Where are you getting your info?

Yeah, and the Beatles were so down to earth, right?

1. Someone who was there.
2. Probably not- bet they were referred to around the M's place as "those as*holes from the Mersey" or "the Merseyas*holes."  Only one that was nice was good old Donovan, who knew not to f*** with the formula.
Nevertheless, I suspect that the Lennon quote is accurate.  Too bad he didn't live to hear Mike's Rock and Roll HOF induction speech.

Forgive me for returning to the topic of this chain, but my understanding is that Mr. Love brought cases of his finest Sunset Strip rock star duds to the ashram and changed several times a day to show one and all what a fab dude he was.  From the photos, his boss duds, combined with a comb-over that is absolutely Trumpian in nature,  cut him a figure that, coupled with his pleasing personal charm, earned him the reported moniker of "that a**hole from America" from all others present.
Back to trashing Van Dyke, fun-seekers.

Thanks for that clarification, Jon. Looks like, once the money really started flowing, Murry and company had an agonizing reappraisal of who got to share the dough (particularly if his name wasn't Wilson or Love). So, David Marks (and his 20% share) were out, replaced by a returning and chastened Al, fresh from dental school and willing to take just a salary to get back in.  Voila: the three Wilsons and Love each get upped 5%! Even if Murry was out as manager, this familial philosophy seems to have survived. 
Interesting that, after Rhonda and Al's bout with the "flu," (other than the British Then She Kissed Me from Summer Days), he didn't sang lead on a BB single until 1970's Cottonfields, well after the hitmaking, money machine years had become but a fond memory. They weren't going to make that mistake again, I'll bet.  I still think that there's a very interesting story behind Al's absence from (and Bruce's near inclusion on) the Summer Days cover, and that it is more financial than intestinal!
Any chance someone could ask Al or Bruce what the real deal was?

Thanks for you thoughts on this, Jon and others. At the risk of sounding like Oliver Stone, though, your disclosure that the non-family members  were just nominally paid sidemen confirms my suspicions.  The fact remains that Al WAS on the cover of ASL- but was not on that of Summer Days.  That Bruce happened to be on the boat that day and was photographed with the others in virtually the same shot  that was on the cover (but without him) leads me to believe that he was placed in the wings just in case Al didn't recover from his "flu."  I'll bet that, in those days, Bruce was thrilled just to be added to the group and was less demanding financially than a founder like Al would have been, particularly with the vocal of a just-out BB top ten single under Al's belt.  Didn't the Mamas and Papas pull the same thing on Michelle, changing an album cover to replace her face with that of her successor and telling her that they would release it to put her in her place?  Nice folks all around.

From the bootlegged session tapes for the Rhonda single, it sure seems that Murry was still around, at the time of  Summer Days,  making his influence felt in his special way. Murry may have been "fired," according to the Official Story, but his business practices would appear to have remained. It's not like such heavy-handed treatment of the unrelated members of the group had no precedent.  Ask David Marks.
I just don't buy the "Al was sick for the session" explanation. Doesn't ring true.

I have a question for you about Al and his absence from the Summer Days cover. When the LP came out, I always thought that the flu bug reason offered for why he wasn't pictured seemed to ring a little false. Can you imagine, for example, the cover of Rubber Soul excluding George because he happened to be at the dentist that day? Anyhow, since photos from the cover shoot emerged in the 80s including Bruce on the boat with the Wilsons and Mike, I have always suspected that Al might have committed some violation of Murry's rules and was kicked out. Maybe he was demanding to be a full participating member, particularly in light of his new prominence as lead singer on the successful Help Me Ronda/Rhonda.  This would have decreased Murry's boys' and his nephew's shares.  As I recall from reports, Al didn't go from salaried employee to partner until the 70s, when things were a little more bleak, success-wise, for the group. Of course, it was around the time of the boat shoot that Bruce's voice first became apparent in the backgrounds of California Girls, and he was filling in on the road for Brian, so his possible replacement for Al in the lineup would make chronological sense. Was this a Murry powerplay- back down, Al, or you're history, smoothed over when Al did back down?
Thanks.