When the Beach Boys started back in 1961, they seemed like little more than a novelty surf band that would vanish from memory by the following summer. But 64 years later, against all odds, their saga remains ongoing. They survived surf music falling out of style, severe mental illness, musical …
Read More »Al Jardine Is Keeping the Beach Boys' Legacy Alive, One Show at a Time
A l Jardine is feeling a little uneasy. It’s about five hours until a concert at the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset, Massachusetts, where he’ll play nearly all of the oddball 1977 LP The Beach Boys Love You with veteran members of Brian Wilson‘s touring band. Despite being a …
Read More »Carnie Wilson Says Dad Brian Wilson's Burial 'Gave Me More Closure'
Two months after the death of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys legend was laid to rest at Los Angeles’ Westwood Memorial Park. His daughter Carnie Wilson, singer of the Nineties trio Wilson Phillips, wrote a heartfelt post on Instagram about her father’s burial. “Today we laid my Daddy to rest,” …
Read More »Brian Wilson's Cause of Death Revealed
Two weeks after the death of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys legend’s cause of death has been revealed. The Los Angeles County Department of Health’s death certificate, first obtained by TMZ, reveals that Wilson’s primary cause of death was “respiratory arrest,” with sepsis and cystitis listed as contributing factors. According …
Read More »How Sly Stone and Brian Wilson Changed Music
There was an odd symmetry to the near-simultaneous deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson at age 82 last week. “Both of them poets of summer,” Rob Sheffield says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “Both chroniclers of the American dream in California. Both from pretty much …
Read More »Brian Wilson's Last Playlist
The last time I saw Brian Wilson was in March of this year. I’d been going to visit him every few months or so since his wife, Melinda, died in 2024. Brian had quit touring two years earlier, so he was pretty much in retirement mode. We spent time watching …
Read More »Beach Boys' Mike Love Honors 'Brother in Music' Brian Wilson at Gala Event
Mike Love paid tribute to his cousin and Beach Boys co-founder, Brian Wilson, who died Wednesday, at the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York on Thursday. “I especially must thank my cousin Brian Wilson,” Love said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “My first cousin by blood but …
Read More »Neil Young Is Still Rolling Through Time on the Lovably Messy 'Talkin to the Trees'
Time fades away, but Neil Young never does. He’s been on a like-a-hurricane live roll lately with his ferocious new band the Chrome Hearts, who make their studio debut on Talkin to the Trees. The band came together fast last year, after Neil’s amazing spring tour with his old outlaw …
Read More »Paul McCartney Pays Tribute to 'Musical Genius' Brian Wilson: 'I Loved Him'
Paul McCartney has paid tribute to Brian Wilson following the death of the Beach Boys’ “musical genius.” “Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special,” McCartney wrote on social media Thursday, the morning after Wilson’s death was announced. “The notes he heard in …
Read More »Jim James Remembers Brian Wilson: 'Thank You for Sharing Your Love With Us'
A few years ago, Jim James got to witness Brian Wilson‘s magic in realtime. They were in the studio together recording “Right Where I Belong,” a song from the documentary film Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road. The record turned out to be the last original song Wilson would release in …
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