BRIAN WILSON HARMONY & HEARTBREAK

REMEMBERING THE BEACH BOY WHOSE TROUBLED LIFE WAS MARKED BY BRILLIANCE, BATTLES AND EXPLOITATION

- Jennie Noonan

When news broke that The Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson had died at the age of 82 on June 11, tributes poured in. "Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special," posted Sir Paul McCartney. "The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were simple and brilliant at the same time."

Wilson co-founded the influential group in 1961 with his younger brothers, Carl and Dennis, his cousin Mike Love and friend AI Jardine. Between early 1963 and the end of 1964, Wilson wrote 16 hit singles and seven hit albums. "I think people liked our records because our voices carried love in them, you know?" Wilson said in an interview with The Telegraph in 2001. "Our voices are what makes love come alive. And it was the love in the music that hooked people in."

Amid their soaring success, Wilson was suffering. "My story is a music story and a family story and a love story," he says in the prologue to his 2016 memoir, I Am Brian Wilson.