The Beach Boys come to Key West!

The Beach Boys come to Key West! - A group of people posing for the camera - Mike Love
The boys are back in town. CONTRIBUTED

The iconic American rock group the Beach Boys will visit Key West on Thursday, April 4, at Sunset Green.

The Beach Boys – members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – play a busy schedule of concerts, averaging 150 shows a year, ranging from summer festivals to New Year’s celebrations and special events across the globe. VIP packages are available at TheBeachBoys.com & MikeLove.com.

The band is led by Mike Love and Bruce Johnston – along with Jeffrey Foskett, Tim Bonhomme, John Cowsill, Keith Hubacher, Christian Love and Scott Totten.

Love’s role as the band’s front man sometimes overshadows his stature as a songwriter. “Surfin’,” The Beach Boys’ first hit, came from his pen. Love wrote the classics “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” “Help Me Rhonda,” “California Girls” and the Grammy nominated “Good Vibrations.” Years later, he showed he still had the lyrical chops by co-writing “Kokomo.” Additionally, Love released his highly-anticipated New York Times best-selling memoir, “Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy,” in September 2016.

Johnston, a Grammy-winning songwriter, joined The Beach Boys in 1965, replacing Glen Campbell, who had filled in for Brian Wilson when he retired from touring. Johnston’s vocal work with such legendary artists as Elton John and Pink Floyd established him among rock’s elite artists.

In 2013, their Capitol Records release, “Sounds of Summer” (with more than 3 million in sales), and its companion “The Warmth of the Sun” marked a resurgence in Beach Boys interest.

The band could have retired years ago, confident in its contribution to world culture. It could have rested on the success of the “Pet Sounds” masterpiece in 1966, or after Love’s concept album “Endless Summer” ignited a second generation of Beach Boys fans, or after recording the Golden Globe-nominated “Kokomo” in 1988 and seeing it become its best-selling single ever, or after being inducted that year into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Now, the band’s worldwide album sales total more than l00 million and, in 2001, the Beach Boys won a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 (along with The Who, Bob Marley, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr. and Les Paul) from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences – now simply the Recording Academy, home of the Grammys.

On The Beach Boys’ horizon is a continued national/world tour and charity activities through Mike Love’s Love Foundation, which supports national environmental and educational initiatives. Love and The Beach Boys’ recent efforts raised more than $250,000 for the Red Cross to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina and made additional contributions to disaster relief in Haiti.

—Contributed

Ramshead presents
The Beach Boys
At Sunset Green Event Lawn
Thursday, April 4
6:30 p.m. Doors / 7:30 p.m. Show