It will be fun, fun, fun under the California sun for many well-heeled attendees at today’s Donald Trump fundraiser in Newport Beach — but not for Beach Boys Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, who are chagrined that the touring version of the group currently headed up by Mike Love will be headlining the campaign benefit.
“We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero,” Wilson and Jardine said to Variety through a spokesperson. “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday morning that the Beach Boys would be the main attraction performing for the president and his supporters at the Orange Country campaign event, with tickets ranging from $2,800 per donor to $150,000 a couple for co-chair status. As hardcore Beach Boys fans know, the group booked for the tony fundraiser is a licensed touring edition led by Love, who has not been shy about appearing with Trump in the past.
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.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety