The Smiley Smile Message Board

From Wikipedia:

"Despite Bruce's long involvement with the band he no longer has a full membership in BRI having traded his shares (but not his artist royalties) back in 1972."

Is this accurate?  I was under the impression he NEVER was a member of BRI, only the Wilsons, Mike Love and Al Jardine.

I don't think the current corporation we know as BRI was in place until 1973. At least that's when Al first became an equal member...this info comes from his mouth to my ear about three weeks ago. It seems like when Murry died they went for some fundemental change in a legal way. Before that there was tons of monkey business going on. I address this very specifically in the upcoming David Marks biography. He was tied to them contractually for long after he left the band. And from his perpective you really see the blatant deception that Murry pulled. Mike was not exagerrating when he said his uncle Murry screwed him. He screwed everybody whose name wasn't Wilson.

I'm not up to speed on Bruce, except that he did divest what ever portion of BRI he controlled in the early '70's. He seems to think he did a smart thing, I've heard him explain it to that effect, but I can't remember the business details. But Mike, Al and David all got reamed in different ways, Mike with the songwriting, Dave and Al with the royalties to different degrees. Of course Mike has more than made up for it...and Al ended up doing very, very well himself.

Did David have "shares" in BRI, and if so, did he divest his portion as well?

He screwed everybody whose name wasn't Wilson

I'd say he just flat screwed everybody who's name wasn't Murry in the end.  The sale of Sea of Tunes comes to mind.

BRI became a California corporation in 1967, was Al a less than full member before 1973?

According to a message he posted on the BBBritain board, Bruce wrote his own bio on the Wikipedia site. So, yes, that should accurate info about his relationship to BRI, straight from the proverbial horse's keyboard.

I would have figured 1967 would have been the year  they made him a full member since the original Capitol contract ran out that year...but i just spoke with him in depth on this subject and Al told me very clearly that he was not given a full share until 1973. Until then he was salaried with a fraction of a share.

To Charles, David never divested anything knowingly...but you have to read the book for more on this...its an essential part of his story.

Thanks Jon, I look forward to it!

Bruce did state not long ago on BB Britain that he was a member of BRI until he left the band when he sold his shares.  From the horses mouth, so to speak.