The Beach Boys’ Mike Love on Stage: No Longer ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’

Mike Love and John Stamos during the opening number of the Beach Boys’ Oct. 10, 2026, concert in Cincinnati, Ohio

When is it time to call it a day? When I started Best Classic Bands in earnest in autumn 2014 and flipped the “on” switch for the website in June 2015, my intention was to celebrate the artists, music and pop culture of the classic rock era. That credo is at the top of the home page and I take it very seriously. I’m confident that I speak for the countless number of music fans who have been inspired by what these performers have given us throughout our lives. Their work will continue to entertain generations long after we’re gone.

In recent weeks—specifically October 2026—I had been reading comments on social media about the frail condition of Beach Boys founding member Mike Love that had caused the band—whose legacy firmly places them in the handful of recording acts that can truly lay claim to being considered one of the greatest American rock and roll bands of all-time—to cancel several recent concerts of their current tour due to Love’s unspecified health issues.

Sure, our skills diminish over time. Artists of a certain age can no longer hit the high notes they once could. On stage, your favorite guitarist may let a touring band member take over lead. Yet, Father Time is undefeated.

Love, who turned 85 on March 15, 2026, formed the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Carl Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine in 1961. Due to retirement, death and other reasons, there have been many other members of their recording and touring lineup. Notably, Bruce Johnston—who stepped in when Brian Wilson ended his touring days with the band in 1965 to concentrate on their studio work—stopped performing with the group in March 2026 after six-plus decades. He’s now 84. And since Jardine—who also turned 84 this year—had toured for years with Brian Wilson, playing with his own band these days, that left Love as the last Beach Boy standing, so to speak.

Related: Our review of a 2026 Jardine concert

On October 10, the Beach Boys returned to the stage at PNC Pavilion in Cincinnati, Ohio, ironically on the precise 60th anniversary of the release of “Good Vibrations.” The touring band is first-rate and their lineup includes actor John Stamos, who has performed with them on-and-off for more than 40 years. On this evening, Stamos greeted the audience, “[Mike Love] has been going through some health issues and has had to cancel some shows, but he would not miss tonight.”

The stage lights dimmed and a tribute to the Beach Boys was shown on a big screen. As filmed by an audience member who goes by “The Cincinnati Kid,” a frail Love was led onto the stage and seated, microphone in hand. As the lights came back on, the band started playing the group’s 1968 favorite, “Do It Again.” As the YouTube clip pans the stage, we see a beaming Stamos and the other energetic members performing the 1968 classic. And there’s Love, gamely doing his best to participate as he did on thousands of occasions over the years. When the song concluded, he waved to the crowd and said, “Thank you for showing up!”

Love has achieved greatness in his career, serving as the band’s only constant member, and is credited as co-writer—with Brian Wilson—of many of the Beach Boys’ greatest songs including “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls,” “I Get Around” and “Fun, Fun Fun,” as well as “Kokomo,” which he wrote along with several other prominent songwriters.

He’s well aware of the criticism he’s been subject to over the years, particularly when the Brian Wilson biopic, Love and Mercy, arrived in 2014. While promoting his 2016 book, Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, he told Best Classic Bands‘ editor, Jeff Tamarkin, “The original Pet Sounds album is awesome for so many reasons. There’s a lot of inaccuracies, b.s., like I didn’t like the album. That’s completely asinine. How many ways can I say it? I named the album. I don’t know if there are any better harmonies, or blends, from any vocal group, ever.”

The Beach Boys’ original Pet Sounds album cover; Mike Love is 2nd from right.

“I’m the only person in the Beach Boys who’s never left the group. I’ve done over a hundred shows a year for 55 years, OK? I don’t let that stuff bother me but it’s unfortunate because my kids and grandchildren have to grow up reading this stuff about their dad and their grandfather, so that made me want to do a book.

“I don’t know—sometimes people need a bad guy.”

Watch the Beach Boys perform “Do It Again” on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968

Who decides whether an artist should hang it up? If people still want to pay to see the Beach Boys with Love just sitting there (as Brian also did toward the end), isn’t that their choice? If you don’t like it, stay home. But yes, to watch him is painful and could impact the legacy of the group. It’s a question that probably has no answer. Some older artists still have their “fastball.” Tom Jones, Graham Nash and Dion, all well into their ’80s, come to mind.

The Beach Boys’ remarkable recorded legacy is available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.