Founding Beach Boys singer, songwriter and creative mastermind Brian Wilson has died. He was 82.
“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now,” read a post on Wilson’s Facebook page. “Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world,” with the post signed, “Love & Mercy.”
One of the most significant figures in pop music’s acceptance as an art form, Wilson wrote the music to nearly all of his famous band’s best-known songs, from their early surf-rock classics to their more complex recordings of the mid-1960s and beyond. Wilson’s catalog includes the timeless hits “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Surfer Girl,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda” and “California Girls.”
With his gift for vocal harmonies and musical arrangements, Wilson helped craft one of the most celebrated albums of all time, The Beach Boys’ 1966 release Pet Sounds, as well as its follow-up single, “Good Vibrations.” Paul McCartney has said that Pet Sounds was a huge influence on The Beatles‘ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
But Wilson’s work with the Beach Boys was severely impacted by the mental health issues he’d experienced since his 20s. In 1975, those issues, combined with over-indulgence in food, alcohol and drugs, led him to come under the care of controversial psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy, who ultimately became Wilson’s therapist, business manager, executive producer and even co-songwriter.
Wilson’s family, concerned about Landy’s undue influence on the musician, the fees he charged and the amount of medication he’d prescribed, moved to sever Landy’s relationship with Wilson. In 1989, Landy’s license was revoked due to alleged ethical violations, but he worked with Wilson until 1992, when he was legally barred from contacting him again. Their relationship was documented in the 2014 biopic Love & Mercy.
Wilson’s relationship with his bandmates was difficult for decades. His last album with The Beach Boys, That’s Why God Made the Radio, was released in 2012, coinciding with the band’s 50th anniversary. In recent years, Wilson focused on his solo career; his last studio album, At My Piano, was released in November 2021 and featured solo piano versions of many classic Beach Boys songs. Starting in 1999, he also toured on and off as a solo artist.
In early 2024, Wilson was placed under a conservatorship after the death of his wife, Melinda Wilson, who he married in 1995 and with whom he had adopted five children. “This decision was made to ensure that there will be no extreme changes to the household and Brian and the children living at home will be taken care of and remain in the home,” his manager said in a statement. Melinda was credited with helping separate Wilson from Landy.
Wilson was the subject of three authorized documentaries: 2021’s Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, 2004’s Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of ‘Smile’ and 1995’s Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times. In 2024 he participated, along with his former bandmates, in the Disney+ documentary The Beach Boys.
His many career achievements included induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with The Beach Boys in 1988, induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000 and being recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007.
Wilson’s daughters Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson are also chart-topping musicians, having made up two-thirds of the bestselling ’90s pop group Wilson Phillips.
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