Introducing..

Mike Love

           Mike Love, a cousin to the Wilson brothers, started as the band’s saxophone player in the early years and then as time went on grew to become a co-lead singer along with Brian Wilson. Due to his R&B styled voice, Love sang lead on many of The Beach Boys fast-paced hit songs. Even when he was not singing lead on a song, his voice could always be distinguished from the others in the background because of his unique tone. However, Love has also had another unique role in the band which was being the MC, introducing band members and songs, in every one of the Beach Boys live/onstage performances. Love also co-write songs for various different albums, mostly with the hemes of surfing, cars, or love and he also won a legal proceeding in the 1990s for co-authorship credit to many of The Beach Boys songs.

            Mike Love was also one of the first musicians to become involved with Transcendental Meditation technique, which is a form of meditation that concentrates on sound and is practiced every day. He went on a trip to India in 1968 with various other musicians to further develop this technique and later even underwent more training to become more successful in this practice and became “Governor of the Age of Enlightenment”, giving him an estimated one million dollars per year.

            Love is also a big supporter of environmental causes and showed his support at The Earth Summit in Rio DeJaniero in 1992 and Earth Day 2000 in Washington, D.C.. He also created a foundation called Love Foundation which supports environmental and educational initiatives. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Incline Academy in Incline Village, Nevada and has raised over a million dollars for the benefit of the school.

            As of 2010, Mike Love is the only original member of the Beach Boys that continues to perform within this same group, now along with various other musicians and Bruce Johnston. However, Love has also branched off onto his own solo career as well. In the mid 1970’s, Love released two albums with the band Celebration. In the late 1970’s, he also recorded to unreleased albums titled “First Love” and “Country Love”, with some of their songs featured on later Beach Boys albums. Love is also known for re-recording old Beach Boys hits. In 2003, it was confirmed that Love is working on a new album, tentatively titled “Unleash the Love and Mike Love, Not War”. 

Sources: http://www.mikelovefanclub.com/bio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Love