By Rob Fitzpatrick, The Telegraph | On October 10 this year, the touring outfit known as the Beach Boys – although all three Wilson brothers are dead, Al Jardine has his own separate group and Bruce Johnston stopped touring with the band in March – appeared in Cincinnati. The concert marked the 60th anniversary of the release of Good Vibrations, and it had been three months since the Beach Boys, fronted by founding member Mike Love, had played a public show.
Naturally, for a band led by an 85-year-old who’s been open about his problems with bronchitis and Covid, there have been health concerns and cancelled gigs. But on the night, there was Love, helped on stage by his son Christian and the actor and musician John Stamos, who has a history of performing with the band going back to 1985.
It was Stamos who informed the excited audience that Love has “been going through some health issues, but he would not miss tonight”. The last Beach Boy, wearing a cap, hoodie and scarf, was then guided into a chair, where he remained for the rest of the show, occasionally offering some back-up vocals. The gig ran for an hour and 40 minutes, but it was a few seconds of film where Stamos gleefully urged Love to do a few hand gestures from his seat, with a seemingly half-asleep Love almost robotically complying before returning quickly to stillness, that lit up social media the following day.
Rolling Stone called his appearance “alarmingly frail”, while Variety suggested that Love appeared “much weaker and less engaged than he was even in [previous] shows”. The following night, Stamos took to Instagram, writing: “We hope [Love will] be doing what he loves for years to come, but we don’t know what the future holds.”
“I was horrified,” says music industry commentator and podcast host Bob Lefsetz. “It was so sad.”
We live in an age where we are blessed to have so many pioneering musical heroes left alive. But those heroes are now elderly and often infirm. And yet they carry on performing and people carry on buying tickets to their shows, even when, often, there is clear evidence that their best days are many, many years behind them.
“Artists are not like regular people,” Lefsetz says. “They are not well-adjusted, they have a hole inside that they need their career to fill. And the love you get on stage is unlike any other experience, everybody is there to see you.”
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Go here to read more about this “problem”:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/music/the-music-legends-who-refuse-to-leave-the-stage-but-probably-should/
[I went to see Frankie Valli four years ago and I’ll tell you, even then, I kept expecting him to just drop dead during the show. He looked so frail and could barely move about the stage. His vocals were strong but I suspected “lip syncing” was helpful. I am so surprised he’s still going… ~ Barb]
Photo: Frankie Valli | Taken by a fan in October 2025 | From Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1358999082264089&set=pb.100044620290817.-2207520000&type=3
