Brian Wilson, legendary Beach Boys singer-songwriter, dies at 82
Brian Wilson, the singer, songwriter and creative mastermind behind the influential pop and rock band the Beach Boys, has died, his family announced. He was 82.
"We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away," a statement on his social media said. "We are at a loss for words right now."
Asking for privacy, the statement added: "We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world."
After the January 2024 death of his wife, Melinda, Wilson's family filed legal documents to appoint Brian Wilson's publicist and manager, Jean Sievers, and LeeAnn Hard, Wilson's business manager, as "co-conservators of the person," according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC. The filing quoted Wilson's doctor saying that the musician had "a major neurocognitive disorder (such as dementia)," and noted that Ledbetter had essentially been Wilson's caregiver in recent years because he was "unable to properly provide for his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter."
The following May, a Los Angeles judge approved the petition, and noted that evidence presented showed Wilson himself consented to the conservatorship.
One of the most significant figures in driving pop music's acceptance as an art form, and often hailed as a creative genius, Brian Wilson wrote the music to nearly all of the Beach Boys' best-known songs, from their early surf-rock classics to their more complex recordings of the mid-1960s and beyond. Wilson's catalog includes the enduring hits "Surfin' U.S.A.," "Surfer Girl," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "I Get Around," "Help Me, Rhonda," "California Girls," and "Good Vibrations," all of which evoked images of breezy, clean-cut, sun-soaked teenage fun.
Yet those songs only hinted at Wilson's artistic depth and innovation. With his gift for vocal harmonies, musical arrangements and studio production, Wilson – having then just turned 23 years old – was the driving force behind one of the most celebrated pop albums of all time: The Beach Boys' 1966 release "Pet Sounds," which includes the singles "God Only Knows," "Sloop John B" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice."
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