Brian Wilson, legendary Beach Boys singer and composer, dies at 82

Brian Wilson, the creative singer, composer and intellectual author behind the influential pop and rock band The Beach Boys, has died, his family announced. He was 82 years old.

“We are disconsolate to announce that our beloved Father Brian Wilson has died,” said a statement in his social networks. “We are lost by words at this time.”

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

After the death of January 2024 of his wife, Melinda, Wilson’s family presented legal documents to appoint the publicist and manager of Brian Wilson, Jean Sievers and Leeann Hard, Wilson Business Manager, such as “Co-conservatives of the person”, according to the ABC Station of Los Angeles Kabc. The presentation cited Wilson’s doctor saying that the musician had “an important neurocognitive disorder (such as dementia),” and pointed out that Ledbetter had essentially been Wilson’s caregiver in recent years because “he could not properly meet his own personal needs of physical health, food, clothing or refuge.”

The next May, a Judge of Los Angeles approved the petition and pointed out that the evidence presented showed that Wilson himself consented to conservation.

One of the most important figures to promote the acceptance of pop music as an art form, often acclaimed as a creative genius, Brian Wilson wrote music to almost all the best known songs of the Beach Boys, from his first surf-rock classics to his most complex recordings in the mid-sixties and beyond. Wilson’s catalog includes the lasting successes “Surfin ‘USA”, “Surfer Girl”, “Fun, fun, fun”, “I get into” “help, rhonda”, “Girls of California” and “Good vibrations”, all of which evoked images of ventilated, clean and soldier adolescent fun.

However, those songs only hinted at Wilson’s depth and artistic innovation. With his gift for vocal harmonies, musical arrangements and study production, Wilson, who has just turned 23, was the driving force behind one of the most famous pop albums of all time: the 1966 launch of the 1966 Beach Boys “Pet sounds” What includes the singles “God only knows”, “Sloop John B” and “Wasn’t it pleasant”?

Wilson said that “Pet Sounds” was inspired in part in the 1965 album of the Beatles Basin “Rubber Soul”, with Paul McCartney stating that “Pet Sounds” in turn was a great influence on the emblematic 1967 album of the Beatles, “Sgt. Lonely Hearts Club Band”.

Affirming his place in the Pop Music Pantheon, the Library of Congress in 2004 added “Pet Sounds” to the National Recording Registrypointing out its “aesthetic, historical or cultural meaning” and partially calling it “the most complete statement of Wilson’s musical and lyric aesthetics.”

But Wilson’s work with the Beach Boys was severely affected by the mental health problems he had experienced since his veins, which were later diagnosed as schizoecitive and bipolar disorders. In 1975, those diseases, combined with excessive indulgence in food, alcohol and drugs, led him to be under the care of the controversial psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy, who finally became the therapist, commercial manager, Wilson executive producer.

Wilson’s family, concerned about Landy’s influence on the musician, the fees he charged and the amount of medications that had prescribed him, moved to Sever Landy’s relationship with Wilson. In 1989, Landy’s license was revoked due to alleged ethical violations, but worked with Wilson until 1992, when he was legally prohibited from contacting him again. His relationship was documented in the 2014 biographical film “Love & Mercy.”

Wilson’s relationship with his bandmates had been difficult for decades, and the band continued on tour and appears without him after the retreat of Wilson from the Beach Boys as his mental health problems and substance abuse became more frequent. He finally made a truce with his bandmates, joining them for appearances and projects in later years. Wilson’s final album with The Beach Boys, “that is why God made the radio,” was launched in 2012, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the band.

In his last years, however, Wilson focused on his solo career. His most recent study album, “AT My Piano”, released in November 2021, presents solo piano versions of many classic Beach Boys songs. He also went from time to time as a solo artist, as of 1999; His last appearance on the tour was a joint performance with the Chicago band in July 2022, one month after having turned 80 years, after which his management announced that their remaining tour dates would be canceled for health reasons not evaluated.

Wilson launched 12 solo studio albums during his life, in addition to more than two dozen studio albums with Beach Boys. It was the subject of three authorized documentaries: “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road” of 2021, “Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the story of ‘Smile'” of 2004 and “Brian Wilson: it was simply not made for these times.” Your many professional achievements include induction in the rock & Roll Hall of Fame With The Beach Boys in 1988, induction in the composers Hall of Fame in 2000, and being recognized by the honors of the Kennedy Center in 2007.

Wilson married twice. His first marriage, with Marilyn Rovelll, produced two children: the daughters Carnie and Wendy Wilson, who became two thirds of the song trio of the nineties Wilson Phillips. The marriage was tumultuous, the fault for which Brian Wilson put himself largely, and ended in 1979 after just over eleven years.

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

Brian Wilson survives daughters Carnie and Wendy, five sons that he and Ledbetter adopted, and their grandchildren.

This is a development story. Consult the updates again.