Your encounters with members of the Beach Boys

A while ago, a thread was started recounting encounters (not just seeing them in concert) with various Monkees, leading to many very interesting and funny anecdotes. Why not do the same with the Beach Boys?

My personal encounters are pretty much limited to Brian Wilson, several times. One was meeting him outside NBC in 2001 in NY after a Conan O'Brien taping I couldn't get into. He wasn't too responsive but did shake hands. The next was a phone interview to promote the Smile DVD and upcoming Montreal concert appearance. Was very nervous before the interview, as I was afraid of one-word answers. Was not too bad, and his "hello, Joel" greeting at the beginning had me in heaven. The next encounter was backstage after his Montreal concert, where he was more gregarious, and signed everything I brought. His roadie encouraged others to provide more items to autograph, but IIRC no one had anything.

Of course, there was our brief forum exchanges with Bruce Johnston. Wish he'd return.

On another note, one of the nicest anecdotes I read was from a poster on the smileysmile.net forum in which he got an autograph from Carl Wilson, and then said "thank you."
"No, thank you!" Carl replied.
There's someone who appreciated the fans.

I also liked reading about Peter Ames Carlin's teenage encounter with Dennis Wilson, as recounted in Catch A Wave.

Any others?

 

I met Carl a couple of times backstage at shows....a really nice, sweet man. One of my sweetest memories is after the first time I talked to him, a year later they came back to town and I was right up front...after the first song Carl waved Hi to me...I couldn't believe he remembered me...
I took this shot backstage at Three Rivers Stadium in '76 or '77. That's Gary Wright on the left and the record company guy in the middle.

 

David Marks used to live in this area, he was a funny guy. Probably still is.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. He remembered you from a YEAR ago and waved. Hmmmm.. . .

 

Met Brian several times, the first of which was during the Landy era, in the winter of 1990.

Brian was literally following one of his minders around at a trade show in L.A. Brian was acting extremely strange, walking oddly (a la John Cleese — I'm not kidding here), making exaggeratedly weird facial expressions when a sign would catch his eye, the works. It was certainly off-putting behavior and I wasn't sure if I was going to approach him or not. It seems I was the only person who recognized him, but he was acting in such a bizarre way I still hesitated to go up to him. But when I did ...

He couldn't have been nicer. I simply walked up and said, "Brian Wilson?" and asked for his autograph and his entire demeanor changed immediately. I had to assist him in working the pen and it took him ages to actually sign the autograph. I think this was because, at the time, he was in the habit of signing his name by putting asterisks for the letters "i" (check out his signatures in the booklets to the first-issue Capitol two-fers released that year) ... plus, I think he needs glasses. He had his nose right up to the paper. Anyway, his minder seemed like he was about to intervene at first and then figured I wasn't causing any harm and backed off (he had business in the booth we were at; Brian was obviously just along for the ride). I mentioned the song "Too Much Sugar" to Brian — my pathetic attempt at showing him how big a fan I was by knowing his then-recent b-side's title — and without missing a beat Brian began singing it — well, too — with a big smile on his face. At that point, people began to notice him and I figured my mission had been successful and I wanted to leave before things went bad or got weird again. I wasn't prepared for Brian to pat my shoulder and back several times as I started walking away, but he did.

The thing I'll never forget is how his demeanor changed completely once I'd started speaking with him. He went from being a freak show to being a really super-nice and seemingly together guy in a heartbeat.

That was the first time I ever asked anyone for an autograph.

 

I met Brian twice, around 1989-90.

The first time was at a gallery opening in San Francisco, where they were auctioning the original artwork from a Doonesbury strip with a storyline about a dying AIDS patient who loved "Pet Sounds." Both Gary Trudeau and Brian Wilson had signed the artwork, and the proceeds were going to an AIDS charity. Brian was there with Dr. Landy and nearly no one recognized him when he walked in. I joined a small group of people who went over to meet him. Brian was acting like he was medicated (he probably was) and I remember his excitement about the new album he was working on, "Sweet Insanity" (which never actually was released).

The second time was at an SF bookstore where he was signing copies of his autobiography. He looked kind of scared. I walked up to him and said, "How are you doing, Brian? Are you OK?" And he nervously replied, "Yeah yeah, I'm OK."

 

Met Brian Wilson when Lucky Old Sun came out. He was very nice and very polite!! I was amazed at how literally large his head is. When he stood up I was amazed at how tall he is!

Frank R.

 

Me too, although I knew he was tall from pictures.

 

I took my mother to see the Beach Boys in the late 80's. We had seats near the mixing board for the front hall sound. I noticed this guy talking to the mixing guy before the show and realized it was Bruce so I walked the 5 or 6 feet to the board and said hello and what a big fan I was. He was great and I told him I brought my mother to see them. He insisted on coming over to meet my mom and spoke to her for quite some time. What a sweet guy!

My other experience was playing a show at the Troubadour with my old band The Windbreakers around 5 years ago. I was onstage about to play, tuning my 12 string when I looked down and saw Brian walking by the stage on his way to his seat. He was there to see his old friend Tony Rivers who was playing after us. It was weird doing our set because he was sitting about 20 feet in front of me. After our set I spoke to him briefly and he told me he "really liked my combo".

OK - I'm good now!

