"This anniversary is special to me because I miss the boys, It will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again."
So sayeth Brian Wilson about the now official Beach Boys 50th anniversary tour.
This is in sharp distinction to his earlier comments in which he claimed that without his brothers, Carl and Dennis Wilson both dead, he felt no particular kinship with the other Beach Boys. But the money might be too good to turn down.
Apparently it was too good to turn down.
I am very ambivalent about this, I've seen Wilson on stage many times since his return on the 1990s, and even his best friends would admit he looks very uncomfortable. What are they going to do? Put him mid stage behind an unplug keyboards while Mike Love runs around like a octogerian teenager singing "Be True To Your School"? I'm squirming at the though.
They will be recording new material and perhaps Brian Wilson can get back some of that old margic. Al Jardine's last solo album was quite good, maybe they can colloborate
The tour opens at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in April and then takes off. I'll definitely be there.