‘It’s still surreal’: Vegas musician backs Beach Boys, after Righteous Brothers
John Wedemeyer had already beena member of a legendary rock act when another invited him on board. As the guitar great says “I was already on Cloud 9.”
Welcome to Cloud 10.
A lifelong Beach Boys fan, Wedemeyer joined the enduring rock ‘n’ roll band in May, after a stint with the Righteous Brothers.
Wedemeyer has played some 80 shows, all on the road, since. The Beach Boys finally play Sunset Station at 8 p.m. Saturday night in its first Las Vegas show with Wedemeyer in the lineup.
“I never in a million years thought this would happen,” Wedemeyer says. “It’s still surreal, playing in the Beach Boys. To look over and realize I am harmonizing with Mike Love is just insane to me.”
Wedemeyer joins bassist Keith Hubacher, a former musician for “Jersey Boys,” as Las Vegas residents currently performing with the Beach Boys. Keyboardist Tim Bonhomme has a home in town that he rents out.
But Wedemeyer is the rare Vegas musician who has actually performed with two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bands, back-to-back. He was in the Righteous Brothers band at Harrah’s in 2017, when Love and Beach Boys guitarist/vocalist Jeffrey Foskett visited their old buddy Bill Medley.
In the months after, Wedemeyer and Foskett kept in touch. The following year, the Righteous Brothers and Beach Boys co-headlined a quick, three-show show tour of the East Coast.
Wedemeyer, who has performed with Clint Holmes and Michael Grimm, had not thought much about that period when Foskett called him this past April
“So this call comes, totally out of the blue, totally unexpectedly, and Jeff is saying, ‘Hey, man, we have this opportunity, and we think you’d be perfect for it,’ ” says Wedemeyer, who also pilots the great Hot Mops blues band around Vegas. “Bill was actually the first guy I called when I confirmed I was joining the band. I would not have met any of those guys if I hadn’t been playing with the Righteous Brothers.”
Before that confirmation, Wedemeyer submitted performance clip at the request of Love’s wife, Jacquelyne Piesen. The veteran Vegas musician sent samples of him playing rhythm and lead guitar. He also sang some “Sloop John B.” to prove he could handle the harmonies.
“The next day, I got the call,” Wedemeyer says with a laugh. “Go figure.”
So it’s Wedemeyer along with co-founder Love; Bruce Johnston, who joined the band in 1966, on keys; Bonhomme; Hubacher; Love’s son Christian Love on guitar; Brian Eichenberger on guitar; Jon Bolton on drums; and multi-instrumentalist Randy Leago on the current Beach Boys roster. And everyone sings, naturally.
The actor John Stamos is a frequent touring member of the band, but is not on this leg as he’s on a book tour.
Wedemeyer took in the Beach Boys from the side of the stage when the Righteous Brothers co-headlined those three shows in ‘18. Now he’s part of a seemingly endless summer with members of rock royalty.
“Every single night I’d watch their entire show, and I was just going, ‘I wonder what it’s like to be in this band, playing these songs every night,’ ” Wedemeyer says. “To see these audiences, from kids all the way up to grandparents, knowing all the words … It hasn’t totally sunk in yet, to be honest. The only thing I can think of is, it’s pure joy.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.