Beach Boys Founder Brian Wilson Dies At 82

Brian Wilson, the visionary leader of the Beach Boys, has died at 82.

Wilson's family announced the musician's death on his website.

"We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away," the page reads. "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."

As the creative force behind the Beach Boys' rise to fame in the 1960s, Wilson is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century for his trailblazing approach to pop music. Hailed as a musical genius in his 20s, he produced more than two dozen Top 40 hits with the original Beach Boys, including "Surf City," "I Get Around" and "Good Vibrations" — one of the band's most enduring hits and a showcase for the group's signature harmonies and boundary-pushing production techniques.

Wilson, a nine-time Grammy Award nominee and two-time winner, had his rising success marred by substance abuse and mental health struggles, which ultimately led him to withdraw from the public eye just as his music career was reaching new heights. It would take Wilson close to three decades to fully return to the public sphere as a solo artist.

The Beach Boys were the icons of the California surf scene, pioneering early 60s beach pop about teenagers, cars and the beach. It was a sound big on harmony and vocals that set the sonic template for an entire genre.

Born June 20, 1942 in Inglewood, Wilson was the son of a musician and machinist. His family, including his two younger brothers and future band mates, moved to Hawthorne when he was 2, according to his official biography.

Growing up, brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl would sing together. He was almost completely deaf in his right ear following a physical head trauma as a child, but that didn't stop him from pursuing his passion for music: Wilson played piano obsessively after school, deconstructing recorded songs and working to recreate them on the keyboard.

The 19-year-old Wilson, his brothers, their cousin Mike Love and high school classmate Al Jardine recorded the song “Surfin’” in 1961, which became a local hit and helped launch the Beach Boys after the signed with Capitol Records.

"A lot of it was my dad. He took us to a really good recording studio and helped us out a lot," Wilson told Ability magazine in 2006.

"But he was also pretty tough at times. He scared me so much with his yelling — he would be yelling and poking fingers in my chest, screaming, 'Get in there and kick ass and make a good record.' All I could say was, 'Okay, Dad, all right.' But then we'd go ahead and cut something great like 'Good Vibrations' or 'California Girls."'

As the Beach Boys' songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist and keyboardist, Wilson was one of few early pop sensation crediting with writing producing and arranging his music.

With Wilson's father as manager, the Beach Boys' first album, "Surfin' Safari," was released in 1962. The album showcased the band's early sound, with their harmonious tunes and sunny lyrics. Wilson's brother, Dennis, was the only actual surfer in the Beach Boys.

The band released three albums in 1963 alone — "Surfin' U.S.A.," "Surfer Girl" and "Little Deuce Coupe" — all of which cracked the Top 10.

"Me and Mike (Love) were a little bit jealous of the Beatles because they took over the whole music scene," Wilson said in the 2021 documentary "Long Promised Road."

When "I Get Around" was released in May 1964, it climbed to No. 1 in the U.S., their first single to top the charts. The hit showed the Beach Boys could compete with the Beatles. In 1965, "Help Me Rhonda" hit No. 1, and "California Girls" climbed to the No. 3 spot.

Despite the success, the stress of touring became too much for Wilson, as he suffered a nervous breakdown on the road. In January 1965, he announced his withdrawal from touring to concentrate solely on songwriting and record production.

That previous year, he had started experiencing auditory hallucinations that presented in the form of disembodied voices. Many of his most popular songs, he admitted, were created in an effort to escape from those voices.

"Lots of the music I've made has been my way of trying to get rid of these voices," Wilson wrote in his 2016 autobiography, "I Am Brian Wilson."

He first experienced the auditory hallucinations roughly one week after he took LSD for the first time. It was during that first psychedelic trip that Wilson sat down at the piano and began experimenting on the keyboard.

"I also started to play what became 'California Girls' on the piano, that sound of the cowboy riding into town," he wrote in his book. "I played it and played it until I heard other things inside of it."

Wilson used his time away from touring to begin work on the band's next album, "Pet Sounds." Wilson's innovative orchestrations included elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, found sounds and instruments never before associated with rock, such as bicycle bells, French horn, flutes and chamber strings.

Released in 1966, "Pet Sounds" featured the acclaimed tracks "God Only Knows," "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Caroline, No."

"After that, I said to myself that I had completed the greatest album I will ever produce. I knew it," Wilson said on his website.

