I Am Brian Wilson tells the incredible story of his life. It is anchored in Brian's first person account of his life, his struggles and triumphs, delving deep into his musical and emotional life, talking for the first time about his relationship with his abusive father and his passive mother; his alienation as a teenager; and his struggles to lead the Beach Boys away from surf music into groundbreaking experimental music. Brian sheds light on his long periods of isolation and creative stagnation, and the mental illness that has plagued him since his teenage yeas. He also tells, for the first time, how he was able to reinvent himself creatively in the 1990s and 2000s, and describes in detail how he was able to rebuild his life and create the happiest most stable period of his life. Along with Brian's own words, his story is told through the people that know him best, including his wife Melinda;his best friend and band leader Jeffery Foskett; members of the original Beach Boys and other faces from the world of music, including Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, David Crosby, Lindsay Buckingham, Bob Dylan and others.

Author Biography

He is one of popular music's most deeply revered figures, the main creative force behind some of the most cherished recordings in rock history. Brian Wilson is one of the most influential composers of the last century. Wilson's remarkable journey began in a modest Hawthorne, California home that was filled with music. He was barely out of his teens when he began to create some of the most beloved records ever... nine consecutive 'gold' albums that featured such classics as 'Surfer Girl,' 'In My Room,' 'I Get Around,' 'Don't Worry Baby,' 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' 'Help Me Rhonda' and 'California Girls'...just to name a handful of the more than two dozen Top 40 hits Brian co-wrote, arranged, produced and performed on with his family band, the Beach Boys. In 1966 as his artistic horizons expanded dramatically, Wilson produced records that forever changed the course of popular music. These included Pet Sounds; the emotional autobiography of its 23-year old 'auteur,' it is considered by many to be one of the greatest albums ever made. Brian's second studio masterpiece in 1966 was a track that he first cut during the Pet Sounds session, but it wasn't included on the album because it was not only unfinished but destined for a different kind of greatness. Good Vibrations became the Beach Boys' first million-selling worldwide number one. As he suffered through multiple nervous breakdowns, Wilson's contributions to the Beach Boys diminished and his erratic behavior led to tensions with the band. After years of treatment and recuperation, he began performing and recording consistently as a solo artist, being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and winning Grammy Awards for Brian Wilson Presents: Smile and The Smile Sessions. On the Beach Boys' 50th anniversary, Wilson briefly returned to record and perform with the group.