Happy Eightieth Birthday Alan Jardine

And Remembering His Friend and Bandmate Billy Hinsche

Beach Boy Alan Jardine turns eighty today. He is an under appreciated songwriter (it would be hard not to be alongside those boys). Here he wrote about a California I’ve never known (it was gone by the time I was old enough to appreciate it).

While I didn’t know a freer, more dynamic, more vibrant, more reasonable California, and I never saw Alan Jardine with The Beach Boys, I was fortunate to see him live in California twice: At the Roxy in West Hollywood on March 20, 2012 and at The Canyon Club Santa Clarita on October 12, 2018 (if my memory is accurate). The former was a record release party for his album A Postcard from California and occurred shortly before he rejoined The Boys for their fiftieth anniversary tour. The latter was a much mellower affair, accompanied by one other musician: his son Matt. In 2012, the band included long-time Beach Boys auxiliaries including Billy Hinsche. Billy was a member of Dino, Desi, and Billy with Dino Martin and Desi Arnaz, Jr. He was Carl Wilson’s first brother-in-law and sang and played as part of The Boys’ entourage for decades. In 2020 and 2021, he had a lively weekly show on Saturday nights. He generously sent me an autographed DVD when I won one of his weekly trivia contests (he was also a director and directed several documentaries about The Boys). He entered 2021 healthful and happy. Around this time last year, he suddenly stopped producing his weekly live show. He died on Saturday, November 20, 2021 (coincidentally, my last day in Los Angeles and one of the worst days of my life) after another mysterious brief illness. He was seventy. (Another odd coincidence: His nonagenarian mother died the same day.) One of my last social media posts the following morning before driving east was a share of Mike Love’s moving encomium for Billy.

Happy birthday Alan Jardine, and Rest In Peace Billy Hinsche