John Stamos has shared an emotional update about his longtime friend and Beach Boys co-founder Mike Love, revealing that the 85-year-old music legend is dealing with “serious health challenges.”
The 63-year-old Full House actor told followers on Instagram Sunday that he was traveling to Nashville to join Love for a Beach Boys performance at the Ryman Auditorium. Despite his ongoing health struggles, Stamos said, Love remains determined to take the stage.
Stamos, who has performed with the band as a guest musician since the 1980s, explained that doctors, relatives and close friends have encouraged Love to prioritize his recovery. Love, however, believes he needs the support of his bandmates and fans to help carry him through.
The heartfelt message followed the Beach Boys’ first public concert in three months, held Saturday in Cincinnati. During that appearance, Love appeared visibly frail and remained seated in a chair throughout the performance.
Alongside two photos of himself with Love, Stamos wrote that he was boarding a flight for Nashville and finding it difficult to express the emotions surrounding the upcoming show.
“My beloved friend, father figure, musical hero and mentor, Mike Love, is facing serious health challenges,” Stamos wrote. “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.”
John Stamos, 63, shared an emotional health update about longtime friend and Beach Boys icon Mike Love, 85, saying the singer is facing “serious health challenges”; the pair are seen together in 2016
Calling Love a fighter, Stamos said the singer has chosen to continue performing despite pleas from those closest to him. Love has told them that being surrounded by his band, audience, friends and drummer helps “lift him up,” according to Stamos.
Stamos added that he has spent 41 years performing alongside Love and never expected it to affect him so deeply to watch someone he viewed as larger than life confront such a vulnerable, human moment.
He also cautioned concertgoers that the Mike Love appearing in Nashville might not look or perform exactly as he has in the past.
“The Mike Love we see tonight may not be exactly the Mike we’ve always known,” Stamos wrote. “But he’s still every bit the Mike we love.”
He praised Love’s songwriting, upbeat spirit and instantly recognizable melodies, noting that more than 7,000 concerts have allowed the singer to bring happiness to several generations. Stamos said the impact Love has had on his own life is impossible to measure.
Stamos also reflected on one of the most personal roles Love has played in his life: officiating his wedding to Caitlin McHugh, 40.
“Forty-one years of stages, airplanes, hotel rooms, laughter and moments nobody else saw,” Stamos wrote. “He married Caitlin and me. He’s shared experiences with my family, and now my son.”
Love, Stamos continued, offered far more than a place in the Beach Boys’ lineup. He welcomed the actor into his life and taught him how to command an audience, connect through performance and bring genuine emotion to the stage. Stamos credited those lessons with helping him become a stronger musician, entertainer and person.
The Full House actor said he was traveling to Nashville to perform with Mike Love at the Ryman Auditorium on Sunday, adding that the singer “insists on being on stage”; the pair are seen together in 2005
Stamos said doctors, family members and friends have urged Mike Love to concentrate on his health, but the Beach Boys singer believes he needs his band and fans to “lift him up”
The update came after the Beach Boys performed publicly for the first time in three months in Cincinnati, where a visibly frail Love remained seated onstage throughout the show; Love is pictured performing in 2025
Stamos said his decades with Love and the Beach Boys have become inseparable from his own identity. He feels responsible for helping preserve the group’s extraordinary catalog and introducing its music to future generations.
“Tonight, at the Ryman, sharing the stage with Mike, I want to be completely present,” Stamos wrote. “Hear every harmony, familiar joke and cheer. Feel that first chord hit and watch age, illness and time disappear. Just a bunch of guys making music together.”
‘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, I won’t forget.’
He wrapped up the lengthy caption writing: ‘I want to cherish every second without feeling those seconds slipping away. That’s what I’m giving him. We don’t know what tomorrow brings. But we have tonight.’
The exact nature of Love’s health issues remains unclear.
The night prior Stamos addressed Love’s health on stage as he joined the Beach Boys at Cincinnati’s PNC Pavilion for their first concert since July.
Before the show kicked off, Stamos spoke to the crowd.
‘[Mike] is here tonight. He’s been going through some health issues. He’s had to cancel some shows. But he would not miss tonight.’
The exact nature of Love’s health issues remains unclear. Last year the musician spoke about recovering from bronchitis and COVID; Seen in 2020
Stamos has performed as a guest with the iconic group since the Eighties; Pictured performing alongside Love in 2018
‘We sort of said “stay home,” but he was like, “No, I’m going to Cincinnati.”… It’s what he loves the most. 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. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Beach Boys.’
Stamos then helped walk Love onto the stage and sat him in a chair, where he stayed for the rest of the night.
Love joined in on some of the background vocals, as the other band members including guitarist Brian Eichenberger and Love’s son Christian Love, took turns singing lead.
Though Love didn’t speak much, he told the crowd ‘thank you for showing up’ after the opening song.
Back in June, Love gave fans a health update, as he wrote on Instagram: ‘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. I feel stronger every day physically, but I am heartbroken emotionally.’
The following month the group – who were in the middle of their Pet Sounds 60th anniversary tour – pulled the remainder of their shows through September, stating on their website that they would be ‘taking a short break to recharge before getting back on the road in September.’
Following the two-month hiatus their September shows were cancelled without explanation.
The group went on to play a private show on October 3 at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach hotel in Dana Point, California, during which Love also performed from a chair.
Following their upcoming Sunday night show, the group have nothing booked until November 11, when they are set to play at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
They will then wrap up the year at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Bristol, Virginia on November 13.
The Beach Boys are pictured in 1964. (L-R) Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, Love, Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson. Love and Jardine are the last surviving original members
Last year, Love broke down in tears on stage over an emotional tribute to his late bandmate Brian Wilson, who passed away in June 2025 at the age of 82.
‘We lost Brian earlier this year, but he will always be in our hearts, it’s like he is still here,’ Love said before he wiped away tears with a white napkin.
The group’s original lineup featured Love, brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine.
Love and Jardine are the last surviving original members.
Wilson co-founded the Beach Boys – known for hits like California Girls, Surfin’ Safari, Wouldn’t It Be Nice and God Only Knows – in Hawthorne, California in 1961.