Brian Wilson, Beach Boys Songwriter and Visionary, Dead at 82
Brian Wilson, musician, singer, songwriter, producer, and co-founder of the Beach Boys, has passed away at the age of 82. No cause of death has been released yet..
In a post shared on Instagram, his family announced Wilson’s death. “We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” they wrote. “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.”
Wilson grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, Calif., where, in 1961, with the help of his brothers Dennis and Carl, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine, he formed the Beach Boys, whose lush vocal harmonies and songs of surfing, sun, cars and young love provided a perfect soundtrack for a generation of American youth coming of age in the postwar era. The group’s signature hits that would define its sound included “Surfin’ Safari,” “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “California Girls,” “God Only Knows,” “Good Vibrations” and many more.
In 1966, Wilson would craft the album that stood the music industry on its ear and herald him as a genius — Pet Sounds. Paul McCartney has long declared it the album that inspired the Beatles’ own Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.“That was the album that flipped me — still does,” Paul McCartney would declare of Pet Sounds in an interview in the ’80s “It’s still one of my favorite albums of all time. The musical invention on that? Just … wow.”
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But in contrast to Wilson’s gifted songwriting and the sunny image projected by the group’s songs, Wilson, the group’s leader, principal songwriter and arranger, was haunted by the abuse he suffered under his father and he was plagued by self-doubt. At the height of his powers, while working on the follow-up to Pet Sounds, the much-hyped and breathlessly anticipated Smile, Wilson suffered a nervous breakdown. The album would remain unfinished and become one of the greatest “lost” albums of the classic rock era until 2004, when Wilson, in a moment of personal triumph, would release the album under his own name to great critical and popular acclaim.
Wilson’s fragile mental health and his road to recovery were the stuff of legend. Famously, in the ’70s, his depression would lead him to spend the better part of three years in bed. His work with the Beach Boys during this era was sporadic but often memorable, reflecting a troubled genius in turmoil. In addition to alcohol and substance abuse issues and the deterioration of his marriage to Marilyn Rovell, ending in divorce in 1979, Wilson would endure lawsuits from his bandmates, and pressure to return to the studio and the stage. He eventually ended up in the care of a highly unorthodox psychologist, Eugene Landy. Landy’s extreme methods helped Wilson to regain his physical health, but at a staggering cost in fees, and at great expense to his personal and creative liberty.
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In the early ’90s Wilson’s life would change forever when he went to purchase a Cadillac. The woman who sold it to him, Melinda Ledbetter, would become Wilson’s second wife. It was Melinda who would convince Wilson, with the help of his family, to escape the clutches of Landy’s care, and enable his return to the studio and to the stage. With her support, Wilson not only found the courage and ability to finish his masterpiece, Smile, but to release a spate of albums of his own and with others, including 1995’s Orange Crate Art with Smile collaborator Van Dyke Parks, as well as Gettin’ in Over My Head, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, Pier Pressure and others.
Wilson had two children from his first marriage, Carnie and Wendy, who, in the ’90s, would become part of singing group Wilson Phillips. With Melinda, he would adopt five children, Dakota Rose, Delanie Rae, Dylan and Dash. Wilson and Melinda would remain together until her death in January 2024.
Following Melinda’s passing, Wilson’s children would file for a conservatorship for their father, who had been diagnosed with dementia, ensuring that there would be no upset to the family or its household, where they were cared for by a team that had been in place for many years by that time.
Wilson’s life was memorably portrayed in the acclaimed 2014 film Love & Mercy, in which Wilson was played by both Paul Dano and John Cusack.
Wilson is survived by his seven children, Carnie and Wendy, with his first wife Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford, and five adopted kids with his deceased wife, Melinda Ledbetter. He also has six grandchildren.
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February 2025
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