Which Members of the Beach Boys Are Still Alive?
The legendary rock band the Beach Boys formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California, with an original lineup consisting of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. Releasing their first album, the iconic Surfin’ Safari, in 1962, the Beach Boys quickly gained fame for their “California Sound,” characterized by intricate vocal harmonies and upbeat songs that celebrated surfing, cars and youth culture. Their debut single, “Surfin’,” along with “Surfin’ Safari” and “409” all cracked the Top 100.
Music critics were underwhelmed, but the public fell in love with the fellas’ wholesome, beach-bound looks and summery sounds — even if they were thousands of miles away from surf-able swells, and the closest they’d get to a Woodie was their dad’s wood-paneled Ford Country Squire wagon.
In 1963, “Surfin U.S.A” took the Beach Boys to the top. And though the British Invasion would put something of a damper on their meteoric rise, the Beach Boys’ signature sound had woven itself into the fabric of music history.
By the early ’80s, the band’s core lineup began to dwindle Dennis Wilson, then 39, drowned in 1983. Brother Carl, 51, died of lung cancer in 1998. A tenacious survivor of physical and mental health challenges for much of his adult life, Brian Wilson passed away on June 11, 2025
So who is still alive from the Beach Boys’ original — or close to it — members?
Al Jardine, David Marks, Frank Marshall, Brian Wilson, Blondie Chaplin, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney
Mike Love (84)
Love, a cousin of the Wilson brothers, is still touring a licensed version of the Beach Boys and performing their hits, along with longtime bandmate Bruce Johnston. Given his long running legal battles with Brian Wilson over rights to the band’s name, royalties, and songwriting credits, Love can be a polarizing figure with lifelong Beach Boys fans, even as he keeps their music in the public eye.
Al Jardine (83)
A longtime pal of the Wilson Brothers, Jardine also had in hand in penning many of the Beach Boys’ songs, and sang lead on the irresistible “Help Me Rhonda.” Jardine left the band in 1998 after Carl Wilson died, but in 2012, he joined Brian Wilson, Love and Johnston for a new Beach Boys album, That’s Why God Made the Radio, and joined his bandmates on a 50th anniversary reunion tour.
Jardine still performs music, often with his son Matt. And, according to his official website, he plans to reassemble Brian Wilson’s band as the “Pet Sounds Band” and perform a series of shows that would include songs from The Beach Boys mid-to-late 70’s catalog of albums. He also plans to release a new EP called Islands In The Sun on the Universal Music label.
Bruce Johnston (82)
Though he wasn’t there when the Beach Boys took shape in the Wilson family garage, Johnston joined the ranks in 1965 as a temporary replacement for Brian Wilson. Wilson had taken a leave of absence and was first replaced by Glen Campbell. Campbell left, Johnston stepped in, and is still performing Beach Boys tunes with Mike Love today.
A talented songwriter in his own right, Johnston won the “Song of the Year” Grammy in 1977 for Barry Manilow’s smash “I Write the Songs.”
David Marks (76)
Calling himself “The Lost Beach Boy” in the 2007 book he co-authored with Jon Stebbins, Marks was also a Wilson family neighbor who sometimes joined in the Beach Boys’ earliest incarnation. Considerably younger than the other bandsmen, Marks nonetheless stepped in for Al Jardine when he left the Beach Boys in 1962 and played rhythm guitar on their earliest and most popular hits. His guitar style particularly complemented Carl Wilson’s. “We became one guitar,” Marks said in an interview with The Strange Brew. “He would take off and do a solo and I would back him up with the heavy one/five rhythm and stuff.”
After four albums as a Beach Boy, Marks left the band in 1963, following clashes with the brothers’ dad Murry Wilson, but returned from 1997 to 1999. Marks also rejoined the Beach Boys in 2012 for their fiftieth-anniversary tour and played guitar That’s Why God Made the Radio.
Remind 
1965
February 2025
Flashback to 1965 and celebrate the very best of TV, Movies, Music, Fashion & more!
Buy This Issue