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Stan Love and the Pacific Ocean Blue Tour

Is this why the Pacific Ocean Blue tour was canceled?

The album was widely praised by critics and Dennis hoped to launch a brief tour to keep the momentum going. It never happened. "We even had tour T-shirts printed," Jacobson says. "I don't know this for a fact, but many people swear that Stan Love, who was managing the group at the time, told Dennis that if he took POB on the road he wouldn't be a Beach Boy anymore. Whatever the reason, it threw Dennis into a tailspin." Dennis poured himself back into his music and planned to release Bambu, a follow-up based around songs cut for his debut. "The next album is 100 times better than Pacific Ocean Blue," Dennis told an interviewer in September 1977. "I have more confidence now that I've completed one project." Bambu remained unfinished, as Dennis' spiraling addictions kept him out of the recording studio. On December 28th, 1983 he drowned while swimming in the Pacific Ocean.

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07.21.2008 • Dennis Wilson • 1 feedback » • PermalinkPermalink

The Healing Power Of Basketball

Stan Love explains how basketball brought him closer to Brian Wilson:

Stan Love remembers it like it was yesterday, he and his cousin Brian Wilson, of the Beach Boys, sitting in the stands together watching a basketball game, eyes focused on Love's prodigiously skilled son, Kevin.

"Brian just kept turning to me and saying, 'Wow, he's good, he's really, really good,' " Love recalls, speaking of the 2006 game at Pauley Pavilion, played when Kevin was still in high school. "And I kept saying, 'You know what, Brian, you're right, he is really good.' "

The moment might have been a small one, but to Stan Love it was deeply meaningful. Through basketball, his son was helping close a fissure in a fractured family, a family important in these parts because they've helped define us.

Stan Love and Brian Wilson don't talk much these days, Stan says, but they are cordial. He recalls with pride that moment at Pauley. Brian hadn't seen Kevin in years, but there he sat, eyes glued on his cousin's talented son, astonished at how much he'd grown, at how good he was.

04.7.2008 • Brian Wilson, Mike Love • 1 feedback » • PermalinkPermalink

Oregon Takes Pot Shot At Brian

Apparently the University of Oregon's gripe with Stan and Kevin Love has now spread to the Wilson family:

The NCAA needs to step in, especially after what happened in Eugene, which went way beyond signs of "traitor" and boos at the foul line. What they chanted at Kevin, the best prep player to come out of the state and UCLA's leading scorer, were the filthiest, most distasteful and classless lines I have heard.

Let's put it this way: The most printable act was that they threw debris at his family sitting behind UCLA's bench.

This is a fairly talented family. I was in the stands the night Love broke Oregon's career scoring record against Denver, ironically, and also when he led Oregon over top-ranked UCLA in 1970. Stan's brother is Mike Love and his cousin is Brian Wilson, members of a pretty fair band called "The Beach Boys."

"He's had a few emotional problems over the years," Love said, "and they had a sign that said, 'Hey, Stan. Do you have any more coke for Brian?' "

02.26.2008 • Brian Wilson, Kevin Love • Send feedback » • PermalinkPermalink

No Love For the Loves

The Oregon Pit Crew displayed an absolute lack of affection for anything Wilson or Love at a recent basketball game:

EUGENE, Ore. -- UCLA Coach Ben Howland was unhappy with the behavior of the crowd at Oregon's McArthur Court on Thursday night, characterizing some of the personal references made at the expense of Bruins freshman center Kevin Love, Love's father Stan and members of Stan's family as "vile, disgusting, inappropriate innuendo."

Referring to a local newspaper, which described the behavior of the notorious student fan group called the Pit Crew, Howland said, "They referred to one of the lines and said it wasn't the worst ever. What was the worst? I feel bad when it happens to anybody."

Signs were held up that referred to past issues with drug abuse and mental illness suffered by Stan Love's cousin Brian Wilson, who was a member of the Beach Boys. Stan's brother, Mike Love, also a member of the band, was at the UCLA-Oregon game.

"It was totally out of hand," said Stan, who sat about five rows up from the floor Thursday. "I had friends with me from New York and Florida who said if Oregon was the last university on the planet they wouldn't send kids to that school."

There were several signs and chants calling Kevin "fat," and others that questioned his and Stan's sexuality.

Greg Walker, a spokesman for the Oregon athletic department, acknowledged that some of the chants and signs were in poor taste. "But the other side of this is a free speech issue," Walker said. "We don't have the authority to take away signs. We don't agree with all the things that were said or that they were in the best of taste. We're aware of everything that was said and we're not always proud. But there is a right to free speech."

Some members of the Pit Crew held up signs with Kevin Love's cellphone number, and Love said he had more than 400 messages on the phone.

01.26.2008 • Mike Love, Kevin Love • Send feedback » • PermalinkPermalink