With the future of The Beach Boys’ touring operation uncertain, John Stamos may have just offered the first glimpse of what it could look like without Mike Love.
Disney has announced that John Stamos and the California Sound will replace The Beach Boys for previously scheduled performances at EPCOT’s International Food & Wine Festival on November 11th and 12th. The shows were originally billed as The Beach Boys featuring Stamos, who has performed with the group on and off for more than four decades.
Very little has been announced about the California Sound – including who will actually play alongside Stamos – but the timing is notable. The Beach Boys have canceled or postponed numerous dates amid Love’s health struggles, and the 85-year-old only recently returned to the stage after several months away. Ahead of an October show in Nashville, Stamos said Love was facing “serious health challenges,” adding, “We hope he’ll be doing what he loves for years to come, but we don’t know what the future holds.”
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Love has since said he is putting his “full energy into rehab” with hopes of returning to the road. But his absence presents another complication: Love holds the exclusive license to tour under The Beach Boys name and has since 1998, meaning the musicians who have spent years performing with him cannot continue under that banner without him.
That makes the new California Sound billing particularly interesting. There is no indication yet that the name will extend beyond the two EPCOT shows, or that the group will simply consist of Love’s current touring band. Still, it offers a possible model for keeping the music onstage without using The Beach Boys name.
John Stamos and the California Sound will perform at EPCOT’s America Gardens Theatre on November 11th and 12th. Whether it ends up being a one-off or something more permanent remains to be seen, but if The Beach Boys’ touring operation continues without Love, this could be how it starts.
For more on The Beach Boys’ place in the canon, check out our picks for the 25 Essential Albums by the Greatest Bands of All Time.