“When I look back on my career, I am amazed to see how much of an impact our music still has. I feel especially glad that when people hear our songs it reminds them to appreciate the earth, ocean and the air and makes them feel good about themselves.” – Alan Jardine

Alan Jardine puts his money where his mouth is by doing all that he can to better the environment both personally and through his position as rhythm guitarist and vocalist for The Beach Boys. A soft-spoken family man who loves rolling hillsides, the ocean and Arabian horses, Alan is a down-to-earth artist who writes his own music in a studio built into a renovated barn on his ranch in Big Sur, California. An avid recycler and tireless activist for organizations such as Greenpeace, the Cousteau Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Surfrider Foundation, he is married to Mary Ann and is father to twin boys Robbie and Drew (11), Adam (26) and Matthew (30) who performs and tours with The Beach Boys.

Born in Ohio on September 3, 1942, Alan and his family moved to Hawthorne, California in 1955. While attending Hawthorne High School, he met Brian Wilson and after graduation joined up again with Brian at El Camino Community College. There, they would often sneak into the music room together to work on various song constructions and subsequently get kicked out as teachers discovered them at the piano. They also worked on putting together a band, but found no likely candidates amongst their college-mates. It was then that Brian suggested that Alan meet his brothers Carl and Dennis and their cousin Mike Love. They created musical positions for everyone in the family and each of them learned to play their respective instruments by ear.

Alan taught himself guitar from the minimal experience he had playing the ukulele as a kid. Prior

to becoming a Beach Boy, Alan’s only other band experience was in high school when he was a member of a folk group called The Islanders.

Although it wasn’t intentional when The Beach Boys began making music in 1961, the band has, through the mere metaphor of their name, been raising environmental awareness to fans all over the world. Dennis and Alan were passionate surfers who would load up Al’s 1950 Ford with a beer cooler and scout the best breaks along the Southern California coast. Dennis actually taught him how to surf and they continued on their “surfing safaris” together until Al’s board was burned into a glob of fiberglass from an inspired arsonist fire. Seeing these areas become polluted over the years is what began to raise an environmental cognizance in Alan and the rest of the band.

As the 1970’s approached, Jardine began to take more organized environmental action and joined the Cousteau Society. He and Mike Love were meditating regularly and expanding their inner consciousness which naturally exuded outward into musical messages. He co-wrote songs such as “Don’t Go Near the Water” with Love and the band recorded albums with specific environmental messages such as the masterpiece “Surf’s Up” and a song titled “Santa Ana Winds.” Alan’s lyric from “Don’t Go Near the Water” was quoted in a Time magazine article that discussed the realities of environmental damage: “toothpaste and soap will make the ocean a bubble bath, so let’s avoid an ecological aftermath.” The “surf sound,” created by The Beach Boys, continues to raise that sensibility in music lovers, as their records receive more airplay globally than even the Beatles.

Aside from his surfing experiences, Alan notes that there were a few poignant episodes that continue to personally inspire him to make contributions to keeping the planet healthy. The most significant was when he discovered that a partial hearing loss was attributable to a bacterial infection he contracted from swimming in the Lake Ontario as a boy. When driving through Carmel Valley in California years ago, his son, Adam, pointed out that the white ranch fences, when examined closer, were made out of recycled bottles. It was at this time, that he became a confirmed recycler. He thought that if the empty Evian bottles he used to discard could contribute to the beautification of the environment, then he needed to take personal responsibility.

Alan reflects, “My recycling-mania has been known to drive my family a little nuts, but I know my efforts positively influence the landfills and the attitude of people around me. I can’t help but notice that an expanded environmental consciousness is moving beyond individuals into the mainstream and even the federal government; that’s a big change from years ago and pretty cool.”

Keeping in line with his observation about the growing collective environmental consciousness, Alan recently accepted an appointment as spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency’s and Department of Energy’s Energy Star Program. He will be speaking on behalf of The Beach Boys this August to educate concert-goers about how to reduce energy bills and combat air pollution by looking for the Energy Star label – the symbol for energy efficiency.

Alan believes The Beach Boys have a responsibility to illustrate the importance of protecting the environment to the rest of the world. “In California, we are surrounded by the elements: the ocean, desert and a beautiful, but dry, tinder environment that can be ignited in a heartbeat, so this makes us a little more aware. We are not going to lecture our audience, but hopefully teach by example of the way we live.”
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