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Industry Information >>Building Materials>>Questions about the Beach Boys' current status get lukewarm responses

Questions about the Beach Boys' current status get lukewarm responses

The two-story house, snuggled deep in a gated hillside community inBeverly Hills, is immaculately clean, with beige carpeting andmarble floors. Housekeepers tidy up downstairs. A swimming pooloverlooks the sun-drenched valley below. It all resembles apostcard.

"I'm happier now than I was a year ago," Mr. Wilson says. "Istarted exercising, and I started eating more of the right food,and I started feeling better. I just get up in the morning and saymy prayers."

Gangly and tall in a pinstriped dress shirt, his graying hair sweptback into waves, the wizard songwriter and composer behind such'60s Beach Boys hits as "Good Vibrations" and "California Girls"stares with sharp blue eyes, frequently fidgeting.

A lot has changed for the historically reclusive SouthernCalifornia native, who speaks with a slight slur, a result of hisdrug-abusing past and medicated journey through mental illness.

He is a second-round father at age 66. (Musician daughters Wendy,38, and Carnie, 40, from his first marriage, tour as The Wilsons.)Following 2004's long-awaited rock opera Smile and a 2005 Christmas release, he has a new, ambitious solo album, That Lucky Old Sun , due out Tuesday. He is touring behind the material, pushingthrough years of stage fright.

"I think the new album is just as good as anything the Beach Boysever recorded," says Mr. Wilson. "Playing these songs live, I feelproud. You know that funny feeling you get in your stomach, like,'Oh my God, this is sounding great!' "

Two years ago, he says, he recorded 18 songs, then chose 10 lastyear for Capitol Records/EMI. He came up with the album's lushorchestration and music while 43-year-old bandmate Scott Bennettscribed the lyrics, with colorful narrative interludes by longtimecollaborator Van Dyke Parks.

The outcome is a blend of up-tempo pop and piano-based ballads. Thetitle track, a cover of the old standard "That Lucky Old Sun,"flows into the bouncy anthem "Morning Beat," setting the album'stone.

"Van Dyke Parks, Brian and Melinda thought this should be a loveletter to Los Angeles. At this point, Brian was 65 years old, andit just felt right to embrace his legend and be a bit nostalgic,"Mr. Bennett says.

Songs such as "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" touch on BeachBoys melodies while "Mexican Girl" adds a dash of salsa flavor."Midnight's Another Day" and "Oxygen to the Brain" reference Mr.Wilson's dark days in the '70s and '80s, when he receded from thespotlight into isolation, drugs and weight gain.

Ending the album on an uplifting note, "Southern California"reminisces about co-founding the Beach Boys in 1961 with his latebrothers Carl and Dennis. Mr. Wilson sings, "It's magical/ Livingyour dream."

"Yes, Brian had a rough time of it, with his mental health, but Iwould kill to have the kind of catalog he does, and tour everywherewith his brothers like he did," says Mr. Bennett, who confirms thatMr. Wilson "is on a heavy dose of antidepressants."

Regardless, Mr. Wilson has hit a creative stride in his life.

Inspiration comes at night when he sits down alone at his Yamahasynthesizer and grand piano in his purple-curtained music room.

"When I go to the keyboard, I feel holy, like an angel over myhead. I feel very holy. When we did [the Beach Boys hit] 'God OnlyKnows,' I felt holy about that, too. A godly something comesthrough me," Mr. Wilson says, motioning with his hands. "I'm alwaysthinking about melodies. The melodies come from my brain and mykeyboards. I play a really pleasant keyboard. It sounds so pleasantit makes me want to write melodies."

But life as a busy dad and touring musician can be overwhelming.Mr. Wilson describes a house full of kids and dogs as "very loud"and "a madhouse." He frequently takes walks at a nearby park.

"The kids make me feel a little jumpy," he says. "Sometimes I wantto get out of the house to get away from my kids, but I love mykids a lot. I love my kids. ... Quiet time comes around 10 at nightwhen I go to sleep. It's peace of mind. Things run smoothly atnight. During the day, things are more rough."

Later on during this interview, when Ms. Ledbetter comes home withtheir small son Dylan – floppy-haired, barefoot and wearing aHawaiian shirt – Mr. Wilson brightens. He's quieter when itcomes to daughters Wendy and Carnie, who live fewer than 10 milesaway.

"I don't talk to them very much. I used to. I recorded with them atone time, but I don't talk to them a lot," he says, explaining thatthe women are "really busy."

Questions about the Beach Boys' current status get lukewarm responses as well. Mr. Wilson, who formed the band with hisbrothers, cousin Mike Love and school friend Al Jardine, split withmost of the group's surviving members years ago amid legalsquabbles. Mr. Love and later Beach Boys bandmate Bruce Johnstontour as the Beach Boys Band while Mr. Jardine has his own EndlessSummer Band.

Mr. Wilson stresses the subject's touchiness: "We don't want anypublicity about me getting back with the Beach Boys, 'cause I don'twant to. They're not my group anymore. That's Mike and Bruce'sgroup now. I'm on my own, and I would rather do that than go backto the Beach Boys."

He says the unreleased songs he recorded, including a slow, smoothversion of "Proud Mary," will form another album. He gushes that"the only person I really want to work with is Paul McCartney." Hewould also like to record "a rock 'n' roll album inspired by PhilSpector's type records – a really hard rock album that reallyrocks, with big orchestration, the whole bit."

Yet, he also views his future gingerly, as day to day.

"I look forward to today," he says.

"I never look forward to the future because I think to myself,'What if there's an earthquake, what if I die or someone I lovedies?' I get those kind of thoughts all the time."


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