Brian Wilson, Beach Boys cofounder and 'God Only Knows' genius, dies at 82
Corrections & clarifications: A previous version of this article incorrectly associated a song with the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album.
Brian Wilson, an eclectic genius whose sunny Beach Boys songs helped define a revved-up era of American popular music, has died at age 82.
Wilson's family announced his death on social media June 11 and did not cite a cause.
"We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now," the post on X read. "Please respect our privacy at this time as our family (is) grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy."
Paste BN has reached out to Wilson's rep for comment.
Wilson is survived by his daughters from his first marriage, Carnie and Wendy, who achieved success as part of Wilson Phillips, and five adopted children from his second marriage to Melinda Ledbetter. "I have no words to express the sadness I feel right now," wrote Carnie Wilson in a heartfelt tribute on Instagram.
"My father @brianwilsonlive was every fiber of my body. He will be remembered by millions and millions until the world ends," Carnie said. "I am lucky to have been his daughter and had a soul connection with him that will live on always. I've never felt this kind of pain before, but I know he's resting up there in heaven … or maybe playing the piano for Grandma Audree his Mom."
Wilson’s epic career arc spanned most of his life and was as defined by prolonged bouts of mental illness as it was by meticulously constructed pop confections.
Despite decades away from the musical mainstream in the 1970s and '80s, when his psychological torments were most aggressive, Wilson's towering impact was never in question. The sublime harmonizing on beach- and car-themed tunes such as "California Girls" or "Little Deuce Coupe" came to define the Southern California ethos, while the inspired orchestration on the Wilson-produced album "Pet Sounds" caused a bowled-over Beatles to respond with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
Brian Wilson was drawn to music early on and succeeded despite obstacles
Wilson achieved such heights despite issues that could have been insurmountable. As a musically precocious child, he was found to have significant hearing loss in his right ear. Its surmised cause ranged from a birth defect to physical abuse at the hands of Wilson’s authoritarian father, who in the early days managed the family band that paired siblings with cousins.
Wilson was born June 20, 1942, in Inglewood, California, a Los Angeles suburb that would boom in the post-war years as a hub for everything from aerospace jobs to nascent TV production.
Wilson was a tall and handsome jock, a football quarterback who was popular at school and not much of a student. His interest in music was consuming and led the teenager to spend hours playing piano and learn the basics of composition and even sound engineering when the gift of a tape recorder found him overdubbing vocals with his brothers and mother.
Inspired by the vocal harmonies of groups such as the Four Freshmen, Wilson in the fall of 1961 formed a band with his brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine.
Initially, their name was the Pendletones, a reference to the then-popular Pendleton plaid shirt. But the small record label that released their debut single “Surfin',” produced by their manager father Murray and a nod to a new beach craze, renamed them the Beach Boys. Only Dennis Wilson actually surfed, but the zeitgeist-nailing moniker stuck.
Over the next four years, the Beach Boys ruled the airwaves. Wilson crafted 3-minute harmony-rich pop triumphs aimed at teens much the way his producing idol, Phil Spector, had captured that same audience with his fabled Wall of Sound effects. Celebrating cars, surfing and teen romance, the hits poured from Wilson’s pen: “Surfin’ U.S.A,” “409,” “Be True to Your School,” “California Girls.”
But Wilson’s ambitions almost immediately ranged far beyond simply appearing in a popular act. In 1963 alone, the 22-year-old wunderkind had sung, produced, arranged and otherwise guided dozens of songs for groups such as Jan and Dean, the Honeys and the Castells. But a challenge to his genius would soon arrive from overseas.
Beach Boys, Beatlemania and the perfection of 'Pet Sounds'
Just as Wilson and the Beach Boys were enjoying chart-topping success with “I Get Around” and its B-side, “Don’t Worry Baby,” Beatlemania swept the United States. Wilson saw the Mop Tops as formidable challengers and rivals to his band’s otherwise undisputed stranglehold on the airwaves.
While that rivalry caused Wilson to double down in the studio, it also started to reveal cracks in his fragile psyche that soon would turn into debilitating chasms.
