Carl Wilson, a founding member of the Beach Boys whose songs helped define the Southern California lifestyle, died of complications from lung cancer, according to the band’s publicist. He was 51. Wilson died on Friday, February 6, 1998, in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.
Wilson was recognized for his sweet-sounding voice on songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and his stabilizing influence amid the band’s sometimes turbulent history throughout his nearly four-decade tenure.
“Carl Wilson could sing anything. He could sing the phone book and he would sound great,” claimed Andy Paley, composer and Sire Records staff producer.
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Last year, Wilson was diagnosed with cancer. Despite this, he continued to make music while undergoing therapy, according to Alyson Dutch, the band’s publicist.
He appeared to be in excellent spirits while performing with the Beach Boys on their 36th annual tour last summer. “He was doing very well,” Dutch commented.
Wilson was up in Hawthorne and learned to play the guitar as a teenager. In 1961, he created the Beach Boys with his brothers Brian and Dennis, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. On New Year’s Eve, 1961, the Southern California quintet had its debut public appearance at Long Beach’s Municipal Auditorium.
Dennis Wilson, who died in a swimming accident in 1983, came up with the idea for the music’s surfing theme. Brian Wilson and Love began composing lyrics in order to capitalize on the mid-1950s surf music fad.
The band helped create the “surf sound” and shaped the classic image of Southern California with their rapid guitar riffs, harmonic harmonies, and catchy songs. The Beach Boys had more than a dozen top 20 singles between 1962 and 1966.
“As far as a super group goes, they’re the nearest thing America has to the Beatles or the Rolling Stones,” said rock music historian Steve Brigati.
Wilson possessed a pitch-perfect voice that served as the foundation for the band’s trademark sound. He sang and played guitar on many of the band’s iconic tracks, including “Good Vibrations” and “God Only Knows.”
Wilson was a calming force in the group when it was ripped apart by family feuds, drug misuse, popularity, and Dennis Wilson’s death.
“Carl was like a rock for the group. He was the steady one. He was the tiller,” recalled Sandy Friedman, executive vice president of Cowan and Rogers and the Beach Boys’ publicist from 1975 to 1992.
Wilson acknowledged the band’s difficult journey in a 1985 interview with The Times. “Sure, we’ve had our fair share of ups and downs,” remarked Wilson. “But I don’t know if we’ve had more than any other rock band. . . . We just have a way of getting ourselves into hot water.”
Wilson, although the group’s emotional leader, was a private person who generally tried to avoid the spotlight, according to Mike Love’s nephew Stan Love.
“He never wanted credit for their success, but he was the glue that held the band together,” Stan recalled. “Whenever you saw a great Beach Boy concert you saw what Carl Wilson was bringing to the stage.”
Rick Henn, a high school friend and musician, said Wilson remained a down-to-earth person who never allowed his celebrity to get the best of him.
“He was one of the kindest and nicest people that I’d met that had become a star. He was genuinely a sweet, caring and loving guy,” Henn, a member of the Sunrays, who toured with the Beach Boys, said. “That being said, he was also a wacky guy. He had a madcap personality and great sense of humor.”
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Carl Wilson expressed his dissatisfaction with the Beach Boys’ fixation on nostalgia and lack of musical innovation in the early 1980s. In 1981, he departed the band and recorded his first solo album.
He then rejoined the Beach Boys and has performed with them ever since, including the Beach Boys’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Though he was normally upbeat, his mother, Audree, passed lately, and he had been spending time with his relatives, according to Dutch. Saturday, the family went into seclusion.
“It’s the passing of a legend and a musical genre that not only affected the lives of the fans here but of people around the world,” Dutch was quoted as saying.
Private services were scheduled for later this week. Wilson is survived by his wife, Gina, and their two sons, Jonah, 28, and Justyn, 26, according to Dutch.
