There’s a little bit of Kansas in The Beach Boys’ California DNA.
Emily “Glee” Wilson Love, mother of founding group member Mike Love, was born in Kansas and moved to California before she started school, he said in a phone interview.
When the group played the Kansas State Fair in 2018, “I had distant relatives show up, because my mom was born in Hutchinson. I met a lot of her brothers and sisters, but they moved from Hutchinson when my mother was 4 or 5 years old.”
When reminded that The Cotillion in Wichita, where The Beach Boys play next week, is not too far from Hutch, he responded, “They probably will show up.”
The Beach Boys are currently on their “Endless Summer Gold Tour,” with the band drawing capacity crowds at amphitheaters in Chicago, Indianapolis and Minneapolis during the Fourth of July weekend.
But the tour also includes smaller venues, such as The Cotillion.
“The intimacy of it is really nice, and if you’re in a big amphitheater setting, you’re probably not wanting to do more of the intimate songs,” Love said. “We’ll do ‘Surfer Girl’ and we’ll do ‘In My Room,’ (at the outdoor dates) and we’ve been doing ‘Warmth of the Sun’ with a trailer for the documentary.”
The eponymous documentary about the band, its first authorized endeavor, began streaming in May on Disney+.
“It’s really the first definitive documentary we’ve done,” Love said. “The neat thing is that even though a couple of the guys aren’t with us anymore, sadly, everybody’s contribution is recognized and appreciated and portrayed in the documentary. It really was a family affair.”
All of the living members of the group gathered for a premiere of the documentary in Hollywood.
“It was interesting seeing it, because there’s some footage that’s never been seen before, and the families contributed different things,” Love said. “(Filmmaker)Frank Marshall got a hold of it and really made it something special.”
Love was especially touched by the final scene, when Beach Boys stalwarts Brian Wilson, Bruce Johnston and Al Jardine joined him at Paradise Cove, where the group’s debut album cover was shot in 1961.
“That’s kind of a miracle in itself,” he said. “Brian was remembering stuff that happened in our high school years that I had forgotten about, his memory is that good.”
Brian Wilson, the songwriter behind many Beach Boys classics, was diagnosed with dementia in February.
“Physically he’s not in great shape,” Love said, noting Wilson is mostly in a walker or a wheelchair. “It’s a drag to see him in that shape, because honest to God when he was a teenager, he could throw a ball as far as Tom Brady could, 70 yards easy, such great upper body strength.”
Love dedicates the Beach Boys song “Warmth of the Sun,” which the two wrote the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, to his cousin during the current concert tour.
The concerts on the Fourth of July weekend featured actor John Stamos — best known for “Full House” but who has occasionally performed with the band since the mid-1980s — sitting in on drums. Love said he was uncertain whether Stamos would be on percussion in Wichita.
“That’s been really cool. People really love him,” Love said. “We get recognized for being on ‘Full House’ by the kids.”
The young fans, Love said, energize the Beach Boys.
“The energy is the happiness and the intergenerational appreciation of our music,” he said. “You have children and their parents and grandparents and even great-grandparents. It’s an amazing thing. Four generations will show up for our shows, depending on the venues.”
Love said he considers The Beach Boys as two different bands — touring and recording — especially since 1964 when Brian Wilson stopped touring and was briefly replaced by Glen Campbell before Johnston took over.
“To me, the live music thing has always been my favorite part of the music business,” he said. “Recording is necessary and all that, because it’s great when you can do a fantastic recording.”
At a time when debate is heated over whether an 81-year-old and a 78-year-old are too old to be president, the 83-year-old Love said there’s no farewell tour in sight.
The end would come “probably when they read in the paper that I’ve left the planet,” he said. “I don’t have any expiration date that I’m aware of. I’m in great shape, meditate every day and have every day since December ’67.
He still takes the lead on songs including “Surfin’ USA,” “Surfin’ Safari,” “Good Vibrations” and “Kokomo.”
“I’m able to do everything I was ever able to do musically,” he said.
THE BEACH BOYS
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 17
Where: The Cotillion, 11120 W. Kellogg
Tickets: $59-$125, from thecotillion.com or 316-722-4201
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