It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Mountain View, California at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. The occasion was the 20th Annual Bridge School Benefit, an all-day acoustic show organized by Neil Young that usually has an amazing lineup. Between sets me, my little brother Ross, and my friend that completes me Ben decided to go look for ice cream because, hey, after eight hours of beer drinking it's nice to add some heavy dairy products to the stomach. After about 15 minutes of searching we find a food hut that is advertising "ice cream bars" so we hop in line. While waiting in line, we hear the next act start playing and it is none other than Brian Wilson, father of Wilson Phillips. After Brian belts out three consecutive Beach Boy hits while we wait in line, the following exchange takes place (not 100% accurate due to the eight hours of drinking mentioned above, but pretty darn close):
Neil: I guess he's just going to play all the Beach Boys hits. That's not so bad.
Ross: Yeah, the only thing that would make it better would be if Uncle Jesse was on stage with him when we get back to our seats.
Ben: Uncle Jesse?
Ross: Yeah, remember how Uncle Jesse was in some of their videos and the Beach Boys always showed up on different episodes?
Ben: Unc...from...Duk...
Neil: No, not Uncle Jesse from Dukes of Hazzard, Uncle Jesse from Full House. Remember he was in the Kokomo video playing the bongos?
Ben: Shut up. Stop messing with me. Uncle Jesse was not a member of the Beach Boys.
Ross: Yes he was. John Stamos. Why do you think the Beach Boys were in one episode a season? Remember when the Beach Boys showed up in a limo and took them all to a concert and they got to go on stage? It wasn't because the Beach Boys had nothing better to do, it was because Uncle Jesse was in the band.
Ben: Shut up, you guys are just messing with me.
This went on the entire walk back to our seats. Ross and I trying to give more examples of the Beach Boys on Full House and Uncle Jesse in their videos, and Ben in disbelief and completely doubting us. Ben even asked a complete stranger if John Stamos/Uncle Jesse was ever a member of the beach boys and she said "no" and left it at that.
We get back to our seats and I asked my brother Aaron what he thinks of Brian Wilson and he responds "He's pretty good but it would be better if Uncle Jesse would come out for a song." Ross then asks his friend Julie (If you want to remember her as "Jules" because she has "eyes like jewels" that's fine but it's a story for another day) if she knew that Uncle Jesse was a member of the Beach Boys, and she claims she had no idea. Frankly I was a little shocked. Julie probably wanted to be DJ Tanner back in the day, how could she not know Uncle Jesse was a member of the Beach Boys' band? I guess this information is not as well known as I thought, or Ben, Julie, and stranger in cowboy hat are just special needs in terms of pop culture.
That being said, Uncle Jesse was in fact a member of the Beach Boys band. Photographic proof exists here, here (indisputable, same as the video above), and here. Historical proof exists here and here. Next for all you non-believers, I'll prove that David Hasselhoff was once on a little show called "Knight Rider."
