Brian Wilson, legendary Beach Boys singer-songwriter, dies at 82

Brian Wilson, the singer, songwriter and creative mastermind behind the influential pop and rock band the Beach Boys, has died, his family announced. He was 82.

“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” a statement on his social media said. “We are at a loss for words right now.”

Asking for privacy, the statement added: “We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.”

After the January 2024 death of his wife, Melinda, Wilson’s family filed legal documents to appoint Brian Wilson’s publicist and manager, Jean Sievers, and LeeAnn Hard, Wilson’s business manager, as “co-conservators of the person,” according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC. The filing quoted Wilson’s doctor saying that the musician had “a major neurocognitive disorder (such as dementia),” and noted that Ledbetter had essentially been Wilson’s caregiver in recent years because he was “unable to properly provide for his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter.”

The following May, a Los Angeles judge approved the petition, and noted that evidence presented showed Wilson himself consented to the conservatorship.

One of the most significant figures in driving pop music’s acceptance as an art form, and often hailed as a creative genius, Brian Wilson wrote the music to nearly all of the Beach Boys’ best-known songs, from their early surf-rock classics to their more complex recordings of the mid-1960s and beyond. Wilson’s catalog includes the enduring hits “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Surfer Girl,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” “California Girls,” and “Good Vibrations,” all of which evoked images of breezy, clean-cut, sun-soaked teenage fun.

Yet those songs only hinted at Wilson’s artistic depth and innovation. With his gift for vocal harmonies, musical arrangements and studio production, Wilson – having then just turned 23 years old – was the driving force behind one of the most celebrated pop albums of all time: The Beach Boys’ 1966 release “Pet Sounds,” which includes the singles “God Only Knows,” “Sloop John B” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”

Wilson said “Pet Sounds” was in part inspired by The Beatles’ watershed 1965 album “Rubber Soul,” with Paul McCartney declaring that “Pet Sounds” in turn was a huge influence on The Beatles’ landmark 1967 album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

Affirming its place in the pop music pantheon, the Library of Congress in 2004 added “Pet Sounds” to the National Recording Registry, noting its “aesthetic, historic or cultural significance” and calling it in part “the most complete statement of Wilson’s musical and lyrical aesthetic.”

But Wilson’s work with the Beach Boys was severely affected by the mental health issues he’d experienced since his twenties, which were later diagnosed as schizoaffective and bipolar disorders. In 1975, those illnesses, combined with overindulgence in food, alcohol and drugs, led him to come under the care of controversial psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy, who ultimately became Wilson’s therapist, business manager, executive producer and even co-songwriter.

Wilson’s family, concerned about Landy’s influence on the musician, the fees he charged and the amount of medication he’d prescribed him, moved to sever Landy’s relationship with Wilson. In 1989, Landy’s license was revoked due to alleged ethical violations but he worked with Wilson until 1992, when he was legally barred from contacting him again. Their relationship was documented in the 2014 biopic “Love & Mercy.”

Wilson’s relationship with his band mates had been difficult for decades, and the band continued to tour and make appearances without him following Wilson’s withdrawal from the Beach Boys as his mental health and substance abuse issues became more prevalent. He did ultimately strike a truce with his band mates, joining them for appearances and projects in later years. Wilson’s final album with the Beach Boys, “That’s Why God Made the Radio,” was released in 2012, coinciding with the band’s 50th anniversary.

In his later years, however, Wilson focused on his solo career. His most recent studio album, “At My Piano,” released in November 2021, features solo piano versions of many classic Beach Boys songs. He also toured off and on as a solo artist, beginning in 1999; his final touring appearance was a joint performance with the band Chicago in July 2022, one month after he’d turned 80, after which his management announced his remaining tour dates would be cancelled for then-undisclosed health reasons.

Wilson released 12 solo studio albums during his lifetime, plus over two dozen studio albums with the Beach Boys. He was the subject of three authorized documentaries: 2021’s “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road,” 2004’s “Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of ‘Smile’,” and 1995’s “Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.” His many career achievements include induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with The Beach Boys in 1988, induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000, and being recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007.

Wilson was married twice. His first marriage, to Marilyn Rovell, produced two children – daughters Carnie and Wendy Wilson, who went on to become two-thirds of the chart-topping 1990s singing trio Wilson Phillips. The marriage was tumultuous, the blame for which Brian Wilson largely placed on himself, and ended in 1979 after just over eleven years.

Wilson married Melinda Ledbetter in 1995, after he severed ties with Landy, a process in which she was instrumental. They remained together until her death in 2024.

Brian Wilson is survived by daughters Carnie and Wendy, five children he and Ledbetter adopted, and his grandchildren.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.