Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson has died aged 82, his family have said.
Wilson was the eldest and last surviving of the three musical brothers who formed the American rock band in 1961, alongside their cousin Mike Love and school friend Al Jardine.
In a statement on his website, his family said: "We are heartbroken to announce 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 is grieving.
"We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy."
Further details or a cause of death were not released.
Wilson was born in 1942 and raised in Hawthorne, California.
He co-founded the Beach Boys with his brothers who went on to become one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, selling over 100 million records globally, with hits such as Good Vibrations, God Only Knows and Wouldn’t It Be Nice.
He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 along with his bandmates.
Tributes flooded in for the music legend, with Rolling Stone Wood writing on X: "Oh no Brian Wilson and Sly Stone in one week - my world is in mourning, so sad"
His message is punctuated with praying hands and heart emojis, and features pictures of Wilson and American funk singer Sly Stone, whose real name was Sylvester Stewart, who died on Monday, also aged 82.
Ono Lennon, a British-American singer and son of The Beatles star John Lennon and artist Yoko Ono, described Wilson as "our American Mozart" in a heartfelt post on X.
He wrote: "Anyone who really knows me knows how heart-broken I am about Brian Wilson passing.
"Not many people influenced me as much as he did.
"I feel very lucky that I was able to meet him and spend some time with him.
"He was always very kind and generous.
"He was our American Mozart. A one of a kind genius from another world."
Wilson played bass in the Beach Boys while his brother Dennis was the drummer and Carl played lead guitar.
Their debut single, Surfin', became a minor hit upon its release in 1961, but was nothing compared with the success that followed from their second studio album, Surfin' USA, released in 1963.
The band were managed by the trio's father, Murry Wilson, but by mid-decade he had been displaced and Brian, who had been running the band's recording sessions almost from the start, was in charge.
They released their most recognised album, Pet Sounds, in May 1966 which included the popular songs Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows.
Other studio albums including The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days (Summer Nights!!), both released in 1965, also performed well in the charts.
In the later half of the 1960s and into the 1970s they had success upon releasing greatest hits albums including 20 Golden Greats, which peaked at number one in the UK albums chart in 1976.
Wilson had married singer Marilyn Rovell in 1964 and the couple welcomed daughters Carnie and Wendy, whom he became estranged from following their divorce.
He later reconciled with them and they sang together on the 1997 album The Wilsons, which was also the name of a music group formed by Carnie and Wendy following the breakup of pop vocal group Wilson Phillips.
Wilson, who had dealt with mental health and drug problems, got his life back on track in the 1990s and married talent manager Melinda Ledbetter.
When Ledbetter died last year Wilson said their five children, Daria, Delanie, Dylan, Dash and Dakota, were "in tears".
"She (Ledbetter) was my saviour. She gave me the emotional security I needed to have a career. She encouraged me to make the music that was closest to my heart. She was my anchor," he said in a statement.
Wilson was also embroiled in multiple lawsuits some of which followed from the release of his 1991 autobiography, Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story.
The Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2001.
Wilson's brother Dennis died in 1983 while Carl died in 1998.
Deeply revered and acclaimed as a co-founder, producer, arranger and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys and a masterful innovator of vocal harmony, Wilson struggled with mental health and substance abuse issues that upended his career in the 1960s.
Last year, a judge found Wilson should be in a court conservatorship to manage his personal and medical decisions due to what his doctor called a "major neurocognitive disorder".
A doctor's declaration filed with the petition said Wilson was taking medication for dementia, and was “unable to properly provide for his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter”.
Wilson’s representatives, publicist Jean Sievers and manager LeeAnn Hard, were placed as his conservators.
In January 2024, his wife Melinda Ledbetter Wilson passed away at the age of 77.
In a statement, the US singer-songwriter credited Melinda - who he was married to 28 years - as being the “emotional security” he needed to have a career in the music industry.
The couple’s relationship inspired a biopic in 2014 titled Love & Mercy starring John Cusack and Paul Dano as Brian, which follows him under the sway of a controlling therapist, before finding his “saviour” Melinda, played by Elizabeth Banks.
