Mike Love Quotes

“Because of the inherent challenges of life on the earth, all of humanity is vulnerable. This is all the more reason to seek the kingdom of heaven within and find the peace that leads to understanding.”

— Mike Love

“I know there's millions of problems in the world, but if you dwell on those, then you're going to be miserable. I think my meditation helps me to transcend and get beyond the grip of all the negativity and regenerate from within a more positive attitude, which comes in very handy when you're going to do 150 concerts a year.”

— Mike Love

“If we all take the time to listen and love each other, this world would be a better place.”

— Mike Love

“I've had an incredible life with a lot of triumphs, my share of heartbreak, and some pretty amazing experiences.”

— Mike Love

“I love playing the Hard Rocks; they've got a great stage, great lighting, great sound, and not so humongous; its more intimate, so we love playing theaters and clubs where the audience has a really good chance to see and hear the group and where the acoustics are good. I like it when we can hear what we're doing.”

— Mike Love

“One of the most important lessons we can glean from the environmental movement is to 'think globally and act locally.'”

— Mike Love

“Keep a cool head and a warm heart.”

— Mike Love

“If you look at the history of music, you have classical composers, church music, pop music, etc. Music that's existed for centuries. I think there are some songs that are close to immortal. They will last longer than we will in this lifetime.”

— Mike Love

I think my philosophy in music has been to accentuate the positive.

— Mike Love

“As you get older, you either become proactive about staying in shape and taking care of yourself, or, you know, time has its effect on you.”

— Mike Love

“I learned that when you do the best job that you can do, some people will idolize you, others won't care, and some will vilify you.”

— Mike Love

“If you ask any couple who have been married 50 years or longer, they will tell you they've experienced it all. The same is true of the Beach Boys.”

— Mike Love

“The name 'The Beach Boys' is controlled by Brother Records Inc., which was founded by the original members of the Beach Boys and whose sole shareholders voted over a decade ago to grant me an exclusive license to tour as 'The Beach Boys.' With it, I've felt a great responsibility to uphold, honor and further our legacy.”

— Mike Love

We've had hassles, ups and downs, ins and outs, failures and triumphs. We're human beings, and we're not perfect. And we're mortal. But the Beach Boys is musically a tremendous body of work that transcends individuality and time and national boundaries.

— Mike Love

“I'm the lead singer of the Beach Boys and an ambassador of this amazing music that touched a generation.”

— Mike Love

“Mankind invents things to fight about.”

— Mike Love

“I meditate every day, which is profoundly restful and restorative. It wipes out a lot of the fatigue. That's my secret weapon.”

— Mike Love

“I never thought of myself as a really particularly great singer.”

— Mike Love

“The '60s was a time of unthinkabilities.”

— Mike Love

The history of mankind is a history of war.

— Mike Love

“Without meditation, I'd probably be dead.”

— Mike Love

“By 1968, both The Beatles and The Beach Boys had plenty of fame - we were looking for something deeper. The Maharishi taught us how to go beyond thinking and action in order to grow from within.”

— Mike Love

People meditate themselves because they are just trying to feel better, and transcendental meditation is a natural mental technique that you can perform and that provides that relaxation and also a little bit of broader perspective.

— Mike Love

“People say the Beatles were John Lennon. What is Paul McCartney? Chopped liver? But everyone has their own favourite members whose creativity they gravitate to. That's normal.”

— Mike Love

“During meditation your metabolism and your breath rate go down to a level of rest, twice that of deep sleep.”

— Mike Love

Meditation was a turning point for me. It helped me deal with a lot of stress and has given me a lot of relaxation.

— Mike Love

“Some people are denizens of the studio. I'm more of a denizen of the live appearance. I love the live thing.”

— Mike Love

“There's the historical part of The Beach Boys' music; it's pretty incredible, pretty vast and pretty varied too.”

— Mike Love

“I actually have heard of acts who only do their new album, and don't do their hits. I've never been in that mind set.”

— Mike Love

“I think between The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and innumerable acts after that ... rock music became a huge economic force.”

— Mike Love

“I'm a songwriter. I need silence to hear the melodies, so I don't fill the days with a lot of sound.”

— Mike Love

“If Frank and The Beach Boys got together and did a Super Session album, it would be a gas.”

— Mike Love

You can't sustain a fan base on a great catalog alone. You must take your music directly to the people.

— Mike Love

I'd like to do something with Bruno Mars if we ever got the opportunity.

— Mike Love

The Beach Boys was a family hobby that we turned into a profession. We're very blessed.

— Mike Love

“You have to be careful not to get overexposed.”

— Mike Love

I wrote all the lyrics on 'Good Vibrations' and most of them in 'Kokomo.' 'Kokomo' was extremely popular and fun to sing - it's probably one of the bigger sing-along songs in our show. But then 'Help Me Rhonda,' 'Surfin' USA' and 'California Girls' and 'I Get Around' and 'Fun, Fun, Fun' are great songs as well.

— Mike Love

“Every summer, my grandparents would rent a house on Balboa Island. They had the house next to Bob Hope's. I've been going down there all my life, to that whole area.”

— Mike Love

“Everybody has their own appreciation of the Beach Boys, depending on where they're coming from with their musical tastes, so we tried to be representative of all eras and of everybody in the band and their contributions.”

— Mike Love

“I think the Beach Boys' legacy is 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' you know? We're calling our next tour '50 Years of Fun, Fun, Fun.' By and large, the Beach Boys' legacy is about incredibly positivity. We've traveled around the world and uplifted the spirits of hundreds of millions of people. Our sound is one of the most recognizable in all of music.”

— Mike Love

“The music I have created, along with the other Beach Boys, has taken me all over the world. For these past 50 years, I guess you could say, 'I get around.'”

— Mike Love

“'The Warmth of the Sun' was a very beautiful song that Brian and I wrote in the time period associated with President Kennedy's assassination. We didn't write words about that, but it was around that time we recorded that song, and there's a lot of emotion involved there.”

— Mike Love

What we look for when we need to find someone who can fit in with our music, the vocals and the harmonies and the way they blend are very important to us because if you listen to Beach Boys music, the harmonies, not only are the notes being sung, but there's a blend to it. The voices have to blend.

— Mike Love

Writing songs with Brian and performing them with Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, David Marks, Bruce Johnston and many other brilliant musicians over the years is my legacy, and something of which I am very proud and protective.

— Mike Love

The problem with popularity is that if it gets too popular everybody leaves and goes somewhere else.

— Mike Love

Love is probably the most powerful force in the cosmos, capable of creating miracles. Love can manifest in so many ways - love between parent and child, husband and wife, partner and partner, teacher and student, service volunteer and recipient, God and one's spirit. The manifestations of love are innumerable.

— Mike Love

There are a few good 'psych' groups but too many never change from their first appearance. They don't develop.

— Mike Love

“I was in the oil business for a while
gas and oil, check the tires.”

— Mike Love

“My greatest struggle is to coexist while watching the people I love choose less than life-supporting paths via drugs, alcohol, or poor lifestyle decisions. There is so much to life; my heart breaks watching someone held captive by addiction.”

— Mike Love

“On a personal level, I would like my loved ones to know that I have always done the best that I could to demonstrate my love, and worked hard to provide them with a sense of security. On a more global level, I would like to see that my efforts, whether with the Beach Boys or as an individual, achieve as much benefit to humanity as possible during my lifetime. Peace and love!”

— Mike Love