By the mid-‘60s, Wilson had begged off most Beach Boys tours so he could stay in the studio and avoid the public limelight, with Bruce Johnston eventually replacing him permanently on tour. Frustration over being pigeon-holed as a surf band grew, as did increasingly emotional outbursts and rumors of growing drug use, particularly acid.
Nevertheless, after being holed up for months at home writing music, Wilson unveiled a masterpiece in May 1966. “Pet Sounds,” which included now-classic song “God Only Knows,” didn’t immediately strike a chord with fans, but it knocked out the Beatles. The Fab Four used “Pet Sounds” as inspiration for taking their own studio adventures to new heights and responded in May 1967 with their own coup de grace, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
Wilson then planned his own response to the Beatles opus was a new album called “Smile.” But that effort would only see the light of day in 2011.
Brian Wilson's mental health and fraught relationships
Instead of a new triumph, Wilson descended into seclusion. In later years, he would be diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a mental health condition marked by hallucinations, depression and paranoia. Often, he heard voices. Cloistered in his Bel Air mansion, Wilson did drugs and ate obsessively.
Although Wilson stayed connected with the group he founded and would offer a range of creative input from his isolation, his condition became more extreme after the death of the family patriarch in 1973. Stories circulated of Wilson's strange behavior, including rumors of him rarely leaving his bed, impromptu appearances at Los Angeles clubs in just a bathrobe and slippers, and turning away visiting stars such as Paul and Linda McCartney.
In 1976, Wilson managed a bit of a comeback into public life after going into the care of controversial psychologist Eugene Landy. But the comeback would not last. Although able to still function in the studio on occasion, Wilson resumed his self-destructive routine, eventually overdosing in 1982. Family members then asked Landy to return, who agreed on the condition that he be able to take over all of Wilson’s affairs. A destructive relationship ensued.
In 1988, the album “Brian Wilson” marked the singer and producer’s return to the musical spotlight, generally receiving positive reviews. But it was largely overshadowed by the Beach Boys’ own hit “Kokomo,” their first No. 1 hit since “Good Vibrations” and a song that had no input from their founder.
Wilson's solo outings were emblematic of the schism that had developed between him and the group he founded. The deepest rift was with cousin and lead singer Love, who in earlier days objected to Wilson veering away from the chart-topping fare of the band's youth in favor of more experimental music such as the sound-effects laden creativity found on "Pet Sounds."
Love frequently disparaged Wilson in the media, and later successfully sued his cousin for retroactive songwriting credits. Love also retained the rights to the Beach Boys name and spent decades touring with some of the original members while Wilson was left to hit the road under his own name.
But despite the tensions, the ‘90s saw Wilson gradually get his house in order. A conservatorship suit filed by Wilson’s family dissolved what remained of Landy’s stranglehold on his one-time patient’s affairs. Wilson then collaborated in 1995 with producer Don Was on a documentary about his life, “Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times,” and in 1999 embarked on his first solo tour.
A reinvigorated legacy came later in life for Brian Wilson
Finally under traditional medical care and medicine, Wilson was able to better access his gifts in the new millennium.
In 2010, he released a well-received album reimagining George Gershwin staples, the storied composer who is said to have first inspired Wilson when he heard “Rhapsody in Blue” as a child. In 2014, Wilson’s life and times were the subject of a well-reviewed biopic called “Love & Mercy,” starring John Cusack and Paul Dano as an older and younger Brian Wilson.
Reinvigorated in his latter years, Wilson hit the road in 2016 to perform “Pet Sounds” in its entirety, and he continued to entertain fans before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The inspired young musician who first rounded up a band in his teens saw no reason to stop entertaining as a grandfather, perhaps in part to make up for all those lost decades.
"Retirement? Oh, man. No retiring," Wilson told Rolling Stone in 2016. "If I retired I wouldn’t know what to do with my time. What would I do? Sit there and go, 'Oh, I don’t want to be 74'? I’d rather get on the road."
Contributing: Edward Segarra