Photo: Wilson family
Brian Wilson, the legendary composer, songwriter, and singer who co-founded the Beach Boys, has died at 82 years old. The news was announced Wednesday morning via a social media post from Wilson’s family.
The short message reads:
We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father, Brian Wilson, has passed away.
We are at a loss for words right now.
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
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In early 2024, the public learned that Wilson had been battling dementia. The family, however, did not share any details of what led to his passing.
Wilson was born in 1942 in Hawthorne, California, a suburb at the northeast border of Manhattan Beach and L.A.’s South Bay. Music was a mainstay in the Wilson household and he formed a rock band alongside his brothers Dennis, Carl, and their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine — the original Beach Boys — in 1961.
While Brian wasn’t considered a surfer himself, his brother Dennis was, inspiring Brian to write and compose songs that highlighted the burgeoning surf culture he’d grown up with in his community. The sport was growing throughout Southern California and the South Bay was a cultural hub in the 1950s, giving Wilson ample inspiration to romanticize California beach life and fan the flames for surfing’s boom in popularity by the time the Beach Boys arrived.
By 1963, Surfin’ U.S.A. became the group’s first nationwide hit, making a laundry list of popularized American towns and locations synonymous with surfing — from local South Bay locations like Haggerty’s, Redondo Beach, and Manhattan, to the North Shore’s Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach, and several other surf destinations in their home state of California.
The Beach Boys would go on to release countless other hits through the years and became one the world’s most commercially successful musical acts ever.
“Brian gave so much to the world through his music, his spirit and his strength. He was a sweet, gentle soul as well as a fierce competitor,” Wilson’s manager Jean Sievers told Rolling Stone. “There will never ever be anyone like him again. God truly broke the mold when he created Brian Wilson. Besides being a creative genius, he was one the smartest and funniest people I’ve ever known. His message of love will live on through his music forever.”
