"We're inseparable really in life and afterlife too": Mike Love gives a heartfelt tribute to Brian Wilson following his death

During an exclusive conversation with People, published on June 13, Mike Love gave a heartfelt tribute while remembering late bandmate Brian Wilson, who died on June 11. Mike's remarks came ahead of the 2025 Songwriters' Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on June 12.

"Well, I think what it is, Brian's with us tonight. I can feel his presence. You know, we co-created these great songs together, and so we're inseparable really in life and afterlife too, so I do really feel his presence and, yeah, I've known him all his life. I'm one year older," he said.

Mike Love and Brian Wilson were bandmates in the Beach Boys, a boy rock band that gained recognition in the early to mid-60s. Love and Wilson were also cousins, and co-writers in the band.

Mike Love pays tribute to bandmate Brian Wilson

Mike Love expressed his gratitude to his former bandmate, Brian Wilson, during his Songwriters Hall of Fame induction in New York on the night of June 12. Love said,

"I especially must thank my cousin Brian Wilson. My first cousin by blood but brother in music, together we set the stage for some of the most successful music collaborations of all time."

Love was inducted by John Stamos, who is a huge fan of the Beach Boys and had frequently collaborated with the band. In September 2016, while speaking to CBS Mornings, Love had opened up about the strained relationship he shared with Wilson. The Beach Boys was a family band, made up of the three Wilson brothers—Brian, Dennis and Carl—and cousin Mike and friend Al Jardine.

While Brian arranged the harmonies, Mike was the lead singer and often the main lyrics writer. However, Mike noted that Wilson's father, also the manager of the band, didn't give him credit early on:

"He never put my name on the label copy of the songs, so I never got paid, nor did I get credit for doing like 'Surfin USA', 'California Girls', 'Help me Rhonda', 'I Get Around.'"

In the early 1990s, Mike Love filed a lawsuit against Brian Wilson and won songwriting credits and royalties for 35 Beach Boys songs, after a jury declared that Wilson and his lawyers had failed to honor a promise regarding settlement of the sale of the band's songs.

Love had also asked for a third of a $10 million out-of-court settlement, which Wilson received in 1992 after alleging that the Beach Boys Sea of Tunes catalogue was fraudulently sold by his late father, Murry Wilson.

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