Mike Love

The name 'The Beach Boys' is controlled by Brother Records Inc., which was founded by the original members of the Beach Boys and whose sole shareholders voted over a decade ago to grant me an exclusive license to tour as 'The Beach Boys.' With it, I've felt a great responsibility to uphold, honor and further our legacy.

I think the Beach Boys' legacy is 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' you know? We're calling our next tour '50 Years of Fun, Fun, Fun.' By and large, the Beach Boys' legacy is about incredibly positivity. We've traveled around the world and uplifted the spirits of hundreds of millions of people. Our sound is one of the most recognizable in all of music.

I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I am not his employer. I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I love Brian Wilson. We are partners. He's my cousin by birth and my brother in music.

I wrote all the lyrics on 'Good Vibrations' and most of them in 'Kokomo.' 'Kokomo' was extremely popular and fun to sing - it's probably one of the bigger sing-along songs in our show. But then 'Help Me Rhonda,' 'Surfin' USA' and 'California Girls' and 'I Get Around' and 'Fun, Fun, Fun' are great songs as well.

What we look for when we need to find someone who can fit in with our music, the vocals and the harmonies and the way they blend are very important to us because if you listen to Beach Boys music, the harmonies, not only are the notes being sung, but there's a blend to it. The voices have to blend.

I'd like to do something with Bruno Mars if we ever got the opportunity.

'The Warmth of the Sun' was a very beautiful song that Brian and I wrote in the time period associated with President Kennedy's assassination. We didn't write words about that, but it was around that time we recorded that song, and there's a lot of emotion involved there.

I love playing the Hard Rocks; they've got a great stage, great lighting, great sound, and not so humongous; its more intimate, so we love playing theaters and clubs where the audience has a really good chance to see and hear the group and where the acoustics are good. I like it when we can hear what we're doing.

I think between The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and innumerable acts after that... rock music became a huge economic force.

We came from the '60s era, when we started and made so many hits. The song value from the '60s was so darn good, you've got The Beatles, The Beach Boys, all of Motown, and plenty of other people, too... amazing records, amazing songs.

Maybe out of the fifty top Beach Boys songs, I was probably the co-writer and singing lead on forty of them.

People meditate themselves because they are just trying to feel better, and transcendental meditation is a natural mental technique that you can perform and that provides that relaxation and also a little bit of broader perspective.

The original Beach Boys are Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, Mike Love, and Alan Jardine.

I've had an incredible life with a lot of triumphs, my share of heartbreak, and some pretty amazing experiences.

Writing songs with Brian and performing them with Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, David Marks, Bruce Johnston and many other brilliant musicians over the years is my legacy, and something of which I am very proud and protective.

Meditation was a turning point for me. It helped me deal with a lot of stress and has given me a lot of relaxation.

If we all take the time to listen and love each other, this world would be a better place.

Because of the inherent challenges of life on the earth, all of humanity is vulnerable. This is all the more reason to seek the kingdom of heaven within and find the peace that leads to understanding.

I learned that when you do the best job that you can do, some people will idolize you, others won't care, and some will vilify you.

I've got different things going on - part spiritualist, part humanitarian, part brat.

As you get older, you either become proactive about staying in shape and taking care of yourself, or, you know, time has its effect on you.

I meditate every day, which is profoundly restful and restorative. It wipes out a lot of the fatigue. That's my secret weapon.

We've had hassles, ups and downs, ins and outs, failures and triumphs. We're human beings, and we're not perfect. And we're mortal. But the Beach Boys is musically a tremendous body of work that transcends individuality and time and national boundaries.

I'm a songwriter. I need silence to hear the melodies, so I don't fill the days with a lot of sound.

Sometimes I listen to '60s or oldies stations to see if they're going to play a Beach Boys song.

The Beach Boys already had about four or five albums under our belt when these newcomers, The Beatles, took the U.S. by storm in early 1964.

In the spring of 1968, The Beatles and I were invited by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to travel to Riskikesh, India. Riskikesh has been an important spiritual place to many millions of people over the years. It is situated where the Ganges River flows out of the Himalayas, and to be in that atmosphere was something incredibly special.

By 1968, both The Beatles and The Beach Boys had plenty of fame - we were looking for something deeper. The Maharishi taught us how to go beyond thinking and action in order to grow from within.

The music I have created, along with the other Beach Boys, has taken me all over the world. For these past 50 years, I guess you could say, 'I get around.'

If you look at the history of music, you have classical composers, church music, pop music, etc. Music that's existed for centuries. I think there are some songs that are close to immortal. They will last longer than we will in this lifetime.

Keep a cool head and a warm heart.

People say the Beatles were John Lennon. What is Paul McCartney? Chopped liver? But everyone has their own favourite members whose creativity they gravitate to. That's normal.

Ever since our Surfin' Safari' began in the early 1960's, the relations'hip with The Beach Boys and water has been synonymous. 'Surfin', 'Catch a Wave', and 'Surfin' USA' are songs which capture the feelings of being out in the water without a care in the world, living a dream so many long to live no matter where they are from.

I did not fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I am not his employer. I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I love Brian Wilson. We are partners. He's my cousin by birth and my brother in music.

Without meditation, I'd probably be dead.

The great thing about getting older is that you get a chance to tell the people in your life who matter what they mean to you.

I think my philosophy in music has been to accentuate the positive.

One of the most important lessons we can glean from the environmental movement is to 'think globally and act locally.'

There are different things one can do to establish and hasten the peace process. Meditation is one way.

During meditation your metabolism and your breath rate go down to a level of rest, twice that of deep sleep.

Mankind invents things to fight about.

If Frank and The Beach Boys got together and did a Super Session album, it would be a gas.

Every summer, my grandparents would rent a house on Balboa Island. They had the house next to Bob Hope's. I've been going down there all my life, to that whole area.

I never thought of myself as a really particularly great singer.

There's the historical part of The Beach Boys' music; it's pretty incredible, pretty vast and pretty varied too.

You have to be careful not to get overexposed.

Some people are denizens of the studio. I'm more of a denizen of the live appearance. I love the live thing.

If you ask any couple who have been married 50 years or longer, they will tell you they've experienced it all. The same is true of the Beach Boys.

You can't sustain a fan base on a great catalog alone. You must take your music directly to the people.

I'm the lead singer of the Beach Boys and an ambassador of this amazing music that touched a generation.