Brian
BW: No, that is not the case. The Beach
Boys were not part of the thought process
in the writing of this album. It was pretty
much all done in the studio. We did a lot
of hard work on this album. I just hope the
fans enjoy listening to the record as much
as we enjoyed making it.
IE: Are you doing any collaborations with
your daughters, Wendy and Carney?
BW: No, but one of them, Daria, thought
up the name of the album, No Pier
07•2015
We will [play] songs that myself, Al and
David sang on, though.
IE: You have a song on No Pier Pressure
that features country singer, Kacey
Musgraves. How did that come about?
BW: Well, we heard her on the radio and
we called her up and asked if she would
come down and do a song. She did a song
I wrote called “I Guess You Had To Be
There.” That song was actually written for
her. We had the shell of the song, and she
finished it off, herself. I talked to her and
showed her how the melody went, and
she took it from there.
IE: I am curious how some of the songs on
this album came together. For instance,
“Tell Me Why;” what brought that one
about? It sounds like your lament about
the status of The Beach Boys today….
12 illinoisentertainer.com july 2015
Pressure.
IE: Are you collaborating with any one
else of note?
BW: No, not really. I do work with a
(Chicago) musician named Joe Thomas.
We collaborated together on this album.
We wrote a lot of these songs this past
year. Some of them go back to sessions we
did in 1998, but most were written this
past year.
IE: Most critics and fans consider Pet
Sounds as the greatest Beach Boys album,
and some feel is the greatest record of all
time. But truth has it that the band didn’t
want to even record that record when you
first showed them the songs. Is that true?
BW: Right, I had to sell the idea to them.
They didn’t like those songs when they
first heard them, especially Mike. With Pet
Sounds, Mike did not like the songs; and he
really didn’t like the direction we were
going in. Then he got to song two of the
songs and once he got tha t- he liked the
(new) direction.
IE: The other album that critics universally loved and hated was Holland, which
included “Sail On Sailor” and other Beach
Boys classics. How do you look back on
that album, now?
BW: I like it. We moved to Holland for
about half a year, and I wrote the Holland
album in my house there. That’s when
Blondie Chaplin sang on “Funky Pretty”
and “Sail On Sailor,” and Carl produced
the Fairy Tale on that.
IE: It had to have been tough to lose both
Dennis and Carl, you were all so close….
BW: Yeah, it was very tough to lose both of
them.
IE: Dennis obviously had a lot of demons
in his life. Was there ever an attempt by
you and Carl to try and turn his life
around, or was that not an option?
BW: It really wasn’t an option. He used to
carry around a tall bottle of vodka and
orange juice. He was hooked on alcohol
and he went swimming one day when he
was really drunk and he drowned. That is
what happened.
IE: Were you around him and his home
when The Manson Family had taken over
and moved in? Did you have any idea
what he was getting into?
BW: I didn’t know about it. He was just
friends with him, after picking him up
hitchhiking. It freaked us out after he got
arrested. Dennis never talked about it.
IE: After you left the touring version of
The Beach Boys in 1965, you did not tour
for decades, with the exception of one 1976
tour with them. Then, in 1998, you started
touring again with your own band and
have been on the road since. What motivated you to get back on stage?
BW: I just thought it was time to start
doing concerts. I was bored and did not
know what to do. So, I simply decided to
go back on the road.
IE: From 1962 through about 1970, The
Beach Boys were a mainstay on AM pop
radio. Along with The Beatles and The
Supremes you had one of the longest run of
hit songs in the '60s of any act.
BW: I am very proud, obviously. I incorporate many of those songs in the show
today.
IE: The last time we spoke in 2003 you
had said you were going to do a re-make
of CCR’s “Proud Mary.” Did you every
record that?
BW: Yeah we did. We did record a version
of it but we have not used it on any album
as of yet. I don’t play it in concert; we
never got to it.
IE: What new music can we expect for the
future from Brian Wilson?
BW: I might make a Rock n' Roll album. I
want to do a tribute album to the all the
great legends of Rock n Roll. All the great
rock’n’roll guys, you know: Chuck Berry,
Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee
Lewis. I will probably do a couple of their
songs on the album.
Appearing July 6 at Ravinia, Highland
Bruce Pilato