The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was at the Atlantic City show and stayed in the Golden Nugget afterwards.  The show was nothing short of magical for me and my parents.  I am a HUGE Brian fan and he didn't disappoint.

After the show, we went back to the hotel room and just talked about the experience for close to an hour.  My dad then asked if I wanted to go downstairs and walk around and possibly do a little gambling.

As we walk out of our room (probably sometime after midnight) I see Nicky Wonder walking towards us alone with his hands full of food.  I couldn't believe it, as I had a very profound personal experience with him 13 years earlier.

I said, "Hey Nicky Wonder, you guys were fabulous tonight!  Can I talk to you for a minute please?"  (I know this sounds a bit pushy, but I had to)

I continued, "You did a really nice thing for me 13 years ago, It was in Harrisburg, PA during the Pet Sounds tour.  I asked you if you knew where the gig was at as I was a little lost.  you told me you were in the band.  To make a long story short, you went and got me and my friends 4 backstage passes to meet Brian.  It's because of you that I got to meet one of my heroes.  I just wanted to thank you for doing such a nice thing" 

He smiled and said I was welcome and thanked me for coming to the show.  Actually he said he remembered the story, but I think he was just being nice.

As an aside, I'm an elementary music teacher and every year when I teach my students about the Beach Boys and their leader Brian Wilson, I get to tell them that I got to meet him.  I got a picture and a poster signed, I actually knocked Brian's diet coke over and it spilled all over this table!!  I was on such a cloud I didn't even feel bad. 

I was so happy to see Nicky Wonder back with the band.  When I met him in 2000, I remember him making the comment about the band having a great chemistry with Brian, and that Brian said if he had them in the 60's he would have finished Smile.  That blew me away as Smile at the time was still very hidden away.  After the last song, Nick grabbed two set lists and gave it us (we were in the front row)!

Thanks Nick for being such a gentleman!

PS the Endless Sky DVD with Nick and Darian is very insightful and entertaining.  It's great to see this music played by such great people.

Nice to know he's still on good terms with the band after getting booted from the C50 tour

I never heard that, I thought he backed out because of the flu or something like that.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason he stopped touring last year was due to a medical issue... somewhat serious if I remember correctly.

I had a similar story with Darian! I love the mints so I went up to him at the bar and introduced myself, and I asked him to sign my Heroes and Villians 45, it was all I had with me. He said it was so awesome to see an original, and he said he wasn't the genius on this record and brought it back for Brian to sign, then I said "well, you were the musical director on Smile!" So he signed and seemed really genuinely happy that I appreciated not only his older work, but his part in the BW story. We talked a bit then I branched into conversation with the other band members haha!

+1; great storytellers. It's a shame that the series of DVDs has stalled.

I thought Nicky left the C50 touring band because it was felt that there were too many people/guitars on stage and costs could be cut by dropping him.

That's what I thought too.

Maybe that was a rumor. If it was health related I'm glad to hear he's doing better.

That's categorically incorrect. He began the tour with them and then did get pretty sick. Now, I would expect that he didn't rejoin the tour for reasons along the lines of what you stated above. The tour ran a long time, and I doubt he was ailing for the entire run of shows.

I'm going to stick my neck on the block and  hope my memory hasn't let me down but I seem to remember Nicky having kidney stones which is I understand excruciatingly painful.

I heard it was kidney stones too.

Great story, Mars! Very original, since I didn't hear anything re meetings/talks with Mr. Walusco. Other bandmates like Jeff, Darian, Nelson & Scott seem to get more beams of light, they're more recognizable. In that way, Nicky is undeservedly overlooked by many. He plays good on guitar, the "Here Today" bass solo (though sonically it's also similar to the muted lead guitar) was ace! The effect of wheeled tractor - that's how it sounded to me. Very cool!

Non-musical query: I wonder what is the reason behind wearing a headgear. Fashion or health-related, i.e. sth. wrong with his head so Nick needs to keep it warm?

I figured it was the same reason Mike Love wears headgear.

That didn't stop the Beach Boys from having too many keyboard players in the '80s...