As a founding member of The Beach Boys, Al Jardine remains busy keeping the band’s legacy alive.
Not only did he play a major role in the recent, expansive reissue of 1977’s The Beach Boys Love You album (released as We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years), but he has also spent much of 2026 on the road performing Beach Boy classics with his band. Last year he also found time to release his own solo EP, Islands in the Sun.
Jardine set aside time to talk ahead of last year’s postponed tour — now taking place through June and July — slotting in an interview between rehearsals and sifting through materials for the completion of the Love You reissue. His lifelong friend and bandmate, the late, great Brian Wilson, was understandably on his mind.
“It’s almost like he’s not gone really,” he said about Wilson. “Frankly, I feel like he’s not left us at all. His music, of course, will always be with us. And his spirit. It doesn’t feel any different. He’s part of the big universe of music.”
Over the years Jardine continued to perform and tour with Wilson outside of The Beach Boys, first joining Wilson’s fold in 2006 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the classic Beach Boys album Pet Sounds.
After participating in a 2012 reunion of The Beach Boys, Jardine went with Wilson’s band while Mike Love continued under The Beach Boys banner, so it’s no surprise that Jardine decided to put Wilson’s band back together again to honour the music icon’s memory.
“I missed the guys,” he admitted. “I missed the camaraderie of the band and that’s why I reformed them. And so the music lives on through them — through us, I guess, as the messengers of the music in a different way than The Beach Boys. Featured in [the Pet Sounds Band] set list we have a much more, I think, diverse and interesting set list which reflects the new box set.”
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
Reformed under the moniker The Pet Sounds Band, the 11-piece lineup includes long-time Wilson musical director Darian Sanahaja (The Wondermints) and Gary Griffin, who was also organist for The Beach Boys in the ‘70s. Jardine described them as “the best band in the world.”
“Pet Sounds Band is derivative of all the players Brian selected to be in his band, and now I have the opportunity to continue that tradition. Pffsh… it’s so cool,” he continued. “Best feeling in the world is hearing the strings of ‘California Girls’ coming out of your guitar… ‘California Girls’ has an overture that’s unmistakeable. It’s just brilliant with the 12-string guitars. We have three 12-strings on stage and we all play it together. Whooooooa — it is the most beautiful, intricate overture, I think, in our particular business.”
The Pet Sounds Band celebrates a family bond just as The Beach Boys lineup did, being made up of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson along with cousin Mike Love. Jardine has also invited his son Matt into the Pet Sounds fold.
“It’s really important because when I’m no longer able to sing anything Matt Jardine’s voice is almost perfect,” he told us. “He sounds a little bit like me and he also sounds like Brian. He’s the whole package. Mike Love’s son, Christian Love, the two of them could probably kick [The Beach Boys sound] off all over again.”
The live set Jardine and the band are bringing to Australia will include Beach Boy anthems, from “Help Me, Rhonda” to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, covers that the band made their own (“Sloop John B”, “I Can Hear Music”), a deep dive into the reissued Love You, plus never-before-performed-live rarities from the MIU and 15 Big Ones albums of the ‘70s (the recent reissue set also heavily features outtakes from 1976’s 15 Big Ones).
Jardine is excited about airing deep cuts from The Beach Boys catalogue on stage, “That’s my favourite stuff, we’re previewing that very material — some of it is not so familiar. It’s gonna be fun revisiting the not so well known things.”
The 83-year-old musician also finds time between Beach Boy obligations to work on solo output from his home studio at his Big Sur retreat. His Islands in the Sun EP featured contributions from some heavy-hitter industry friends including Neil Young, Flea (on trumpet), and legendary songwriter Mike Stoller.
“I was lucky for them to able find the time to do it,” Jardine claimed. “Mike, of course, is older than most of us because he was kinda on the ground floor of the rock’n’roll business with The Coasters and The Robins and Elvis Presley — he’s a universally accomplished composer. So I’m lucky, I just got lucky.
“Neil Young just happened to be good enough to help me out on my [2010] Postcard album and also on this new EP. Because they [Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young] used to be our opening act way back when. That’s kinda how that worked out.”
Jardine explained that the EP was a passion project, put together over a long period of time. “I went through a lot of my old cassettes that are sitting around on the floor in boxes and I found some stuff that we hadn’t finished. So I thought, ‘Man, these are really good songs, I should finish some of these things.’ It took about a year because I’m kinda OCD about stuff. And UMG was good enough to distribute, or I should say, stream the product. If I want to have hard product I might have to press it up myself. So I don’t know, maybe I should press some up in Australia, I’m not sure if that makes sense or not for our merchandise.”
It’s easy to forget that Jardine almost missed out on his life as a Beach Boy.
Although an original member, he initially left the band to study in 1962, just ahead of the band releasing their debut album Surfin’ Safari. “I had to do what I had to do and I knew what was coming,” he recalled of that time period. “I could see it coming, but I felt like I needed to finish my schooling and I was surprised, quite honestly, when Brian wanted me to come back into the band.
“And he called me up one day and said, ‘You gotta help me out.’ I said, ‘Well, of course, I’ll help you out.’ It’s one thing to get a degree but what do you do with it? I mean it was good timing for both us and I was able to come back into the band and take over the touring. And the recording process was Brian.”
He still remembers clearly realising how special Wilson’s talent was from the get-go. “Brian and I were classmates in junior college here and I knew his music intuitively just from going to high school with him. When I saw him on campus I suggested we get together and start a band. It was quite natural, really, and he was all for it. And he introduced me to his brothers and his cousin and it just fell into place very quickly.”
Even though he took part in Disney’s hugely successful 2024 documentary about The Beach Boys, Jardine’s not a fan of the finished product. “I kinda thought it stunk, to be honest with you,” he said bluntly. “There’s so much untold, they should have done several hours on it… There’s so much more to be told, unfortunately it’s an opportunity missed. Let’s put it that way.”
Asked how he felt seeing himself portrayed by Graham Rogers in the 2014 Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy (Paul Dano played Wilson), Jardine expressed a kinder view. “We were a minor part of it. It was really Brian’s story… I had no qualms about that at all.”
Writing a memoir about his time in the industry has crossed his mind — he’s had people close to him encourage it as well. “I’m tempted,” he admitted, “but I think we’re gonna have to see what point of view we wanna come from. I think if we have a formula we can make it work.
“It’s not too oppressive, you know, in detail. Mike’s book, Mike Love’s autobiography [Good Vibrations — My Life As A Beach Boy] is painstakingly accurate. I don’t want to come to it that way. I just want it to be about the music. More about the music and not about me.”
For now, though, Jardine is 100% focused on his upcoming visit to Australia and New Zealand. “I’m ready to go, I’m ready to rock, I’m ready to spread the word again. Especially in Brian’s honour.”
Find ticket information for Al Jardine & The Pet Sounds Band’s Australian tour here.
