The Village Voice's Stacey Anderson spoke briefly with Brian Wilson last week:
Q: Do you have a relationship with the other members (of the Beach Boys) right now?
A: No, I don't. Not really, no. I'm not really interested in them.
Q: So you don't have plans to reunite (the band) for the 50th Anniversary?
A: Right. No.
Well, why would he. Brother Dennis dived into the sea and drowned in 1983. Brian's other brother, the lead vocalist on "God Only Knows" Carl Wilson died in 1998.So without his brothers, what is the Beach Boys to Brian? A bunch of litigants in round after round of lawsuits.
But what are they to us? Al Jardine and Mike Love. Al is Brian's first cousin, Love co-wrote Brian's first song. And as good or bad as Wondermints are they are BACKING BANDS. 50 years is golden, it is something worth celebrating,, Brian Johnston, who joined the band in 1965, will also be a part of a final reunion, but without Brian Wilson it doesn't exist.
The Beach Boys 50th anniversary is simply a cash in if Brian isn't there.
I had tix to see the Beach Boys in the mid-70s but the date was canceled and though I've seen Wilson many times since then, I've never seen him with the Beach Boys.
And let's face it. Wilson is the worst leader on stage you can imagine. He is scarily damaged man, who should be left to direct the music and not be watched like an animal in a zoo. I stood in line at the old Tower records on west 4th for two hours to get Wilson's autograph in 1998. It was scary and sad, he was so blank. And though last years very good Gershwin album proves he isn't done ($120 for a tix to Highline: anybody wanna buy me one? C'mon Groupon, get involved here), as a stage presence when did he start.
If Mike Love can be controlled (a big if, I admit it), a Beach Boys reunion would be the biggest show of 2012. Bigger than the Stones.