Beach Boy Al Jardine's rustic Big Sur recording studio continues to inspire.

Beach Boy Al Jardine sits in during a Mother Hips set at the campgrounds at Big Sur's Fernwood Resort. PHOTO: Adam Joseph

When you enter the more than 1,000-square-foot structure, it’s apparent that Al Jardine’s Mecca is much more than a top-of-the-line recording studio. It’s a part of rock and roll history and a fun place just to hang out and have a few beers. The walls are plastered with concert fliers, at least a dozen gold records and black-and-white photos spanning five decades of Beach Boys mania.

The cavernous space that is Red Barn Recording Studio was originally constructed in the early ’70s as a private haven for The Beach Boys to kick back, write music and get the hell out of Los Angeles.

Nestled in an isolated canyon just before Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, California, it’s far from a typical spot to make and record music, but it continues to enchant musicians of all kinds, from jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who recorded Roy Hargrove With Strings at Red Barn, to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who have used the studio on numerous occasions to practice and write new tunes.

The creative oasis represents a two-decade ambition for Jardine that became a reality in 1989. The barn features a live-end/dead-end studio with all the bells and whistles and then some, including a separate control room and playing area mounted on mechanical rubber so no walls touch the exterior and transfer sound, a five-ton air conditioner, dimmers with track lighting and speakers delivering 1,200 watts per channel to the control room.

“It’s overkill – you really don’t need all of this,” Jardine told me. “I mean, if a truck were rolling by, it wouldn’t vibrate the internal structure.”

When I had the opportunity to stroll with Jardine through his realized dream, his eyes grew wider as he recalled each musical moment within the wooden walls. He walked over to the far end of the main room, where Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith had his kit set up a few days before my visit, and smiled as he pointed out the wood shavings strewn on the ground, left over from Smith’s drumsticks.

“I really wanted to bring light into this place and be totally isolated from the rest of the world,” Jardine continued.

The iconic musician has accomplished bringing light into a rustic barn. As that radiance continues to draw musicians, the music created there generates its own light.