Credit: Udo SpreitzenbarthFor the second straight year, The Beach Boys will perform on the popular annual PBS concert special, A Capitol Fourth, which airs live July 4 from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. This year’s edition of the patriotic extravaganza will be extra special for the legendary band, as they will be presented with the prestigious National Artistic Achievement Award.
“We’re very excited to be invited back,” Beach Boys frontman Mike Love tells ABC Radio. “And, of course, they’re giving us that great honor, the Artistic Achievement Award, which is wonderful.”
The singer says he’s also happy to be taking part in the show alongside his buddy, actor and honorary Beach Boys member John Stamos, who will be hosting the event for a second consecutive year.
As for what fans can expect from The Beach Boys’ set, Love reveals, “We’re gonna be doing three songs, backed up by the National Symphony Orchestra.” He adds that he and his band mates are hoping one of the other artists on the bill, Jimmy Buffett, “will come out and join us on ‘Kokomo,’ and we’ll do a couple more songs as well.”
Regarding how he feels about the event in general, Mike notes, “It’s really impressive to be part of it. You look around [and] say, ‘Wow, this is first class.’…And it’s an honor to be involved in celebrating July 4th in the nation’s capital. It doesn’t get much better.”
The 2018 lineup of the A Capitol Fourth show also includes The Temptations, Andy Grammer, Pentatonix, CeCe Winans, Renee Fleming, Luke Combs and Lauren Alaina. Buffett will perform with the Broadway cast of his musical Return to Margaritaville.
The show will air at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. It’ll also be live-streamed on PBS.org, YouTube and Facebook.
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