The Smiley Smile Message Board

Does anybody know what caused Al and Mike to have a falling out in the 1990's? All I know is that it was bad enough that Mike tried to kick Al out of the group. In fact, Al missed a few shows. The official story was that Al had a "hearing problem".  ::) As a understand it, they never got along after that.

I think Mike accused Al of having 'mental health' and/or 'attitude' problems - a case of hypocrisy if ever I heard one!

Wow, he said that about Al? He should look in the mirror sometime.

Quite!

Two reasons: Al could sing better than Mike and Al also had more hair  than Mike- ;)

It appears to have started with Carl's getting sick and ceding control of the beach Boys touring band to Mike instead of Al, who as a musician (unlike Mike) must have felt frustrated not having say in song choice or musical arrangements.  I don't know the sequence of events after that, I'd be interested to know since at one time Mike and Al were allies against the "artistic" druggy Wilson Brothers Carl and Dennis, with Brian inbetween.

It started prior to Carl's illness. For specifics on the Mike/Al split see "The Lost Beach Boy" book...pages 216 - 222.

:lol plug!

Hey that sounds like a good read, i'll have to go and check that out.... ;)

Yeah, I was glad to see that Al took the "artistic" road after leaving Mike Love, the non-musician.

I was just listening to Al's artistic, ground-breaking Live In Las Vegas CD (check out that set list) and the recent gem, "PT Cruiser". Can't wait for the solo album. ::)

BTW, what did Al call one of his bands? The Endless Summer Beach band or something like that... 

Actually at that time, Girl Don't Tell Me, Breakaway, and Heroes and Villains hadn't been performed in years by the Beach Boys not to mention other songs  at Al's concerts: You Still Believe, Lookin At Tomorrow etc.  If you look at Mike's setlists from the same period, you will find Mike wasn't daring to perform these rarities at all until both Al and Brian did.

The Al/Mike fight never made sense to me. it was always them against the Wilson's. Their problems started a lot earlier than when Carl got sick. Mike tried to kick Al out of the group in the early 1990's. In Peter Carlin's book, it mentions that Mike tried to get Carl to help with getting Al fired.

In Mike's lawsuit with Brian, the court papers go on and on about Al having a "well known mental health issue" that has lasted "for 35 years".

Let me say that Mike and Al were both nice to me in the very limited contact I have had with them. I don't want to take sides here and I am not defending some of Mike's actions but I think Gary Usher had a run in with Al that might help you understand what Al's issues are or were. According to Gary, Al invested money in the Rachel and The Revolvers 45 and since the record flopped Al didn't make any money off of it. In 1986 a full 24 years later  Al confronted him about it because Jardine had considered it a loan. They had not seen each other in decades so Usher felt Al must have some real problems with anger and letting things go. Apparently Al was appeased when Gary offered to pay him back.  In his famous Goldmine 1992 interview Mike also hinted that Al had some anger issues and would not let go of past hurts.

I really don't know much else as to what problems Al might of had, but I do know I read that he walked off stage in the middle of a concert once for no apparent reason. Again he couldn't have been nicer to me, but perhaps he did have some problems in the late eighties to early nineties that ultimately made Mike not want to work with him. Before 1992 I thought they were close friends too.

I wonder if Al was merely being practical when he sided with Mike back in the mid-late 70s...

I think Al was a little bit angry because of the Cheerleader thing since 1986. But I think since Al didn't want to play "Somewhere Near Japan" live, he and Mike didn't get along with each other. Also, it must me real boring to perform just the hits, so that's too a reason.

" But I think since Al didn't want to play "Somewhere Near Japan" live...."   Fairly sure I recall an interview with Al (Goldmine, maybe, or The Record Collector) in which he denied this; in fact, he seemed to suggest it was someone else who didn't want to sing it.  Kinda odd since Mike's one of the co-writers, isn't he?  Unless he didn't know what it was about!

Al doesn't appear to have a mental illness other than quirks or flaws to his personality that everyone is guilty of. Considering all the crap Al had going on around him for the better part of 35 years, I think he ended up pretty damn normal.

In the end I also  think Al turned out as a pretty decent normal guy. My post was just to show why others may have been put off at times. Hope it isn't seen as negative.

One of the things that united Mike & Al, besides being non-Wilsons (and non-drug users) was the TM thing.  The both practiced it regularly and taught it as well. 

As Jon has said, after Dennis died Al apparently started feeling somewhat guilty about always siding with Mike against Carl and Dennis, and he became closer to Carl in the ensuing years. 

The first I ever read of an Al/Mike fued was back in late '88 or early '89, right after "Kokomo".  I didn't hear anything else about it until early '92, so I figured it was just a rumor, but I guess not.  My take now is that with the success of "Kokomo", Mike's head just grew to enormous proportions, and he started to get his way more than before (it's hard for anyone to argue with commerical success...at least anyone in the Beach Boys camp; no one dared challenge Brian, until "Pet Sounds" somewhat dismal reception).  Mike (with Terry Melcher and via John Phillips) had given the Boys their first Number One in over twenty years, and that gave Mike a LOT of clout.  Al probably found that hard to swallow.   

I think the best way to explain it is comparing it to a divorce:  something changes the balance in a marriage, and a once-happily married couple start to drift apart, until something unsurmountable finally occurs, and their differences become "irreconcilible".  Let's just be happy for both Mike and Al that they don't have to deal with one another anymore!

Your post makes a lot of sense. And it magnifies how ridiculous the talk of a Beach Boys reunion has been these last few years.

If this is true, I'm curious what Carl's reaction to Mike was. My guess is that Carl tried to keep things together as much as possible and wanted Al to stay on.

From everything I've read and been told, that is exactly right.  Carl was the "peace keeper".  Without him, Al and Mike had no reason to stay together.  Now Mike's version is that Al wanted HIM (Mike) gone, to the point of plotting a symphonic tour with Peter Cetera in the band, without Mike and behind Mike's back.  Two sides to every story, with the truth no doubt somewhere in-between (but probably leaning more toward Al's truth).

[ Now Mike's version is that Al wanted HIM (Mike) gone ]

As do most BBs fans!

Where do you got this from? I've never heard this story....

From MOJO, December 2004 (a great interivew/story on Mike)...Bill Holdship writes:
"Love reserves most of his current animosity for the other living original Beach Boy, Al Jardine, who he alleges tried to orchestrate a Beach Boys symphonic tour with Peter Cetera and Brian - but without Mike - the week Carl died from lung cancer in 1998.  There's a snide quality in his voice but still no real sense of anger.  "Carl was always the mediator in The Beach Boys, so his absence created a very big void.  I didn't feel like continuing with Al after that, so that launched the whole thing where Al went off and did his own thing and I did mine with Bruce.  It definitely created a schism which has lasted until this day.  Alan has repeatedly brought lawsuits against Brother Records.  But we've been successful at defending ourselves and so his antagonistic approach hasn't gotten him anywhere."

The way I understand it, Al voted with the others (Brian, Mike, and Carl's estate) to let Mike continue with the name "The Beach Boys" (for financial reasons, b/c they all get a cut of tour profits whether they tour or not), but apparently didn't realise that would create a problem with HIM being able to use that name in any of HIS bands. 

Bingo!

I think Al received some very bad legal advice there.  Its so funny to hear Mike Love call  someone else antagonistic.  :lol  If someone wants a definition of irony, THATS IT