Brian Wilson, a pop music legend and vocalist who co-founded the Beach Boys, has died. He was 82.
The musician’s family revealed his death on Wednesday, June 11, in an Instagram post that included a recent snapshot of the celebrity smiling on a bench.
“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father, Brian Wilson, has passed away,” according to the statement. “We’re struggling to find the right words at this moment.” Please respect our privacy while our family is mourning. We realize we are sharing our sadness with the entire globe. “Love and Mercy.”
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Wilson, described by PEOPLE in 1975 as the “formative genius of the group,” functioned as the rock band’s lyricist and co-lead vocalist, as well as playing bass guitar and keyboard with brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine, all of whom were members of the original lineup.
Wilson was born on June 20, 1942, in Inglewood, California, and was the eldest of three siblings, including Dennis and Carl, who were born in 1944 and 1946, respectively. He was said to have a natural talent for music from a young age, as evidenced by two biographies—Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: The Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys’ Founding Genius and Wouldn’t It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds.
Wilson created the Beach Boys, formerly known as the Pendletones, at the age of 19 with his brothers, Love and Jardine, and co-wrote the group’s debut song, “Surfin’.” By 1962, they had published their debut studio album, Surfin’ Safari. With the popularity of their second album, Surfin’ U.S.A., and two subsequent albums released in 1963, they helped establish—and became synonymous with—the “California sound.”
A few years later, Wilson helped the Beatles develop beyond that surf and beach lifestyle with more mature music, resulting in 1966’s Pet Sounds, 1967’s canceled Smile, and the song “Good Vibrations.” The debut album solidified Wilson and the Beach Boys’ position in rock ‘n’ roll history, and it went on to become one of the most influential of all time.
When asked about “Good Vibrations,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966, Wilson told PEOPLE in 2018, “That was a very complex record.”
He went on to say, “We recorded it in four studios.” Gold Star’s verses, Sunset Sound’s bridge, Western’s chorus background music, and Columbia’s vocals. My brothers remarked, ‘Brian, this is going to be a number one record.’ I said, ‘I know!’
Despite the Beach Boys’ soaring popularity and continued chart success, Wilson began to succumb to a variety of mental instabilities caused by depression over deafness in his right ear, an unofficial musical rivalry with the Beatles, the relentless nature of touring, and what PEOPLE later described as “the excesses of the ’60s.” Wilson became a “victim of his own genius.” Years later, with continuing mental deterioration and more self-destructive conduct, he went into seclusion following his father’s death in June 1973.
Wilson told PEOPLE in 1991 that his father’s abuse and a “two-by-four [he hit him with] caused deafness in my right ear,” adding that his childhood and adolescence were “very sad times in my life, because I always had to turn my head to hear things, trying to imagine where those voices were coming from.”
Wilson had a brief return in 1976, assisting in the production of the album The Beach Boys Love You, before relapsing into a years-long despair driven by drugs and alcohol.
In 1983, PEOPLE observed that Wilson “became obese and withdrawn in the 70s,” noted that he “put his piano inside a huge indoor sandbox,” and reported that he “never ventured out of the house for one two-year period.” However, following a second intervention organized by Landy, “the 40-year-old singer-songwriter-producer has ditched liquor and a three-pack-a-day cigarette habit and is keeping to a diet that has peeled 100 pounds off his 6’2″ body.”
“I’ve been through a great deal of mental anguish,” Wilson told People. “I felt like an overweight slob. It was quite embarrassing. I used to go onstage, and it was terrifying. I’m now acclimating to it. I feel a little more confident in myself. ” He stated that during treatment, “I had to learn to get off a lot of bad stuff.”
Wilson’s professional comeback began in the mid-1990s, with him returning to the studio and playing on stage. During that period, he released many solo albums, including Brian Wilson Presents Smile (2004), which was his rendition of the previously unfinished Beach Boys album.
In 2012, he released his 11th solo album, At My Piano, the same year the Beach Boys played at the 54th annual Grammy Awards, wrapping up a spectacular 50th anniversary tour and the record’s release, That’s Why God Made The Radio.
“I feel great. I truly do feel well these days,” Wilson told PEOPLE, adding that “this entire year has been really emotional and—what do you call it?—sentimental.
Wilson was honored several times over his career. He had nine Grammy Award nominations, most of which came early on while with the Beach Boys. His two victories, however, were for his solo work in 2005 and 2013.
In 1988, he was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame as a Beach Boys member. He was also acknowledged by the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007 and received a Golden Globe nomination in 2016 for penning an original song for the soundtrack of the movie Love & Mercy, starring Paul Dano as Wilson.
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, a documentary released in 2021, explored Wilson’s life and work.
Wilson was married twice: first to Marilyn Rovell from 1964 to 1979, and secondly to Melinda Kae Ledbetter in 1995. They remained together till her death in January 2024.
A month later, his family petitioned for conservatorship in a Los Angeles court, claiming that he had a “major neurocognitive disorder (such as dementia).” They also observed that Wilson was “unable to properly provide for his… personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter.”
Wilson has two children with his first wife, Carnie and Wendy, who were born in 1968 and 1969. In the 1980s, the siblings joined Wilson Phillips, a chart-topping female trio, with Chynna Phillips, the daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas.
Wilson and Ledbetter adopted five children: Daria, Delanie, Dylan, Dash, and Dakota Rose. “They’re good kids,” the singer told People in December 2012.
Wilson is survived by his children.