Brian Wilson was the genius behind much of The Beach Boys’ body of work. He was known for being a unique man who suffered from mental health problems, but that never affected his musical talents in a way that lasted. Brian Wilson continued to make incredible music until just a few years before his passing in 2025, and many of his contemporaries have some interesting stories about him. Let’s take a look at just a few of those stories.

Brian Wilson Played a Song Written for Him From Memory, Years After He Heard It

Harry Nilsson wrote “This Could Be The Night” as a sort of tribute to Brian Wilson back in the 1960s. Wilson would perform the song years later in 1995. The story goes that Nilsson sold the song to Phil Spector, the Modern Folk Quartet recorded it, and Spector flipped on the song and refused to release it.

Then, years later in 1973, Nilsson ran into Wilson at a party. They had a chat about the song, and Wilson sat down at a nearby piano… and played the entire song from memory. Apparently, Wilson was in the studio when the song was being recorded years back. He loved it so much that he sat down with headphones on for half an hour afterwards, listening to the song on repeat. Henry Diltz of The Modern Folk Quartet corroborated this story in Nilsson: The Life Of A Singer-Songwriter by Alyn Shipton.

Brian Wilson Endearingly Interrupted Elvis Presley’s Rehearsal (and Presley Didn’t Know Who He Was)

Back in 1975, Brian Wilson and Elvis Presley met for the first time. And according to Jerry Schilling, who would later become The Beach Boys’ manager, the whole situation was quite endearing, despite the fact that Presley had no idea who Wilson was.

“I was with Elvis at RCA studios in LA as he rehearsed with the band for his March 1975 Hilton engagement,” said Schilling. “Things were moving along quite well but suddenly the studio doors flew open and in walked a huge, bearded, sloppily dressed guy. There was always plenty of security around the studio on Elvis nights, so it startled everybody that such a big, strange guy could have got into the place. Before anybody had a chance to react, the big guy walked right up to Elvis and said, ‘Hi, I’m Brian.’”

Presley gave him a polite “hello,” but otherwise had no idea who he was. Wilson himself had another hilarious Elvis story to tell, too, which you can listen to in the video above.

The ‘Shortnin’ Bread’ Debacle

This is probably the most well-known of all Brian Wilson stories out there, and it’s still funny today. Alice Cooper said that back in 1978, he and Iggy Pop hung out with Wilson for a spell. Then, Wilson sat at the piano and started to play the early 20th-century folk song, “Shortnin’ Bread”. 

That song doesn’t exactly have good origins. However, Wilson seemed more interested in the melody. The song itself had been covered by the likes of Etta James and even The Beach Boys themselves. Wilson claimed it was “the greatest song ever written” and continued to play it over and over. All the while, Pop and Cooper listened intently to try to figure out what made the song so special. Cooper also had a pretty funny (but somewhat dark) story about Wilson meeting John Lennon and Bernie Taupin, which you can listen to in the above video clip.

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