Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson was ‘confused’, forgot children’s names as dementia worsened in his final days

Bri­an Wil­son, orig­i­nal mem­ber of the Beach Boys, per­forms in con­cert at the Etess Are­na in Hard Rock Atlantic City on Octo­ber 16, 2021 in Atlantic City, New Jer­sey (Don­ald Kravitz/Getty Images)

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Bri­an Wil­son, the musi­cal genius behind The Beach Boys’ suc­cess and one of America’s most influ­en­tial artists, has died at 82.

In the final days lead­ing up to his death on Wednes­day, Bri­an Wil­son was report­ed­ly con­fined to his home and under 24-hour care. His fam­i­ly had recent­ly dis­closed that he was bat­tling a “major neu­rocog­ni­tive dis­or­der” and was on med­ica­tion for demen­tia, accord­ing to RadarOn­line.

The Beach Boys leg­end report­ed­ly strug­gled with speech and often couldn’t recall his own chil­dren’s names.

Brian Wilson’s final year marked by worsening dementia, conservatorship and 24-hour care

The musi­cian’s fam­i­ly announced his death on Insta­gram, writ­ing: “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.”

In the final year of his life, Bri­an Wilson’s strug­gle with demen­tia inten­si­fied to the point where he required 24/7 care.

Fol­low­ing the Jan­u­ary 2024 death of his wife, Melin­da, his fam­i­ly filed for con­ser­va­tor­ship, cit­ing his need for con­tin­u­ous sup­port. Court doc­u­ments revealed that three full-time care­givers were liv­ing with Wil­son, who was not per­mit­ted to reside any­where but his home.

Musi­cian Bri­an Wil­son and Melin­da Led­bet­ter attend the 73rd Annu­al Gold­en Globe Awards held at the Bev­er­ly Hilton Hotel on Jan­u­ary 10, 2016, in Bev­er­ly Hills, Cal­i­for­nia (John Shearer/Getty Images)

A court-appoint­ed attor­ney not­ed that while Wil­son was aware of basic facts like his name and the date, he could only recall the names of the two daugh­ters who lived with him, unable to name his oth­er chil­dren.

Conservatorship approved after Brian Wilson found hard to understand during visit

Accord­ing to the report, Bri­an Wil­son was often hard to under­stand and offered only brief replies dur­ing con­ver­sa­tions.

He expressed sur­prise at the lawyer’s vis­it and appeared con­fused about the need for co-con­ser­va­tors. How­ev­er, Wil­son rec­og­nized the peti­tion­ers as his long­time man­agers and affirmed his trust in them, stat­ing he believed they would act in his best inter­est.

Based on this assess­ment, the court-appoint­ed attor­ney rec­om­mend­ed the approval of the con­ser­va­tor­ship.

Brian Wilson’s legacy

Bri­an Wil­son, the dri­ving cre­ative force behind The Beach Boys, co-found­ed the icon­ic band in 1961 with his broth­ers Den­nis and Carl, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jar­dine. Their debut sin­gle, ‘Surfin’, cat­a­pult­ed them into the nation­al spot­light, lead­ing to a deal with Capi­tol Records as the label’s first rock act.

Over the years, the band achieved 36 Bill­board Top 40 hits—an unmatched feat for any Amer­i­can group

group.

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Bri­an Wilson’s ‘Pet Sounds’ (1966) is wide­ly con­sid­ered a cor­ner­stone of mod­ern pop music, cel­e­brat­ed for its lush har­monies, com­plex arrange­ments, and emo­tion­al depth. The album rede­fined the artis­tic poten­tial of the genre, inspir­ing not only fans but also major artists like The Beatles—Paul McCart­ney famous­ly called it his favorite album and cred­it­ed it as a key influ­ence on Sgt Pepper’s Lone­ly Hearts Club Band.

Fol­low­ing its release, Wil­son embarked on the cre­ation of ‘Smile’, an ambi­tious and exper­i­men­tal project meant to push the bound­aries even fur­ther. How­ev­er, due to mount­ing pres­sure, per­son­al strug­gles, and cre­ative ten­sions, the album was shelved in 1967, becom­ing one of the most leg­endary “lost albums” in music his­to­ry.

Despite this, the mys­tique around ‘Smile’ only grew over time. In 2004, Wil­son revis­it­ed and com­plet­ed the project as ‘Bri­an Wil­son Presents Smile’, which received wide­spread crit­i­cal acclaim and earned him a Gram­my Award.

Wilson’s retreat from the spot­light began after a pan­ic attack in 1964 forced him to stop tour­ing with The Beach Boys. Though his role in the band dimin­ished, his influ­ence remained cen­tral.

He con­tin­ued to write and pro­duce, and lat­er pur­sued a solo career marked by intro­spec­tive albums like ‘Imag­i­na­tion’ (1998) and ‘That Lucky Old Sun’ (2008), which reflect­ed both his musi­cal bril­liance and his life­long bat­tle with men­tal ill­ness.

Despite decades of per­son­al challenges—including a well-doc­u­ment­ed strug­gle with schiz­o­phre­nia and depression—Wilson’s con­tri­bu­tions to music remained pro­found. He not only shaped the sound of an era but also paved the way for future gen­er­a­tions of artists. His unwa­ver­ing cre­ativ­i­ty and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty made him a sym­bol of both genius and resilience in the face of adver­si­ty.

In recog­ni­tion of his impact, Wil­son and The Beach Boys were induct­ed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Wil­son also earned two Gram­my Awards, while the group received a Gram­my Life­time Achieve­ment Award in 2001.

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