John Stamos Opens Up About Beach Boys Connection With Charles Manson

John Stamos has been a friend and performer with the Beach Boys for the past 30 years, and this week the actor opened up about a dark phase in the band’s history — their connection to serial killer Charles Manson.

Stamos joined the Beach Boys starting in 1985, performing and recording with them occasionally, including a 2010 episode of Dancing with the Stars. He’s become close with the group’s founding members, and got some insight into their late 1960s collaboration with Manson.

The relationship started when the late Dennis Wilson picked up two hitchhiking Manson women and brought them this Pacific Palisades house for a few hours. Wilson came back to the house the next morning to find Manson coming out of the home.

Wilson was thrown off and asked Manson if he intended to hurt him. Manson assured him he had no bad intentions, and then kissed Wilson’s feet.

Once he got inside, Wilson found that Manson had brought 12 women, mostly strangers to him. The Manson family took up residence in Wilson’s home, costing him $100,000 between damages to his car and gonorrhea treatments.

But the Beach Boys also collaborated with Charles Manson, and the song “Never Learn Not to Love” actually evolved from a song Manson wrote called “Cease to Exist.”

“It’s an interesting piece of their history,” Stamos told TMZ. “They don’t talk about it much. They’re open; they’re very honest about their lives — but they realize it was a trippy deal.”

John Stamos added that he’s a fan of the band and the way Mike Love keeps their sound fresh by playing around with the setlist each night.

“That’s what’s fun for me,” Stamos said.

John Stamos also noted that the Beach Boys have retired “Never Learn Not to Love” due to the Charles Manson connection.