Brian Wilson, Beach Boys Musician, Passes Away at 82 After Battle with Dementia

Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, one of the most acclaimed and influential songwriters of the 20th century, has died aged 82.

He shot to fame as the frontman of the Beach Boys, for which he served as the principal songwriter as well as the co-lead vocalist.

Last year, shortly after his wife Melinda passed away, it was revealed that he had received a diagnosis of a neurocognitive condition similar to dementia.

His children announced Wilson’s death on the singer’s official Instagram page this Wednesday, along with what appeared to be a recent photo.

‘We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now,’ they wrote.

‘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.’

Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, one of the most acclaimed and influential songwriters of the 20th century, has died aged 82; pictured 2020 in Miami

Wilson formed the Beach Boys in 1961 with his brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and their friend Al Jardine 

Wilson formed the Beach Boys in 1961 with his brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and their friend Al Jardine.

The band was initially known as the Pendletones and gained popularity with their hit song Surfin’, which was written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love in 1961.

Throughout the 1960s, the band captured the hearts of many in America, putting out albums such as Surfin’ Safari, Surfin’ U.S.A., and Surfer Girl.

However Wilson’s involvement with the band shifted dramatically when he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1964, followed by two more in the next couple of years. 

He promptly withdrew from touring but retained his backstage control of the band as a writer and producer, masterminding their 1966 masterpiece Pet Sounds and providing lead vocals on many of the tracks.

Pet Sounds struggled commercially at first, but ultimately earned a reputation as one of the most acclaimed pop or rock albums ever created.

Paul McCartney has cited Pet Sounds as a particularly profound influence on him, one that spurred him to explore new songwriting frontiers himself for the Beatles. 

Wilson plunged into heavy drug use during the 1960s, including LSD, and the combination of his mounting substance problem and psychological issues contributed to his increasing withdrawal from public life. 

The last time Wilson was seen in public was last April, when he emerged in Los Angeles looking frail and using a wheelchair while going to a Lakers game

The original Beach Boys are pictured in Los Angeles in 1962, with Brian Wilson in the center

One of his symptoms was paranoid delusions, and he continued experiencing auditory hallucinations in the last decades of his life.

By the mid-1970s, his drug use had expanded to heroin and he became a recluse as his first marriage to singer Marilyn Rovell crumbled.

With the help of therapy, however, he returned to the spotlight in 1976, touring with the Beach Boys again as the band’s slogan trumpeted: ‘Brian’s Back!’

He slipped in and out of overeating and drug use, with repeated stints out of the spotlight punctuated by triumphant comebacks. 

Melinda, his second and final wife, married Wilson in 1995 and he has credited her as his ‘savior,’ presumably from his personal demons.

Throughout the 1990s, he found himself in feuds with a variety of his collaborators over a string of issues including unpaid royalties and alleged defamation of them in his memoirs, which prompted a lawsuit from his own mother.

The couple gave a joint interview a decade ago in which Wilson confessed that he was still hallucinating that he heard voices.

‘I have voices in my head,’ he explained to Salon alongside his wife in 2015. ‘Mostly it’s derogatory. Some of it’s cheerful. Most of it isn’t.’ 

Last February, shortly after Melinda’s death, his family filed to obtain a conservatorship of him, announcing he had been diagnosed with dementia. 

The last time Wilson was seen in public was last April, when he emerged in Los Angeles looking frail and using a wheelchair while going to a Lakers game.