The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Remembered by Questlove, Sean Ono Lennon, John Cusack, and More

Following the news of Brian Wilson’s death, figures from across the music landscape are paying tribute to the iconic Beach Boys musician. “Anyone who really knows me knows how heart broken I am about Brian Wilson passing,” wrote Sean Ono Lennon, whose late father, John Lennon, was a Wilson contemporary and known Beach Boys fan. “Not many people influenced me as much as he did. I feel very lucky that I was able to meet him and spend some time with him. He was always very kind and generous. He was our American Mozart. A one of a kind genius from another world.”

“The maestro has passed – the man was a open heart with two legs – with an ear that heard the angels,” John Cusack, who played Wilson in Love & Mercy, wrote. “Love and Mercy for you and yours tonight.”

“I’ve know the Beach boys since the mid 60’s and have done lots of shows with them,” Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Randy Bachman shared. “They were the American answer to the Beatles. They wowed everyone with the songs, structures, vocals harmonies. The sunshine sound. I remember when Brian decided to not go on the road anymore but continued to write incredible music. They were like family.”

Questlove also posted a lengthy message about Brian Wilson and his own experiences with the 1966 masterpiece Pet Sounds. “if there was a human being who made art out of inexpressible sadness….damn it was Brian Wilson,” the Roots’ drummer wrote. “I hate he went thru what he went thru to create this album (also: Smile Outakes in my North Star) but man——without him I dunno how so many that came after felt safe to express a feeling of sadness that most humans would be otherwise ridiculed/punished for.”

Speaking with Rolling Stone, the Beach Boys’ former manager Fred Vail said, “Sixty-two years, that’s how long we were buddies. Some great memories, some great moments. They all fly back at me: meeting them at the old house in Hawthorne; sitting on the floor at Capitol, when he mastered Pet Sounds; at Columbia, when we recorded ‘Good Vibrations’; and then all the shows at the auditorium in Sacramento that I emceed.”

Sir Lucian Grainge, the chairman and chief executive of Universal Music Group, said in a statement: “Brian Wilson was one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the history of recorded music. Not only did his songs capture the spirit of youth, joy and longing in ways that still inspire millions of fans around the world, his innovative work in the studio transformed the way musicians record even to this day. Brian made an indelible mark, and our thoughts are with his family in this time of loss.”