That helped make the Beach Boys a friendly rival and inspiration for The Beatles. It inspired McCartney’s vision for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“The big influence was Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. That was the album that flipped me. The musical invention on that album was, like, ‘Wow!’ That was the big thing for me. I just thought, ‘Oh dear me. This is the album of all time. What the hell are we going to do?’,” Paul McCartney once admitted in an interview for Keith Badman’s book, “The Beatles: Off the Record.”

However, "Pet Sounds" received mixed reviews and did not sell as well as many of the band's previous albums, adding to the strain between Wilson and the other band members, particularly Love.

Undeterred, Wilson followed with the 1967 single "Good Vibrations," which hit No. 1 on the charts.

"It's my single-song production masterpiece," Wilson told the Harvard Business Review in 2016.

Wilson used many of the same recording techniques from "Pet Sounds" on a new project he hoped would reach new musical heights. Conceived by Wilson as a "teenage symphony to God," the album was titled "Smile." However, it was shelved due in large part to his worsening mental condition and exhaustion.

Reworked versions of a few of the songs from the abandoned album appeared on 1967's "Smiley Smile" and 1971's "Surf's Up."

Struggling with severe addiction to alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and LSD, Wilson endured multiple nervous breakdowns and became increasingly obese. As he grappled with his personal issues, the Beach Boys carried on touring without him, except for a handful of occasions.

Following "Smiley Smile," the band quickly released another album in December 1967, "Wild Honey," which did not sell well and charted at No. 24 in the U.S.

The following year, the band released the album "Friends," which was characterized by its calm and peaceful atmosphere, but sold poorly and peaked at No. 126 on the Billboard charts.

The decade's final album, 1969's "20/20" mostly consisted of outtakes from earlier albums. Wilson was absent for most of the recording, having admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital.

In the mid-1970s, Wilson's family sought help from psychologist Eugene Landy. Though Landy initially aided Wilson's recovery, he allegedly exploited Wilson's dependency, securing credits on songs and a place in his will. In 1991, Wilson's family sued Landy, resulting in a restraining order and the revocation of Landy's license to practice in California.

During the 1970s, the band kept putting out new music. Although their record sales dwindled, their live performances stayed in demand.

Wilson stepped out of seclusion to helm the Beach Boys' comeback album, "15 Big Ones," which was released in 1976. The album reached No. 8 in the U.S. and marked Wilson's first comprehensive effort with the group since "Pet Sounds."

In 1980, the Beach Boys were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tragedy struck the Beach Boys in 1983, when Wilson's brother, Dennis, died at age 39. He drowned in Marina del Rey after diving into the water following a night of drinking. The news of his death shocked the music world.

In 1988, Wilson recovered and launched his solo career with his self- titled album, which garnered critical praise but modest sales. That same year, the Beach Boys — without Wilson — landed a No. 1 hit with "Kokomo," featured in the movie "Cocktail."

Wilson and the surviving Beach Boys reunited for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1988.

He went on to release several other solo albums, including "Orange Art Crate" in 1995 and "Imagination" in 1998.

The Beach Boys lost another member in 1998, when Wilson's brother, Carl, died from lung cancer.

That same year, Wilson started touring regularly with a younger band that embraced his vision of classic pop. In 2000, they took "Pet Sounds" on the road.

Three years later, Wilson finally completed "Smile," eventually performing it live in London. A studio version was finished in 2004 and received wide acclaim, earning him his first Grammy for the track "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" for best rock instrumental.

In 2007, he received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime contribution to the performing arts.

Wilson captured his second Grammy in 2013 for best historical album for "The Smile Sessions," which featured the abandoned recordings from the band's unfinished album "Smile."

In 2014, the film "Love and Mercy" documented Wilson's life, and he was nominated for a Golden Globe for best original song for "One Kind Of Love."

From 1964 to 1979, Wilson was married to Marilyn Rovell. They had two daughters together: Carnie and Wendy, who went on to form two-thirds of the group Wilson Phillips.

Wilson met Ledbetter in 1986, but Landy put an end to their relationship. Wilson and Ledbetter reconnected in 1992, and married three years later.

When asked by Rolling Stone in 2016 to think about what made him happiest during his life, Wilson said, "When I met my wife, Melinda. The night we recorded `Good Vibrations' at CBS Studio in Los Angeles was the biggest moment of my life. Recording `California Girls.' When I first saw the ocean, when my dad took me and my brothers down to the ocean."

Just as the ocean brought him a sense of wonder, Wilson's contributions to music echo like waves across generations.

He is survived by daughters Carnie and Wendy.