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The terrible news that Brian Wilson died at the age of 82 reached us on Wednesday evening, and we are all in a state of bewilderness. “We are currently speechless,” wrote his family in a statement. “Please respect our privacy at this time when our family mourn. We are aware that we share our grief with the whole world.” In memory of a big musician, we look back on Brian Wilson and his last years on tour.
Wilson had been in health for a long time, and his family announced last year that he suffered from dementia and needed a guardianship to regulate his affairs. But somehow it seemed like he was living forever, after everything he had survived in his long and difficult life. He was one of the ultimate survivors of rock ‘n’ roll and survived his two brothers Carl and Dennis by more than a quarter of a century.
Brian Wilson: solo career and his last years on tour
At the end of the 1990s, Wilson surprised his fans when he went on tour for the first time in his career as a solo artist. At the concerts, he was accompanied by a group of enthusiastic fans of the beach Boys, the Wondermints, who lovingly added the lush, complex arrangements of the original shots of the Beach Boys with amazing precision.
“We really wanted to do justice to the music,” said ProByn Gregory, multi -instrumentalist of the Wondermints, to Rolling Stone in 2024. “I think everyone did their best, really concentrated, tried to convey emotions and tear down the fourth wall as far as possible. We wanted to make sure that we [Brian] offer the most solid foundation as possible so that it could develop. “
With “smile” on tour
A few years after the start of the tour, they began to completely play through “Pet Sounds” together with local symphony orchestras. Shortly afterwards, they shocked the world by bringing Brian’s lost masterpiece “Smile” from 1967 to life both on tour and in the studio.
It was a highlight that could hardly be surpassed, but Wilson and the Wondermints toured practically every year in the 2010 and early 2020s, only interrupted by the brief reunification of the Beach Boys in 2012 and Covid.
The last tour was a double concert with Chicago in the summer of 2022. It was a difficult time for Wilson, who often seemed distant and unstretched on stage and left it – including the original Beach Boy Al Jardine – to take on a large part of the work.
In 2022 he was already struck
“It was a little difficult,” Gregory told Rolling Stone. “We have seen it over the years that he is sometimes really motivated and full and ready for a show. He is afraid and listens to other times or just feels unable to do so. And unfortunately I have to say that in 2022 he often didn’t feel able to do it … People love to cheer him up and praise his virtues when he is on the stage, and if he’s not really bad. I’m sorry for everyone.
The last show took place on July 26, 2022 in the Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkson, Michigan. Like every tour of the tour, it was characterized by beach boy classics such as “God Only Knows”, “Good Vibrations” and “Sloop John B.” But there were also less well -known pieces, including “Long Promised Road”, “Sail On, Sailor” and “Wild Honey”.
In a way, it is sad, since Wilson was obviously struggling and hardly participating in “Good Vibrations”. But take a look at the happy crowd near the stage, every word of this timeless classic and had a great time.
Brian was not easy in life, among other things with a brutal father and a serious mental illness. But he spent the last decades of his life to see how the music he had created gave joy at night after night. This is a fairly magical way to divide from life.