Brian Wilson, the legendary singer/songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys, has died. He was 82 when he passed.
The musician's family announced his death on Wednesday, June 11 in an Instagram post featuring a recent photo of the star smiling on a bench. According to People, Wilson's Beach Boys bandmate Al Jardine confirmed he died in the early morning of June 11. While an official cause of death was not disclosed, the beloved musical auteur was revealed, in early 2024, to be living with a neurocognitive disorder akin to dementia.
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"We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away," the family's Instagram statement read. "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."
Born in Inglewood, California in 1942, Brian Douglas Wilson formed the band - then called the Pendletones - as a teenager with his brothers, Dennis and Carl, their cousin Mike Love, and high school friend Al Jardine. Their first song, “Surfin’,” was released by Candix Records, who changed the band’s name to the Beach Boys without the members’ permission. A year later, the band signed with Capitol to release its debut, Surfin’ Safari; the following year, “Surfin’ U.S.A.” became the Beach Boys’ first U.S. Top 10 single.
In 1963, the band released three albums: Surfin’ U.S.A., Surfer Girl, and Little Deuce Coupe. With those three releases, they were renowned for helping create the "California sound." By then, Wilson had started his career as a producer for other musicians. He worked with Jan and Dean, the Castellas, Donna Loren, Sharon Marie, and others.
A few years later, Wilson helped the group expand beyond their surf and beach culture with more mature music, culminating in 1966's critically acclaimed Pet Sounds. An album lauded even by The Beatles, it was a project that eventually cemented Wilson and the Beach Boys' place in rock 'n' roll history. At the time of its release, Pet Sounds was considered a commercial flop and critical failure. But in 2004, it was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry due to its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance. To this day, it's still considered to be one of the most influential of all time.
Wilson wasn't without mental struggles. Despite the Beach Boys' soaring popularity, Wilson started to succumb to various mental instabilities brought on by depression over deafness in his right ear, an unofficial musical rivalry with the Beatles, the relentless nature of being on tour and the cultural excess of the '60s. After 1967's scrapped effort, Smile, and the single "Good Vibrations," Wilson’s role in the band receded. In 1968, he entered a psychiatric hospital for treatment. In the years after the release of Pet Sounds, Wilson briefly owned and operated a health food store called the Radiant Radish. He continued to work with the band while struggling with drug and alcohol addiction in the 1970s. He went into reclusion after his father's death in June 1973.
With the help of psychologist Eugene Landy, Wilson eventually made a brief comeback in 1976, helping produce the album, The Beach Boys Love You, before falling back into another years-long depression fueled by drugs and alcohol. In 1982, Landy removed him from the band for intensive treatment and exercised increasing control over Wilson’s financial and creative endeavors, prompting Wilson to release his debut solo album in 1988. In 1992, following legal action from Carl Wilson and other members of the Wilson family, Landy’s psychology license was revoked and he received a restraining order from Wilson. (Their decades-long treatment later became the subject of a biographical film called Love & Mercy.)
By the mid-1990s, Wilson embarked on a career resurgence, which saw him going back into the studio and performing onstage again. He released several solo albums during that time, including 2004's Brian Wilson Presents Smile, which was his version of the previously uncompleted Beach Boys' record. In 2012, he released his 11th solo album, At My Piano, the same year the Beach Boys performed at the 54th annual Grammy Awards. It capped off a successful 50th anniversary tour and celebrated the release of the album, That's Why God Made the Radio.
Throughout his career, Wilson received a number of accolades. He earned nine Grammy Award nominations, collecting most of those early on with the Beach Boys. His two wins, however, were for his solo work in 2005 and 2013. As a member of the Beach Boys, he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. He was also recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007 and earned a Golden Globe nomination in 2016 for writing an original song featured on the soundtrack for Love & Mercy. Wilson's life and career was subsequently chronicled in the 2021 documentary, Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road. (He also authorized the documentaries Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times, and Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile during his lifetime).
Wilson was married twice, first to Marilyn Rovell, from 1964 to 1979, and then to Melinda Kae Ledbetter, whom he married in 1995. They were together until her death in January 2024. A month later, his family filed for a conservatorship in a Los Angeles court stating that he had a "major neurocognitive disorder (such as dementia)." They also noted Wilson was “unable to properly provide for his... personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter.”
Wilson had two daughters, Carnie and Wendy, born in 1968 and 1969 respectively with his first wife. With Ledbetter, Wilson adopted five children: Daria, Delanie, Dylan, Dash and Dakota Rose. He is survived by all of his kids.
See the Instagram tribute Brian Wilson's family posted in honor of him below.
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Article Image: Portrait of Brian Wilson in 2015. (Jean_Nelson via DepositPhotos.)
