Beach Boys' Mike Love: 'I Did Not Fire Brian Wilson'

Becky Sapp

Mike Love wants to get one thing straight: He didn't fire Brian Wilson. However, the singer does give numerous reasons in an op-ed why he issued a statement saying he would continue to tour as the Beach Boys without Wilson, Al Jardine or David Marks -- chalking it mainly up to tour logistics.

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"I did not fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I am not his employer. I do not have such authority," Love wrote emphatically in the Los Angeles Times. "And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I love Brian Wilson."

Wilson, however, didn't initially seem to take well the news that Mike Love and Bruce Johnston would continue to tour without the other members.

"I'm disappointed and can't understand why he (Love) doesn't want to tour with Al, David and me. We are out here having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys," Wilson had told CNN in September.

As Love explains in the Times, the 50th anniversary tour was just meant to be a "limited run" and he had other tour dates that were already set up. 

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"Like any good party, no one wanted it to end. However, that was impossible, given that we had already set up shows in smaller cities with a different configuration of the band -- the configuration that had been touring together every year for the last 13 years," Love wrote in the newspaper. 

"It is not feasible, both logistically and economically, for the 50th anniversary tour to play these markets," Love explained.

The Mike Love and Bruce Johnston version of the Beach Boys are playing on Friday at the Extraco Events Center in Waco, Texas.