The Beach Boys will be performing in Reno, at the Safari Club International Convention. Brian Wilson, creative genius behind the group, and long-time Beach Boy Al Jardine want their fans to know that they have no part in it. Brian tweeted, “This organization supports trophy hunting, which Both Al and I are emphatically opposed to.”
Keynote speaker at the gathering is the estimable Donald Trump Jr. Mr. Junior and his little brother Eric are noted trophy hunters. Unlike trophy wives, who are discarded when they reach a certain age, big-game trophy-hunters’ prey are killed.
Co-founder and cousin Mike Love owns the rights to the name “Beach Boys.” (Brother Dennis Wilson drowned in 1983; brother Carl succumbed to cigarettes in 1998.) Brian and Al do not perform with the touring group.
“There’s nothing we can do personally to stop the show,” Brian Wilson continued. so please join us in signing the petition at https://www.change.org/p/beach-boys-stop-supporting-trophy-hunting. The petition reads:
“We the undersigned, pledge to stop buying or downloading all Beach Boys music, going to Beach Boys concerts, and purchasing any Beach Boys merchandise until the Beach Boys withdraw from the SCI Convention and publicly state their opposition to this sick ‘sport’ of killing animals for ‘fun.’”
Mike Love is in it for the money — and presumably the attention. He attended the inauguration of the current occupant of the White House in 2017. Love said at the time, “I understand there are so many factions and fractious things going on — the chips will fall where they may. But Donald Trump has never been anything but kind to us. We have known him for many a year. We’ve performed at some of his venues at fundraisers and so on.”