Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson dies, aged 82
11 June 2025, 18:03 | Updated: 11 June 2025, 18:18
Brian Wilson has died at the age of 82.
Brian Wilson has died at the age of 82, his family has announced.
"We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away," a statement on the singer's official Instagram account reads.
"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."
The statement ends: "Love & Mercy."
Brian Wilson was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, who was most famous for co-founding the Beach Boys in 1961.
Born on June 20, 1942, in Inglewood, California, he was the eldest son of Audree Neva and Murry Wilson, and the big brother of Dennis and Carl, who would go on to join him as members of the Beach Boys.
Brian's father said that he was born with an undeniable musical talent and as a baby, he could repeat the melody from 'When the Caissons Go Rolling Along' after only a few verses had been sung to him.
Aged 16, Brian Wilson was sharing a bedroom with his brothers, Dennis and Carl – aged 13 and 11, respectively, and after watching his father play piano and listening to the harmonies of vocal groups such as the Four Freshmen, Brian would teach family members how to sing background harmonies.
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In 1961, Brian Wilson and his brother Dennis and Carl, recruited their cousin Mike Love and classmate Al Jardine to start a five-piece band, and Dennis – the only surfer in the group – suggested they write songs that celebrated surfing and the lifestyle in Southern California.
The Beach Boys With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The newly formed Beach Boys saw their first smash hit song 'Surfin' USA' lead a string of top ten songs reflecting the early sixties' culture of romance, surfing and cars, later dubbed 'California Sound'.
Brian Wilson wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen international hits for the group, including 'Good Vibrations' and 'God Only Knows' and 'I Get Around'.
The Beach Boys sold over 27 million albums, with their 2003 greatest hits album Sounds of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys, selling over 3.5million records alone, and the band were awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy's in 2001.
Brian Wilson was known for his unorthodox approaches to writing pop music and for his expert use of recording techniques and was generally considered to be one of the most innovative songwriters of the 20th century.
Wilson was nominated for nine Grammy Awards and won two, was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and in 2000 when Paul McCartney was inducting him into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he referred to Wilson as "one of the great American geniuses."
He had two daughters from his first marriage to Marilyn Rovell, Carnie and Wendy who went on to form two-thirds of the highly successful American group, Wilson Phillips, and in 1995 Brian married his second wife Melinda Kae Ledbetter, who he was married to until her death in 2024.
