Brian Wilson, the pioneering producer, composer, and performer with The Beach Boys, has died. He was 82 years old.
Wilson’s family announced his passing in the following social media statement: “We are heartbroken to announced that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.”
Born Brian Douglas Wilson on June 20th, 1942, in Inglewood, California, the future Beach Boy spent his childhood honing his musical skills with his younger brothers, Dennis and Carl. Before he was 10, his father, Murry, noticed that Wilson had perfect pitch, and he was enrolled in accordion lessons. When the family got an upright piano a few years later, Wilson began playing it for hours a day.
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By the time he was in high school, Wilson was a devoted student of music, writing compositions and frequently practicing harmony singing with others. After a brief stint in college, he dropped out and formed a band with his brothers, his cousin Mike Love, and his friend, Al Jardine, dubbed The Pendletones. The group recorded their first single, “Surfin’,” in 1961, choosing a surfing theme based on Dennis’ interest in the sport.
After “Surfin’” became a minor hit in California, the group’s first label changed their name to The Beach Boys, and the band’s historic run began proper. They recorded more demos, signed with a new label (Capitol Records), and released their first official album, Surfin’ Safari, in October 1962, spawning the timeless hit, “Surfin’ Safari.”
In 1963, the band followed-up with September’s Surfer Girl and October’s Little Deuce Coupe. During that time, Wilson also began working with other artists, like Jan and Dean, for whom he co-wrote the hit “Surf City,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
As The Beach Boys continued their reign as masters of early ‘60s California music, they shared the albums Shut Down Volume 2, All Summer Long, and The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album, with hits like “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” “Little Saint Nick,” and more.
With 1965’s The Beach Boys Today!, the band’s sound began to evolve as Wilson experimented with inventive techniques, incorporating orchestral elements and improvements on Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound style. The results were wondrous, planting a seed of creativity that would ultimately blossom on the band’s later records, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and Pet Sounds.
During that mid-’60s period too, though, Wilson first began to experience significant difficulties with mental health. Throughout his entire life, he suffered from regular auditory hallucinations, which he heard as disembodied voices. In 1964, due to a variety of factors — including strained family relationships, career pressures, and feeling “challenged” by The Beatles’ success— he had a breakdown and withdrew from touring with The Beach Boys. As Wilson’s drug-intake increased, he began to struggle more.
Nonetheless, he continued to work through the late ‘60s and produced not only some of his finest works, but some of the most-celebrated music in history. Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) led the way with hits like “California Girls,” and 1966’s Pet Sounds — with songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times,” and “Caroline, No” — has rightfully been cited by many as one of the greatest albums of all time.
“I figure no one is educated musically ’til they’ve heard [Pet Sounds],” Paul McCartney once said. “I’ve often played Pet Sounds and cried. It’s that kind of an album for me… If records had a director within a band, I sort of directed [Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band], and my influence was basically the Pet Sounds album.”
After Pet Sounds, though, pressures on Wilson surmounted. He attempted to make a notoriously-unfinished follow-up, Smile, but the project was scrapped in 1967. Through the late ‘60s, his mental illness worsened, as the debauchery and substance abuse of his circle’s lifestyle grew. In 1968, after the release of the lukewarm-received Friends and encounters with Charles Manson (a friend of his brother Dennis at the time), Wilson became increasingly withdrawn, and his output descreased significantly.
Through the mid-’70s, Wilson lived a reclusive life, with an inconsistent, but overall diminished, role in The Beach Boys’ music. That changed a bit in the late ‘70s, like when Wilson played nearly every instrument on The Beach Boys Love You, but as he jockeyed between being in the care of controversial psychologist Eugene Landy and a trio of handlers — his cousins Stan Love and Steve Korthof, and model Rocky Pamplin — his health continued to deteriorate and he slipped into a deeper depression.
The ‘80s saw more releases by The Beach Boys, but Wilson’s personal life had devolved into a series of ups and downs, with disintegrating relationships, hospitalizations, and constant consultation from Landy. After 1985, he ceased working with The Beach Boys and embarked on a solo career. Going into the 1990s, he was embroiled in a number of lawsuits.
After breaking ties with Landy in 1992, Wilson’s output started to increase, but his stability still wavered. His marriage to Melinda Ledbetter in 1995 further augmented his career activity, as he made solo albums and even began solo touring. In the 2000s, he toured on Pet Sounds and shared Brian Wilson Presents Smile, a finished version of Smile, but in his own words, he should have “been in a mental institution under heavy sedation” during that period due to the level of his mental struggles.
His final years saw Wilson continue to tour and work on solo output. He briefly reunited with The Beach Boys in 2012 for the album That’s Why God Made the Radio and a tour, but that was short-lasting. He shared the Joe Thomas-produced pop album No Pier Pressure in 2015, and his final album, At My Piano, in 2021.
After Ledbetter passed in early 2024, it was revealed that Wilson was suffering from dementia, with longtime representatives, LeeAnn Hard and Jean Sievers, filing for a conservatorship.
Ultimately, Wilson has earned the distinction of being one of those figures in history whose work will surely be around for generations to come. He’ll be remembered as many things — a music-loving kid from Hawthorne writing songs for teens; a tortured soul who never shook the blow of his difficult upbringing; a misunderstood genius who struggled to grasp his own presence. Perhaps bigger than all of that, though, will be the legacy of his music itself. From the sun-soaked surf guitar licks to the rich layers of harmonies to the complex chord progressions, inventive arrangements, and timeless ability to capture indescribable feelings of personhood in powerful, ready-for-radio pop packages, Wilson’s presence in popular music — and popular culture as a whole — will be unending.