‘FRAGILE’

John Stamos Shares Heartbreaking Update on Beach Boys Star

The band has canceled performances throughout the summer.

John Stamos has revealed that his friend, Mike Love, is facing “serious health challenges.”

Stamos shared a lengthy update on Sunday, as he headed to perform with Love, the 85-year-old Beach Boys legend, and the band in Nashville, Tennessee. The actor has performed with the music group, which Love co-founded, since the ‘80s.

“I’ve played with Mike for 41 years. I never imagined how deeply it would affect me to see someone larger than life face something so human and fragile,” Stamos, 63, wrote on Instagram.

“My beloved friend, father figure, musical hero and mentor, Mike Love, is facing serious health challenges,” he continued. “We hope he’ll be doing what he loves for years to come, but we don’t know what the future holds. We have tonight.”

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“Mike is a fighter. Despite doctors, family and friends urging him to focus on his health, he insists on being on stage. He says he needs his band, the audience, his friends and drummer surrounding him to lift him up,” he said.

He added that “the Mike Love we see tonight may not be exactly the Mike we’ve always known. But he’s still every bit the Mike we love.”

Stamos’ message came after the band’s Saturday performance in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Love’s son Christian Love and Stamos helped the musician onto the stage. The Full House actor said that despite his health issues, Love “would not miss tonight.”

“It’s what he loves the most,” Stamos told the audience before the show. “He loves the audience, he loves the music. He knows how important it is to all of you. So we’re all here to support him and give him as much love as we can.”

Love remained seated throughout the performance, singing back-up vocals and thanking the audience for coming, according to the Guardian. Variety reports that Love remained “largely motionless for the entire show.”

The Beach Boys canceled a series of performances since July as Love encountered health crises.

In his statement, Stamos said that Love has made him “a better musician, entertainer and man.”

“Mike didn’t just give me a place in his band. He gave me a place in his life. He taught me how to entertain, hold a stage, connect with an audience and make people feel something. I carry those lessons everywhere,” he said. “This life with Mike and the Beach Boys has become part of my identity. I’ve felt entrusted with being a steward of this extraordinary music, carrying it to new generations.”

“Maybe the hardest part of loving someone is becoming so accustomed to the miracle of having them there that you forget it’s a miracle at all. Tonight,” he wrote on the eve of the band’s Nashville performance, “I won’t forget.”

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Love has been open about his personal struggles, telling fans in June that he was recovering from bronchitis and COVID and the loss of family members. “Losing my sister, Maureen, on the first anniversary of cousin Brian’s death, combined with my ongoing recovery from what started out as bronchitis, followed by Covid, has taken both an emotional and physical toll on me,” he wrote.

“I feel stronger every day physically, but I am heartbroken emotionally. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else than with our audience. For me, our audience is the medicine, and the music is the cure. Thank you all for your outpouring of love, well wishes, and healing prayers. I am deeply humbled and grateful.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to Love’s representatives for comment.

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