BREAKING: Music Legend Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys D!es at 82—Family’s Tearful Goodbye to the ‘Genius Behind Surf Rock’ Reveals Untold Final Moments & Legacy That Will Shatter Fans’ Hearts Forever 

Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson has died at 82.

“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” his family said on Instagram Wednesday. “We are at a loss for words right now.”

“Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving,” the statement continued. “We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.” Further details weren’t available.

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Brian Wilson in 2007.Getty Images

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Brian WilsonInstagram/Brian Wilson
The message signed off with the phrase “Love & Mercy,” which was the title of the opening track from his debut solo album in 1988. It was also the name of the 2014 biopic in which Wilson was played by John Cusack and Paul Dano at different stages of his life.

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The music revolutionary founded the Beach Boys in 1961 with his brothers, Dennis and Carl. Brian played bass, Carl lead guitar and Dennis drums.

The group, which also included Wilson’s cousin, Mike Love, and their friend, Al Jardine, went from local California band to worldwide superstars.

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Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys in 1964.Getty Images
Wilson was born June 20, 1942 in Inglewood, California. He was 19 when he formed the Beach Boys with his brothers. Their first album, “Surfin’ Safari,” was released in 1962.

With the Beach Boys, Wilson wrote or co-wrote countless hit songs including “Surfin’ USA,” “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” “California Girls” and “Good Vibrations.”

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The Beach Boys in 1962.Michael Ochs Archives
“That was a very complex record,” Wilson told People in 2018 about “Good Vibrations,” which was the band’s first No. 1 single.

“We cut that in four studios. The verses at Gold Star, the bridge at Sunset Sound, the background music for the choruses at Western, and the vocals at Columbia. My brothers said, ‘Brian, this is going to be a No. 1 record.’ I said, ‘I know!’ “

Wilson’s masterpiece was the band’s 1966 album “Pet Sounds,” which is considered one of the greatest music albums of all time.

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Wilson in 1965.Michael Ochs Archives
The Beach Boys also had a friendly rivalry with The Beatles, who burst onto the scene in the US in February 1964. By then, the Beach Boys had already released their first four albums and were dominating the music industry. Between 1962 to 1966, the group had 13 singles in the Billboard Top 10, with “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda” and “Good Vibrations” going to No. 1.

Wilson reportedly cried the first time he heard The Beatles’ 1967 song “Strawberry Fields Forever.” According to a 2023 post from his Twitter account, he once said, “When ‘Strawberry Fields’ came on the radio, I locked in with it. I had to pull over in my car to the side, and I said, ‘I’ve never heard anything like this in my life.’ “

Paul McCarney, in turn, was also a fan of Wilson. According to the New York Times, the Beatle said, “It was ‘Pet Sounds’ that blew me out of the water. I figure no one is educated musically till they’ve heard that album.”

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Wilson recording the album “Pet Sounds” in 1966.Michael Ochs Archives
Wilson’s career stalled, however, in the 1960s when he became a recluse, which got worse after his father’s death in 1973. He spent days not leaving his Los Angeles home. According to the LA Times, he even had a baby grand piano installed in a sandbox and a teepee erected in the living room of his house.

In later years, Wilson was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which involves hallucinations, depression and paranoia.

“Well, for the past 40 years I’ve had auditory hallucinations in my head, all day every day, and I can’t get them out,” Wilson told Ability magazine in 2006. “Every few minutes the voices say something derogatory to me, which discourages me a little bit, but I have to be strong enough to say to them, ‘Hey, would you quit stalking me? F–k off! Don’t talk to me — leave me alone!’ I have to say these types of things all day long. It’s like a fight.”

While onstage, he “could hear voices” telling him “negative things” about himself, he recalled. “Even today, when I sing I have to force myself not to listen to them. But when the concert is over, the voices come back.”

He added that his depression got “pretty low” and “pretty deep.”

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Jardine, Love and Wilson in 1985.Redferns
“I get depressed to the point where I can’t do anything — I can’t even write songs, which is my passion,” he said.

Wilson also struggled with addiction. In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, he revealed the state of his mental health was due to “the result of bad drugs.”

“I’ve told a lot of people don’t take psychedelic drugs. It’s mentally dangerous to take,” he said at the time. “I regret having taken LSD. It’s a bad drug.”

With psychologist Eugene Landy’s help, Wilson made a career comeback in 1976 by helping produce the album “The Beach Boys Love You.” That same year, he began performing with the Beach Boys again for the first time since 1964.

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The Beach Boys in 1963.Michael Ochs Archives
However, Wilson regressed a few years later and began using drugs again. His weight also went up to over 300 pounds due to the drugs.

“I felt like a fat slob. It was very embarrassing. I used to go onstage and it was scary,” he said in an interview with People.

Wilson also opened up about how he didn’t always enjoy the fame that came with his career.

“I had a helluva time getting through some of the frustrations that go along with being a successful record artist,” Wilson told the New York Times Magazine in 1988. “When I got out there with the Beach Boys, at first I was OK, because I was riding a wave, riding a crest. But then, later on, 10 years later, I got scared, and I got lost, and I was eating caramel sundaes for breakfast. I was all out of whack!”

Wilson’s family also grew concerned about Landy’s influence on the musician, including how much medication he was prescribing. That led to Wilson severing ties with Landy, whose license was later revoked due to alleged ethical violations.

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Wilson in 1965.Michael Ochs Archives
After leaving the band again in 1976, Wilson kicked off his solo career with his self-titled 1988 debut album. He released 11 solo albums, the last being 2021’s “At My Piano.”

From the 1990s on, Wilson served as an on-and-off member of the Beach Boys as he continued focusing on his solo career. His final album with the group was 2012’s “That’s Why God Made the Radio.”

Wilson received a number of accolades throughout his career. He was nominated for nine Grammy Awards and won two. He was also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beach Boys in 1988.

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Wilson performs in California in 2022.Getty Images
Wilson’s life was chronicled in the 2021 documentary “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road,” which follows Wilson and his longtime friend, Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine, driving around Southern California and visiting locations that shaped Wilson’s life.

In 2021, director Brent Wilson told People that his biggest takeaway from making the doc was that Wilson “doesn’t have the capacity to say anything bad about anyone.”

“When you see the film, you see that Eugene Landy was such a traumatic person in his life,” Wilson shared. “Yet, in the film, Brian can’t bring himself to say anything bad about him. He just doesn’t have it in his heart. In the film he even gives Landy credit for helping him lose weight and getting off of cocaine and quitting cigarettes and getting him in shape.”

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Wilson at the Grammy Awards in 2005.Getty Images
Wilson was married twice, first to Marilyn Rovell, with whom he welcomed daughters Carnie and Wendy, and then to Melinda Kae Ledbetter, with whom he adopted five children.

Ledbetter died at 77 in 2024. A month later, his family filed to place him under a conservatorship and revealed that he was suffering from dementia.