Brian Wilson, Beach Boys co-founder, singer, songwriter, producer and one of the most innovative and pioneering figures in pop music, has died aged 82.
The news was confirmed by his children, who shared a statement on Wilson’s official X (Twitter) account.
“We are heartbroken to announced [sic] that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” their statement reads.
“We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family grieving [sic]. We realise that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.”
News of his death has been met with an outpouring of support.
Revered as the shy genius whose arrangements and songwriting talents spurred The Beach Boys on to become one of the most successful pop groups in history, Wilson was as complicated as he was brilliant.
Wilson grew up in Hawthorne, California, the eldest of three brothers raised by their mother, Audree, and father, Murry. His prodigious musical talent was evident from a young age.
His 2016 memoir recalled sporadic episodes of physical and psychological abuse he and younger brothers Dennis and Carl suffered at the hands of Murry, whom he described as “violent” and “cruel”. Yet he also credited his father as a driving force when it came to nurturing his and his siblings’ musical gifts, from church choirs to playing the upright piano his parents acquired when he was 12 years old.
For his 16th birthday, Wilson received a reel-to-reel tape recorder and taught himself how to overdub, which would later become one of the signature techniques he used to create the layered harmonies of The Beach Boys.
With his two brothers, their cousin Mike Love and classmate Al Jardine, Wilson formed his first band, The Pendletones, in 1961 and wrote their first song, “Surfin’”, with Love. They changed their name to The Beach Boys after “Surfin’” became a hit, signing a new deal with Capitol Records and releasing their debut album, Surfin’ Safari, the following year.
By 1963, Wilson was already beginning to limit his public appearances with the band in order to produce their second album, Surfin’ USA, which peaked at No 2 on the Billboard charts that summer and established The Beach Boys as one of the country’s biggest new pop acts.
The media and fan frenzy the band’s fame attracted, along with Wilson’s concern over the threat posed by Beatlemania – which by then was sweeping the US – to The Beach Boys’ supremacy, pushed him to respond with “I Get Around”, their first No 1 hit.
Yet it wasn’t enough to soothe the psychological toll on Wilson, and he suffered a breakdown during a flight from Los Angeles to Houston ahead of a two-week tour. After making it through the Houston show that evening, he was replaced by session musician Glen Campbell for the rest of the tour. By the time the group continued recording their next album, Wilson announced that he was withdrawing from all future live tours. He later told a journalist that his decision was a byproduct of his “f***ed-up” jealousy over The Beatles and producer Phil Spector.
Wilson was also suffering from strains in his marriage to his first wife, Marilyn Rovell, which would later inform the lyrical content on the groundbreaking album Pet Sounds, considered by many critics as one of the greatest records of all time. Recorded and released in 1966, it is often viewed as the first “concept album” and was described by Rolling Stone as “by far the best album [Wilson] had delivered”.
“Previous Beach Boy albums were also based on strong conceptual images — the dream world of Surf, wired-up rods with metal flake paint, and curvaceous cuties lounging around the (implicitly suburban and affluent) high school,” the publication said. “It was music for white kids; they could identify with the veneration of the leisure status which in 1963 was the ripest fruit of the American dream.
“But Pet Sounds… nobody was prepared for anything so soulful, so lovely, something one had to think about so much. It is by far the best album Brian has yet delivered, and it paradoxically began the decline in mass popularity that still plagues this band.”
Wilson often baulked at being branded a “genius”, feeling it exacerbated the pressures he already felt from the music industry. After completing Pet Sounds, a critical hit but a commercial disappointment, Wilson began abusing drugs and developed what he later called a “Jesus Christ complex”. His mental condition worsened, and he began to suffer from paranoid delusions to the point that he was admitted to hospital shortly after the birth of his and Rovell’s first child.
His treatment by the controversial Eugene Landy following a band intervention was documented in the critically acclaimed 2014 biopic Love & Mercy, starring Paul Dano and John Cusack as the young and older Wilson, respectively, and Paul Giamatti as the psychologist. Wilson’s second wife, Melinda Ledbetter – who was credited with helping to initiate a court-ordered separation for Wilson from Landy and getting him proper medical care – claimed that Landy’s treatment of the musician was “even worse” than the film portrayed.
Evidence of the level of control Landy exerted over Wilson’s career was evident when he was credited as “executive producer” on Wilson’s debut self-titled solo album in 1988. He was described as a constant disruptive presence who created tension with the rest of the production team, while the album’s release was largely overshadowed by scrutiny surrounding his treatment of Wilson. A conservatorship suit was filed by his family in 1991, dissolving the partnership with Landy and handing him a restraining order.
Wilson’s productivity increased during the Nineties, leading to the release of works including an album of songs with Van Dyke Parks called Orange Crate Art. He also appeared in The Wilsons, a collaborative project with his daughters Carnie and Wendy, and co-produced the Beach Boys album Stars and Stripes Vol 1. He also embarked on his first solo tour between March to July 1999, telling the press that he felt “much more comfortable” on stage than he had in The Beach Boys’ heyday.
He continued to tour, including the first full live performance of Pet Sounds, where he was backed by a 55-piece orchestra. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 along with his bandmates, including brothers Carl and Dennis (posthumously as he had died five years earlier), and cousin Mike Love.
In 2020, Wilson expressed his disappointment upon learning that Love’s touring version of The Beach Boys would headline Donald Trump’s campaign benefit in Newport Beach: “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it,” he told US media, referring to himself and bandmate Al Jardine, with whom he had been touring in recent years.
His wife of 28 years, Melinda Ledbetter, died in January 2024. “Our five children and I are just in tears,” Wilson wrote in an emotional statement. “We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She 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. She was everything for us.”
Wilson was placed in a court conservatorship in 2024 following Ledbetter’s death, in order to manage his personal and medical decisions, following a petition filed by his family and inner circle. He was found to consent to the arrangement.
He is survived by his five children, and his grandchildren.
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