TRANSCRIPT:
Brian Wilson, the visionary force behind The Beach Boys and architect of the California sound, has died at the age of 82.
For millions, his music defined summers, dreams, heartbreak and hope.
But behind those shimmering harmonies was a man who spent a lifetime balancing brilliance with pain.
Born in Hawthorne, California, Mr Wilson grew up in a household filled with music, pressure, and abuse.
With his brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine, he formed a band that would soundtrack a generation.
But even in their earliest hits, about surfing, cars, and high school romance, there were hints of something deeper - yearning, fragility, a search for meaning.
Chris Willman is chief music critic at Variety magazine.
He says Wilson was so much more than a pop hitmaker.
“When we think of the great California acts of all time, the great LA bands of all time, we think of just a handful, the Beach Boys, the Doors, the Birds, not very many others. And the Beach Boys arguably are at the top of that heap and representing a California dream that may have been a little bit of an illusion. I think the world grew up thinking that everyone in California surfed because of the Beach Boys.”
Brian Wilson's masterpiece, Pet Sounds, released in 1966, remains a towering achievement in modern music.
It’s a record that inspired Sergeant Pepper, moved the Beatles' Paul McCartney to tears, and gave us one of the most tender love songs ever written.
Mr Willman says Wilson's ability to marry the simple with the symphonic set him apart from everyone.
“I think Brian was the most talented musician in pop music of the 20th century, if we had to pick one. I'm not sure there's even competition for that; as much as we all love The Beatles, people like that, just in terms of being innately gifted, not as a lyricist, certainly not as a raconteur, he was not a particularly verbal person even in his best periods, but the sophistication of that music.”
But Brian Wilson's genius didn’t come without cost.
He was tormented by mental illness, fuelled in part by an abusive father, drug addiction, and the unbearable pressure of perfection.
He spent years in seclusion before reuniting with his daughters Carnie and Wendy.
He later found love with Melinda Ledbetter, and although she died in 2024, their union helped him find late-life joy, and peace.
With characteristic humility, Wilson reflected on being called an icon.
"It means that I'm... I don't know exactly what it means. Do you know what it means? It just means that I’m an icon. An icon.”
Inducting Wilson into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Paul McCartney said his music had the power to make him cry.
"Thank you sir, for everything that you've done for me, for making me cry, for having that thing that you can do with your music, you just put those notes, those harmonies together, stick a couple of words over the top of it and you've got me any day, ladies and gentlemen, Brian Wilson."
From the sunny rebellion of Fun, Fun, Fun to the existential ache of I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times, Brian Wilson’s music was a diary of innocence lost.
On one occasion he reflected on his relationship with his fellow Beach Boys and problems during the original recordings.
"I don't know - it's such a rough kind of memory for me because I had a lot of difficulty with the boys and they didn't want to cooperate with me so we just...we shelved 'Smile' in other words and I guess they probably said 'Oh that's good, I'm glad you shelved it.' I'm sure they were happy about that but you know. Sorry folks."
In his final years, Brian Wilson struggled with dementia and after his wife's death, his family placed him under conservatorship.
And yet, his music - still playing from radios and turntables and headphones around the world - remains ageless.
Variety magazine's Chris Willman sums up his legacy.
"I mean, a year or two ago they put out a Dolby Atmos version of the ‘Pet Sounds’ album, which is widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time, and it's really like listening to this incredible symphony when you're able to hear all those different parts. It just bowls you over. On top of just having very simple melodies, obviously, ‘Fun, Fun Fun,’ ‘California Girls,’ it's not that deep. So he could do the simple and the most complex music in the world, and there was nobody on his level in pop music.”
Brian Wilson is survived by his children, his bandmates, and a universe of listeners forever changed by his sound.