Bobby Sutliff

 

I met the band after a 2 day set of concerts at Radio City Music Hall. after the March 4th show, I went to the Plaza Hotel were they were staying, Brian had already left for who knows where. I got their autographs,except for Dennis ,who I caught outside of the hotel as I was leaving the hotel, he was with Christine Mcvie & I had a nice chat with both of them. A strange thing happened to me that weekend, I had a ticket for the March 3d show in the orchestra, they were so good I went back the next day to Radio city and bought a ticket from someone who had an extra ticket .The ticket was for the mezzanine, it had the same seat number as the ticket from the day before.

 

Friend of mine once drove past a hotel where Al Jardine as standing, waiting for a bus or something. (which would correlate with Dennis' description of him)

This nearly rivals the fact that I once worked with someone who was friends with Pat Benatar's 2nd cousin. So, I am accustomed to the 'searing penumbra of fame.' Please don't write asking me to exploit my connections to her. Thank you.

 

I also remembered a colleague told me he had spent a few weeks at the TM school in Iowa, sharing classes with Mike Love who he described as 'not what he appears'.

Be that as it may, I've always appreciated Mr. Love for being who he is. The BB's wouldn't have been the BB's without him, for better or worse.

 

I can top that. I went to school with someone whose grandparents lived next door to Pat Benatar's husband's parents. I was hesitant to reveal this, but I've held back too long and this seemed like a good opportunity for me to come forward with this information.

Now back to our thread.

 

In July 2005 my dad and me saw Brian Wilson live in Amsterdam at the Pepsi Stage, a venue which now doesn't exist anymore. Arriving at the venue way too early, we decided to wait at the tour bus at the back of the venue to pass the time. When his band members Jeffrey Foskett and Scott Bennett arrived at the bus, they were more than willing to sign my concert ticket. Scott Bennett even had a chat with us and told me how Joe Sample had joined them at the Montreux Jazz Festival the night before. After finishing signing my ticket Brian arrived at the bus and Scott handed my ticket and the pencil to Brian. All Brian did was shake his head and enter the bus. I was so close.

 

I saw the Boys in Tempe Az. at a small outdoors amphitheater, daytime. I was standing right against the restraining wall in front of Carl. If felt like I'd died and gone to Heaven, I was grinning from ear to ear as they came on. I saw Al, to my left, looking at me and smiling. I waved and he smiled and nodded. During "Darling" I was singing the hard to understand "I think about you often my pretty girl your so fine" I looked at Mike and he was watching me, smiling. He sort of shook his head, acknowledging my knowing the words.
There was a boy with Down Syndrome sitting on his father's shoulders to my right. Every time Mike walked near him he reached out and shook his hand, three times. They played "Hushabye"!!! It felt like I was on stage with them. I looked over to a hill side on the left and saw a hundred children, no adults, dancing to the greatest music ever made. I pointed to them and Carl looked and smiled. What a day!

 

That's nothing. My wife's father (who I never met) attended the same Catholic high school as Bing Crosby.

 

I saw one of those shows. That was when L.A. was released, right?

After the second show (no Brian), my friend ran down the block and crossed the street afterwards so he could "run into" Andy Warhol afterwards. Those were really good concerts, too.

 

I'd love to meet big Brian, I'd be tempted to give him a hug though, like VDP says he's suck a hugable lug. On my list of heroes Brian's right up there at the top.

Would have loved to have met Carl too but I genuinely feel a lot of love towards Brian and would love to meet him.

Keep up the stories, folks.

 

Met Brian a few years ago - I said, "I love you, man."

He shot back immediately with, "Love you too, man!"

Jeff

 

I met Mike, Al, and Dennis in August 1972 at Ocean City, MD. The Convention Center there had a lower level parking lot which backed to the adjacent bay, and it was the best place to catch a cool breeze after the show. It was there that the three hung out and talked to the 15-20 people who were milling about. Mike and Dennis were clearly on the make, looking to find a partner for the evening, but they were very friendly to those of us males, patiently answering our familiar questions. Al was mostly talking to guys, and told me they were going to put Smile out "soon". Dennis got lucky quickly and was the first to go. Mike tried to get my cousin to go with him to "a party", but she said no and he was nice about it and continued to talk to her. No one knew where Carl was and Bruce never showed either. They were nice guys.

 

Right. My dad went to the same school as John Lennon and George Harrison; Dovedale Road Primary school in Liverpool.

 

I met them, sans Brian, in '65(?) I didn't know it then, but Glen Campbell had just signed on and was en route.

A buddy's dad worked at the airport and let us know they were arriving. 2 or 3 of us went there at an off-hour, with virtually no one else around. Dennis gave everyone the brush and hurried off somewhere. [shrug] Mike, Carl and Al hung around to shoot the breeze. All three were friendly and signed stuff. Carl was particularly engaging and did nothing to diminish his Nicest Person On The Planet status.

We opted to cut them loose after 5-10 minutes, and give 'em their space.

Good show that evening, of course. But we wondered why Brian dyed his hair blonde (GC is similarly tall). All was revealed later in the show.

(Well, not the nervous breakdown part...)

 

Then you know the pressure. And yet somehow I think not exploiting our relationship with 'Patricia' makes us better people.

Sorry O.P.

 

'Hushabye'? Wow. What year was this? I saw them several times in the early 70's, which I guess was when they were at their peak as a touring band. So much energy.... so much joy....

And see? Mike has his moments.

 

I think Bruce was out of the group at that point. Would have been cool to meet Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, I'm sure.