Ahead of return to Tel Aviv, the 76-year-old Beach Boy founder and pop laureate shows no signs of slowing down.
By AMY SPIROBrian Wilson(photo credit: Courtesy)
Brian Wilson is not a man of many words.So when he takes the stage at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv next week, the Beach Boys founder is likely to do a lot more singing than talking. But he’ll just be giving the fans what they want.At his “greatest hits” show on August 7, Wilson will be joined by fellow Beach Boy Al Jardine and longtime collaborator Blondie Chaplin.In an email interview with The Jerusalem Post ahead of his show, Wilson said he is looking forward to returning to Tel Aviv just two years after his first-ever show in the Holy Land.“I just love the people,” he wrote. “I think they appreciate good music.” The singer said he found Israel to be a “beautiful country,” and on his list of things to do this time around is “eat Israeli food – I’ve heard it’s good food.”Unlike many artists who book concerts in Israel, Wilson said he hadn’t been pressured by anyone asking him to cancel the show or support the boycott movement.“I haven’t heard of that,” he wrote. “I hope people would come see the show. I just want to make people happy with my music.”And thousands of his fans will be turning out in Tel Aviv next week to hear that music – the songs that remain famous decades after they were recorded. Wilson, Jardine and Chaplin will surely give the fans what they want, playing everything from “Good Vibrations” to “God Only Knows,” “Surfin’ USA,” “I Get Around” and many more.Wilson said he is always thrilled to see how, even more than 50 years later, many of his songs are still beloved around the world: “People still love them, I can see that in every concert I do,” he said. “When I write a song, I do it from my heart.”After leaving Tel Aviv, Wilson will head to Italy, Germany and play half a dozen shows across the UK for the remainder of August. Throughout his more than 50-year musical career, the singer and songwriter has traveled around the globe, but says “I don’t have a favorite place to play. I like to have concerts all over the world – but I do have to say people in Europe appreciate music more than others.”
At 76, Wilson shows no signs of slowing down. In 2015 he released a new solo album, his 11th since the band broke up in the 1980s.“I’m not thinking about retirement at the moment,” Wilson said. “I’m having fun touring and making people happy all over the world.”The musician said he still likes to try new things musically, and is open to future collaborations and projects: “I want to do a rock-and-roll album in the future,” he wrote. “Covers and originals!”At his Tel Aviv show, he’ll try something new when much-loved Israeli rocker Danny Sanderson, who says he grew up listening to Beach Boys songs, joins him onstage for a couple tunes.Tickets for the show are available at leaan.co.il for NIS 204-NIS 695.
