The Beach Boys' Mike Love is already widely hated by many fans of the original incarnation of the band; by aligning himself with Donald Trump alienates the fans even more. Original band members Brian Wilson and Al Jardine were totally taken by surprise by the move:
Wilson and Jardine have toured together in recent years, also performing Beach Boys material but under Wilson’s name. The last time all the surviving members performed together as the Beach Boys was for a 50th anniversary tour in 2012. At the close of that, Love chose to continue touring with an un-reunited lineup under the Beach Boys’ name, for which he holds a license for concert purposes.
While some have been surprised that Trump would even visit as blue a state as California this close to the election, the Times’ article pointed to the huge potential cash haul that the president is expected to reel in from today’s benefit, badly needed as he trails Joe Biden badly in fundraising. “Everyone assumes he’s going to go to battleground states,” Jon Fleischman, a former state GOP official, told the Times. “No one really thinks about how Orange County, California, is an ATM machine. So people are pretty excited.”
This isn’t the first instance of Wilson and Jardine distancing themselves from a controversial or politically divisive gig booked by Love’s edition of the Beach Boys. In February, both Wilson and Jardine officially signed on to a Change.org petition urging a boycott of the touring Beach Boys, after Love and company booked a headlining gig at the Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nevada, where noted safari hunting enthusiast Donald Trump Jr. was the keynote speaker. “This organization supports trophy hunting, which both Al and I are emphatically opposed to,” Wilson said in a statement at the time. “There’s nothing we can do personally to stop the show, so please join us in signing the petition.”
That's real odd since Mike Love has claimed for decades of being vegetarian and now claims to be vegan. Of course, I suppose not all vegan whackos are about animal "rights" or even about preserving endangered species.
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