Heading to Twin Cities for July 4th, Al Jardine will honor fellow Beach Boy Brian Wilson

Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine hadn’t thought about the obvious: how to honor the Beach Boys’ guiding light Brian Wilson on Friday when Jardine returns to the stage for the first time since Wilson’s death on June 11.

“Since most of the songs are written by Brian, it is a tribute to Brian,” Jardine said. “In fact, our latest posters and social media were changed to say ‘Presenting a tribute to Brian Wilson and the music of the Beach Boys.’ It’s going to be tough getting through ‘God Only Knows.’ That’s a tearjerker right now.”

That first appearance will be a July 4 concert at Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Prior Lake followed by fireworks. The show will feature a revamped group now billed as Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band.

Jardine premiered his storyteller’s A Postcard from California show in Minneapolis in 2018 at the Dakota. The Beach Boys also did their first Christmas concert in Minneapolis that year at the Orpheum Theatre. And now it’s the inaugural gig of the Pet Sounds Band, formerly known as the Brian Wilson Band.

Is there something about the Twin Cities to kick things off?

“It appears that was the first offer that came in. So we grabbed it,” Jardine said last week during a break in rehearsals. “I always enjoy being there.”

Maybe it’s those Midwest farmers daughters, mentioned not only in the 1965 hit “California Girls” but also in the ’63 deep track “Farmer’s Daughter.”

“We should do that song, doggone it,” Jardine said.

The singer/guitarist last saw Wilson about a month ago. It was a casual stop-by. Wilson was in good spirits, starting the conversation by saying, “Al, you started the group.”

“We had a good laugh over that. I said, ‘You had something to do with it, too.’ He was very unfiltered, always ready to speak his mind.”

Jardine didn’t sense it would be their last time together.

“I thought he was getting better. They were monitoring him. He had good people around him all the time. His body just gave out.”

In the studio, Wilson, the boy genius, was the boss of his younger brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and Jardine as they learned “Surfin’,” “Help Me, Rhonda” and “Good Vibrations.”

“He was a taskmaster,” Jardine said with no hint of complaints. “We were his vocal instruments from the very first day we ever got together. He was dealing out the parts to us. In his head, the vision was already there. All we had to do was interpret it for him.

“Some of the best songs ever written. Oh, here comes another Picasso, oh, here comes another Renoir. We were the paint. It was such a joy to do that. What a gift to the rest of us, let alone the world.”

Jardine’s tone became upbeat as he reflected on his lifelong pal and bandmate.

“His brother Carl always said that Brian wrote music of joy. Brian would say: ‘Music is God speaking.’ Isn’t that great? Coming from the source, literally.”

Jardine and Wilson played football together in high school, at fullback and quarterback, respectively.

“He could throw the ball a mile. He was really accurate. Neither of us were great players. He was a better baseball player, from what I understand. He was a great athlete.”

In later years, Wilson, troubled by acid trips and mental health issues, withdrew from the Beach Boys, both in the studio and on tour. But the group pressed on, often with acrimony and litigation between Wilson and Love, who leads his own incarnation of the Beach Boys. Wilson returned to the road as a solo act in 1999 and worked sporadically with Jardine until retiring in 2022.

Jardine talked to Love shortly after Wilson’s death.

“We had a very pleasant conversation, with shared memories. All the bad stuff goes away when you get down to it. We were all here for the right reasons. We had a wonderful career, and we’re going to carry on.”

Jardine’s rebranded band (named after the Beach Boys’ 1966 classic album) comes with his new EP, “Islands in the Sun.”

The title song opens with unexpected, un-Beach Boys-like harmonies that were built unplanned by Jardine and his son, Matt, who is in the Pet Sounds Band.

“It reminds me of Paul Simon’s African singers, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and the ‘Lion King’ style of singing,” Jardine said. “Matt did a great job and I found a new baritone; I didn’t realize I could sing that low. It’s got that mysterious sound to it. It was my favorite arrangement I’ve ever done.”

The second tune, “My Plane Leaves Tomorrow (Au Revoir),” is an antiwar piece featuring guest appearances by Neil Young and Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“I thought: What would I do if I was just getting out of high school and there aren’t too many opportunities out there? I’d probably have to join the Army or Air Force or Navy. I asked Neil if he’d sing the answers. So he sings the plaintive, very beautiful, sorrowful, melancholy thing: ‘My plane leaves tomorrow but don’t say goodbye.’”

Bassist Flea, who lives near Jardine, visited with his trumpet.

“I didn’t realize he played trumpet. We were searching for a part, some kind of emotional charge,” Jardine recalled. “We ended up with him playing ‘taps’ at the end of the song. He sounds terrific, like Wynton Marsalis, that amazing quality. It’s very touching.”

This fall, the Beach Boys will offer a boxed set of “The Beach Boys Love You” from 1977 that was essentially a Brian Wilson solo album. Planned before his death, the reissue is yet another way to honor him.

“The music will go on forever,” Jardine assured. “He was the best. He knew how to write a few good melodies. ‘It’s all about the voices,’ Brian would say. And we had some pretty good ones.”

Opening: Doug Collins.

When: 5 p.m. Fri.

Fireworks: 10 p.m.

Where: Mystic Amphitheater, Mystic Lake Casino, 2400 Mystic Lake Blvd., Prior Lake

Tickets: Free, lawn chairs allowed