Brian Wilson, the co-founder of the Beach Boys who once, by fan Tom Petty, was compared to Beethoven, has died at the age of 82.
It was Petty who credited Wilson for creating “some of history’s most intricately woven pop songs.”
A report at CNN said his death was confirmed in an announcement by his family.
“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” his family said on social media. “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.”
His remarkable career included not just the highs, awards, honors and popularity, but also the lows, struggles with substance abuse and mental illness.
“His story, by all accounts, is one of resilience. Despite a childhood scarred by his father’s abuse, becoming partially deaf, and the years of haunting voices in his head from schizoaffective disorder, the two-time Grammy Award winner went on to become the ‘reigning king of pop melody,’ as the Denver Post once put it, often bringing to life songs that told a much different tale than his own reality,” the report explained.
Wilson once told the New York Times he wrote those happy songs, “to get as close to paradise as I can.”
We are heartbroken to announced 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 grieving.
We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.
Love & Mercy pic.twitter.com/sIe7TUUdOm
— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive) June 11, 2025
Brian Wilson, Beach Boys Co-Founder and Architect of Pop, Dead at 82
More on his life and legacy: https://t.co/54KHwb4PJL pic.twitter.com/mrbjplteVx
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) June 11, 2025
Here are the isolated vocals to the end of God Only Knows. Brian Wilson wrote and produced this at 23 years old pic.twitter.com/tZkgajBtCR
— Henry White (@Henry_White1996) June 11, 2025
The report noted: “The oldest of three brothers, Wilson was born on June 20, 1942, in Inglewood, California. His love for music began early, but so did the abuse from his father, who, during bouts of rage and depression, would beat Wilson with a belt or take out his artificial eyeball (he’d lost an eye in an industrial accident) and make Wilson look at the empty space.”
Wilson escaped into his music, and influenced by the Four Freshmen, Phil Spector, George Gershwin and the Beatles, wrote his first, “Surfer Girl,” in 1961.
Then came “Surfin” and not much later, the “Beach Boys.”
He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1964 and turned to working as a studio artist.
But his work continued. In 1966 came “Pet Sounds,” A 13-track album now in the No. 2 spot on Rolling Stone’s 2021 list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
The report explained he was troubled by hearing voices because of what he called a schizoaffective disorder, saying, “Every few minutes the voices say something derogatory to me” and his antidote was to be singing and writing songs.
He married Marilyn Rovell, and they divorced in 1979. He met his second wife, Melinda Ledbetter, in 1986.
He staged another resurrection in 2004, with “SMiLE.”
“In Wilson’s mind, The Beach Boys – as the world knew them – broke up in 1998, after Carl Wilson died of lung cancer. Dennis Wilson died in 1983 in a swimming accident,” the report said.
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