Brian Wilson, a driving creative force behind the immensely influential pop band The Beach Boys, has died at 82.
The death of the singer and songwriter, who wrote some of the bands biggest hits, including “Good Vibrations” and “God Only Knows,” was announced on Instagram by his family Wednesday.
“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” the family 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.”
The statement did not specify a cause of Wilson’s death, but he had battled dementia in recent years.
Wilson founded the Beach Boys in Hawthorne, California, in 1961 alongside his brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and school friend Al Jardine.
It wasn’t long before the band landed a string of chart-making hits—“Surfin’ USA,” “I Get Around,” and “California Girls”—which reflected the happy-go-lucky surfer culture of 1960s Southern California (even though Wilson himself didn’t surf).
The band was known for the heavenly harmonies constructed out of its members’ voices, but Wilson was the mastermind behind the songs’ composition, according to The Washington Post.
The album widely regarded as the band’s masterpiece came in 1966. Pet Sounds marked an experimental leap for the Beach Boys, featuring use of traditionally non-musical sounds, like car horns, trains, and dog barks.
While the album sold poorly when it came out, it struck a chord with the Beach Boys’ most like-minded contemporary: the Beatles. It became an inspiration for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which arrived the following year.
“It was ‘Pet Sounds’ that blew me out of the water,” Paul McCartney later said, according to The New York Times. “I figure no one is educated musically ’til they’ve heard that album.”
Near the end of the decade, Wilson, who like other artists of the era had begun to experiment with drugs, struggled with rising paranoia and delusion. At one point he scrapped a song called “Fire” mid-recording because he believed it had caused a nearby building to burn down, according to the Times.
He retreated from the public eye.
The Beach Boys still produced records, but Wilson barely featured on them.
“I had a helluva time getting through some of the frustrations that go along with being a successful record artist,” he reflected of this period in 1988, per the Times.
While Wilson would make his return to The Beach Boys in the mid-1970s, he continued to struggle with drugs, hallucinations, and fluctuating weight over the ensuing years.
During the 1980s, concerns swirled over the influence of Wilson’s psychotherapist, Dr. Eugene Landy, who appeared to hold tight control over almost every aspect of the songwriter’s life, including his business affairs and musical direction.
Wilson’s family managed to wrest him away from Landy’s control, filing a restraining order against the therapist in 1992.
After distancing himself from Landy, Wilson experienced a career resurgence in the 1990s and 2000s, releasing new music separate from The Beach Boys, which he had departed in 1982.
In 2011, he temporarily reunited with the band for a tour and an album, That’s Why God Made the Radio.
In 2024, as Wilson struggled with dementia from his schizoaffective disorder, his business partners were awarded conservatorship over him. His wife, Melinda, had died three months earlier.
Wilson is survived by his first wife, Marilyn Rovell, their two daughters, and the five children he adopted with his second wife.
