Beach Boys Founder Al Jardine | Saving the Oceans
episodePreviously titled “Beach Boys Founder Al Jardine Reveals the Ocean Story Nobody Talks About” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 6, 2026
Transcript
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Coming up. First thing we did was we ran to the ocean and drank. Don't take for granted. That your government's gonna fix it. The Great Barrier Reef was was ill, actually dying away. The oceans are are in danger.
Welcome back to Talking Foreign Affairs. Today we're diving into Oceans Conservation. And who better to join us than a founding member of the Beach Boys and the voice behind some of the most iconic ocean-inspired songs ever written? Al Jardine. He's part of one of the best selling bands in history, with over a hundred million records sold, and music that helped define coastal culture for generations. But for Owl, the ocean goes beyond just musical inspiration. It's something personal and something he's spent years working to protect. Now touring Australia starting this upcoming June with his Pet Sounds band. Shows running in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle. Tickets are now available on sale and selling fast.
Al, welcome to the programme.
Well thank you. That was very, very nice and very generous of you. I haven't sold a hundred million records in a while.
What inspired Al Jardine to join the conversation about ocean conservation?
I think that's a nice it sounds good, doesn't it? But the truth is the best gold records we ever got uh received, I should say. We're from Australia. And and I still have them hanging I have them hanging in my studio because they don't have glass on them. They have their I I don't know if they still do that, but they're they're just beautifully uh uh illuminated, you know, with a like a silver coating. Not a goal, not gold. It's just a beautiful silver on blue velvet.
Yeah, yeah, no, I can totally relate. I remember when I was visiting California, went to tours of the record companies, like you look back in the seventies and eighties and the way they used to recognize artists who had hit pattern them, would you k you'd get the frame in them, they'd sign the C D. So yeah, I wish they did bring that. Um, Al, I just wanna go back to your story growing up. Um, I understand with the so the Beatrice was five, you had the three brothers, uh Dennis, Carl, Brian and cousin Mike Love. They were born and grew up in California. You on the other hand, you were born in Ohio. Uh but then you moved to California. You spoke in yours of yourself as an immigrant from the East. The fact you didn't grow up along the ocean, but then you moved to the ocean after a couple of years.
Um, how did that develop an appreciation? The fact you didn't you weren't born with the ocean around you, uh, but it's something that you had having to move after a couple of years. What appreciation did that give to you?
Well, my brother and I, the first thing we did was we ran to the ocean and drank. We wanted to taste the salt water. And uh and of course the vastness. The huge the vastness of the ocean versus the lake. Uh we lived on freshwater lakes in the Midwest. Yeah, they're it's a whole different experience. But the ocean has so many more complexities and so many m more species in it that we learned a lot as we went along. But main p primarily we were we learned by swimming. And surfing. Uh about the waters there.
And when you think back to your first real bond with the ocean, what do you remember feeling before it ever became something you put into music?
Dennis Wilson was the was really the the ocean uh going beach boy. He inspired us to write the f the music.
Yeah.
And uh through him we we all learned a little bit. I learned how to surf because of Dennis Wilson. So we you know, we gathered around that cultural thing going on in Southern California. And in northern northern California actually all along the coast of California, surfing was started to be a craze. And we were the w first ones to put lyrics to surf music to give it a name and a following. Now
I was watching the documentary on Disney Plus and you're talking about trying to capture the mood of the generation at the time. Yeah. For some it was skating, for some it was surfing and sixties and seventies. But still I'm not sure if you're on TikTok. Your music still connects even with today's generation.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–1:17
2
What inspired Al Jardine to join the conversation about ocean conservation?
1:17–7:16
3
How did Al’s move from Ohio to California shape his love for the ocean?
7:16–10:10
4
What role did Dennis Wilson and early surf culture play in Al’s musical career?
10:10–16:24
5
How did Brian Wilson’s songwriting genius influence the Beach Boys’ sound?
16:24–20:25
6
Why does Al say the Great Barrier Reef and other oceans are in danger today?
20:25–25:22