Brian would pull it out of his mouth and stomp on it. Then all of a sudden Brian was a four-pack-a-day smoker, which I still don’t understand to this day. It changed his voice dramatically. But he had other issues that I probably don’t understand, too. But my voice survived. Maybe it’s because I eat a lot of peanut butter.”
That voice has been a powerful tool in Brian Wilson’s world-touring band for the past two decades. But Wilson hasn’t performed since the summer of 2022. He now uses a wheelchair to get around and has been placed under guardianship because he suffers from a “serious neurocognitive disorder.”
Jardine has been doing a series of small solo shows over the past couple of years, but he plans to get back on the road with Brian Wilson’s touring band. “Brian has agreed to let me use his band name to revive Brian’s great band that we’ve worked so well with for the past 20 or 30 years,” Jardine says. “I’m looking forward to meeting him soon and scheduling a couple of charity gigs that we can do in LA, and then maybe start an actual tour from there, maybe early next year.”
He's not quite sure how they'll do the shows, but he can imagine it being like “Brian Wilson's band with fellow Beach Boy Al Jardine.” “Brian's not in the physical condition to join us,” Jardine says. “But he's a tough guy and he's got the stamina. It wouldn't surprise me if he could do a few shows in the Los Angeles area where we're planning to do a demo.”
In a change from the past, Jardine hopes to add a video element to the show. “We’ve never done a video with Brian’s band,” he says. “I never understood that. But I think this dimension would really enhance the quality of the show. I’ll also be telling stories to tell the audience about how music is basically made. It could be a lot of fun.”
Mike Love hasn't put together a setlist yet, but he assumes it will be a mix of Beach Boys hits and some deep hits from the band's overlooked 1970s albums. Meanwhile, Mike Love, who embodies the Beach Boys' persona, will play a set that focuses almost exclusively on 1960s songs.
“Mike does the ’60s really well,” Jardine says. “That can be a blessing and a curse, but people still seem to come to see him. People like to hear the same songs, and there’s a new generation of fans. Mike seems to enjoy that. That’s the important part. But I found it boring after a while. So now we have this opportunity to express some of the more obscure things.” (A small list of “obscure” songs Jardine is considering adding to the show includes Brian Wilson’s 2015 album “Right Time.”) No pressure on the sidewalkand “The Ice Skating Kid” from 1977. The Beach Boys Love You.)
Jardine and Love haven't toured together since the Beach Boys' 2012 reunion tour, but they spent a lot of time together earlier this year promoting the Disney documentary The Beach Boys“Despite all the legal bullshit and everything that’s happened over the years, we can still talk,” he says. “Well, he’s hard of hearing now. I’m not entirely sure if he hears anything I say to him, but we still have that common ground. It works.”
But don't expect to see Jardine on tour with Love, the current iteration of the Beach Boys, anytime soon. “I'm very busy,” Jardine says. “If we were to get Brian Wilson's band back on, I'd be very busy.”
So what exactly drives Jardine to keep going until he’s 80, when he could easily retire and spend the rest of his life relaxing on the beach? “That’s a good question,” he says. “I actually had second thoughts recently because I don’t really want to leave my house or my pets. But then I sat down and listened to some of our music, and I felt motivated again because it’s the source of my motivation. It’s what got me to where I am today, and it’s my livelihood. I think we can go out for at least another year or so and do our best.”
