{"id":580830,"date":"2026-05-13T01:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/580830\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T01:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:19:10","slug":"brian-wilson-feared-death-in-1972-until-one-song-made-him-smile-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/580830\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Wilson feared death in 1972 until one song made him smile again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Ithaka Darin Pappas<\/p>\n

Tue 12 May 2026 21:15, UK <\/p>\n

If you were to just listen to The Beach Boys<\/a>\u2019 instrumentals, you\u2019d think that Brian Wilson had never experienced a down day in his life. Full of joy and whimsy, with textured parts making up a pop-rock symphony, their songs sound like happiness bottled.<\/p>\n

But under the surface, there has always been more. On \u2018In My Room\u2019,<\/a> a track taken from the band\u2019s third album, the sweetness of the song holds some darkness. Singing about feeling safe and comforted in the confines of his bedroom, Wilson was exploring his early experiences with anxiety and agoraphobia, which would both worsen in the coming years: \u201cNow it\u2019s dark, and I\u2019m alone\u2028\/ But I won\u2019t be afraid\u2028 \/ In my room,\u201d he sang as a sadly prophetic omen for the times to come when he would refuse to leave his house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burdened with the band\u2019s success, Wilson\u2019s mental health failed him. Suffering from depression and schizophrenia, the artist struggled immensely, occasionally having to retreat fully from the group, or sometimes going all in during a period of manic devotion. In his life, those battles had a huge impact too, colouring his relationships but also leaving him vulnerable to exploitation, like the treatment he experienced from Eugene Landy<\/a> in the 1980s, as the therapist manipulated major business control.<\/p>\n

There were extended periods where Wilson was simply out of action. \u201cI was taking some drugs, and I experimented myself right out of action,<\/a>\u201d he later admitted, \u201cI\u2019d sometimes go and record. But basically, I just stayed in my bedroom. I was under the sheets, and I watched television.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet every time, something would coax him back out of the dark period, and every time, the fix was likely music.<\/p>\n

Whether it was making music or just listening to music, Wilson\u2019s devotion to his art and to his passion for a good song was always a saviour. There was always a great and heartening song to be found that could help the situation.<\/p>\n

That was true even in his old age. In 2017, when Rolling Stone spoke to the then-74-year-old, he admitted that while depression is a lifelong struggle, there are still rousing songs to help. Speaking about a more recent bout of depression, he said, \u201cI got through a pretty rough night. I had a hell of a time. I was scared of dying and going through all kinds of shit, and a song got me through it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

He named the song, \u201cYou know Danny Hutton\u2019s [Three Dog Night] song \u2018Black & White\u2019?\u201d he said. It\u2019s not a new song by any measure, released in 1972. But as Wilson remembered the track in the 2010s, it became a repeat listen, always there to raise his spirits with the joyous rock-pop sound and catchy groove.<\/p>\n

Recommending it to anyone and everyone currently stuck in a downward dip, he said, \u201cIf you ever get in a pinch, boot up \u2018Black & White\u2019 on your cellphone. You\u2019ll feel better right away\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Ithaka Darin Pappas Tue 12 May 2026 21:15, UK If you were to just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[198562,198563,29764,96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-580830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1920s","tag-198563","tag-brian-wilson","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}