The Smiley Smile Message Board

Although... ... ...It'll, no doubt, happen.

I some way shape or form...the current 'touring' Beach Boys have been with the Beach Boys...or some segment of the original Beach Boys 'bands' since...  Mike is easy.  1961.  Bruce...1965.  [over 50 years with some time off]   Jeff...He's been around with the BBs/Brian/BBs for what?  35ish years?  Scott?  John?  Brian?  Weeks?  Months?

Is there anybody else?  How long have these guys been 'in' The Beach Boys band/contributing?   :hat

Jeff toured with Mike Love in support of Looking Back With Love (with Randell Kirsch as well, I believe) in 1981. His first gig with The Beach Boys was in late December 1981, when they played Sun City, replacing Ed Carter on lead guitar and Adrian Baker on falsetto (thank god). He stayed there until sometime in 1990, when they kicked him out for having an affair. Then he came back with Brian at the start of his solo tour in 1999, and stayed there until the Beck tour ended in 2013. He guested at the Mike's Ella award ceremony and then joined Mike and Bruce a few months later.

Scott subbed for Adrian Baker for a few shows in December 2000, and then replaced Phil Bardowell for good after the 4th of July 2001.

John also subbed sometime in December 2000, iirc. He played percussion and sang falsetto while Scott took Adrian's guitar parts. He also joined after the 4th of July 2001, becoming the secondary keyboard player after Mike Meros left and Tim Bonhomme moved to primary keys. He'd also play percussion and occasionally sub in on drums. He even played rhythm guitar for a while when Adrian Baker needed to leave for a few days, with Gary Griffin subbing in on keys. In 2007 Mike Kowalski finally left and John became the full-time drummer, much to the improvement of the band.

Brian's first gig with BW was on October 9 2014, replacing Chad Odhner of the Fendertones after Matt Jardine left after the 4th of July dates in Ireland. He stayed with Brian through the soundstage show, when Matt rejoined. I'm not sure if Brian was on any of the early 2014 television appearances, but by the first full gig of the year, he was out and Matt was back in. Brian replaced Randell Kirsch on bass with M&B sometime in April, and by the May UK tour, he was already taking a large part of the falsetto parts from Jeff Foskett.

Tim Bonhomme, who you didn't mention, joined the band full-time in 1996 after Billy Hinsche left. Then was when Carl and Al were still in the band, and he's been there ever since. I believe he also was at a few gigs prior to this, in 1993 or 1994. C-man would doubtlessly know more than I do about this.  :lol

All of them have a history with the band, and are the best the touring band has sounded since Carl was alive, excluding C50, of course.

GREAT info.  Thanks a TON.  I'll need all of this as I now spend time daily promoting the upcomimg August 8th show locally.  I want people here to know when they do a 'meet and greet' that they'll be meeting more than Mike and Bruce and some 'fill in' guys they picked up for the summer.  I mean really.  I'm just as pumped, given the past 15 years, to meet  Jeff.  And the other guys are no slouches either.

Starting Friday...for 9 straight days...'The Old Codger's Double Shot' will feature 2 live Beach Boys tunes back to back.  The first from '72/'73 and the 2nd from the 50th anniversary disc.  Since Monday May 24...I've run these files [or Brian Files] every Monday to promote The Beach Boys here in August and Brian in Detroit a couple of weeks ago.

I did the meet and greet last year at Jones Beach, and it was just Mike, Bruce and David. Are the other guys in the band participating in the meet and greets now too?

Doubtful...But really?  They should be included.  Scott's the musical director no?  Jeff's been around for close to forever.  The Cowsills?  I mean hello!!!  Make it bigger.  Not smaller.  Who in that contigent doesn't contribute?  Leave HIM out?  Otherwise...They're The Beach Boys.

I certainly think they should all be included, and I hope that they are now. I have much respect for every one of them.

Pretty cool that you promote the Beach Boys and Brian so much. I wish more DJs around where I live would do the same, spread the word and more importantly, spread the music. Because it is some of the greatest music ever created.

Now I'm getting into commentary territory, so I'll bow out of this thread. I really admire what you're doing though.

The reason they don’t include all of the backing and guys in the meet-and-greets would seem to be any or all of the following:

1. They’d probably have to pay the other guys a little more.
2. They need that time to prep for the show (especially the musical director).
3. If the M&G all of a sudden includes 7 guys instead of 2, it will take WAY longer to do.
4. Only some superfans really have a burning desire to get photos and autographs from the backing guys, and, unfortunately, while some VIP packages are of course purchased by superfans, a shocking number of them aren’t.

I’m guessing #3 above is the main reason it would never happen.

As for the tenures of these guys, Foskett has clocked, by my estimation about 24 years in the BB universe, and about 9 ½ with the actual touring “Beach Boys.” He spent about 8 ½ years in the touring BB’s from late December 1981 through July 4, 1990. Then 14 ½ years, March 1999 through October 2013, in Brian’s band, and then some point around May or June or so of last year re-starting with Mike’s band.

Foskett also did spend some time touring with various off-shoot gigs with Mike, though most of those took place during his BB tenure. His pre-BB gigs with Mike were pretty sporadic. I don’t think Mike did a ton of solo “Looking Back with Love” gigs in 1981. 

Also, referring to Eichenberger as mentioned above, he did do a TV appearance in early 2015 with Brian, actually mere weeks before Kirsche was axed and replaced with Eichenberger in Mike’s band. It matters not one bit in the grand scheme of things, but I’ve been curious to know if Brian’s organization knew Eichenberger was joining Mike’s band at the time he did that last TV show with Brian.

FWIW, according to Foskett himself, not only was he kicked out because he seemingly showed up to every gig with a different woman on his arm, but also he had an ego the size of Texas (my words, not his) that the other guys didn't like. For these reasons, Carl asked him to leave.