The Smiley Smile Message Board

You guys have probably read or heard about those days when Brian Wilson went missing in 1978. There are different versions of the story but in all of them he ends up in San Diego and a couple of guys find him and take him home. Well, one of our followers on twitter called JB happens to be one of those guys and he shared some details of the story I had never heard of, along with some pictures from the day they found Brian wandering down the street. It's an amazing story. Quite sad though because of Brian's condition. Attaching the pictures JB shared with us. If you want to check the full story, here's the beginning of the thread: https://twitter.com/beachboyslegacy/status/697104158831284224

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Amazing pictures and great guys to rescue BW.

whoa this is amazing

Do any Wilsons get punched in this story?

Very interesting.  Can JB tell us more?  On what street, or section of town, did they find BW wandering?  What was said when they first encountered BW?  Did Brian explain why he was wandering around San Diego?  Did he hit them up for food, booze, or drugs?  Does JB recall the name of the Mexican restaurant in La Jolla?  What did Brain say about the Smile tapes?  How were JB and his brother able to take Brain "home" (ie, apparently to their house) when they were from the east coast and spending a few days in San Diego?  Did JB or his brother give the previously barefooted BW the shoes he's wearing in the photo?  in addition to California Feeling and Shortenin' Bread, what were the other songs BW played?  What happened after that?  In the piano photo, why does Brian's body look shorter than normal? 

Amazing stuff!

I invited JB to join the forum and answer these questions. In the meantime there are a few ones I can answer based on that he told us:

It wasn't their home, but the place they were staying at. The sentence was too long for a tweet though.

He told us he played some hits, but not which ones.

They took him back to the gypsy's house that night. Then met again the next day. But he didn't tell us what happened that following day.

Speaking for myself here. I don't know. Optical illusion I guess. I highly doubt the pictures are a fake if that's what you are suggesting.

In that piano picture, I think Brian has his legs slanted to his left in a slightly weird position, which explains the illusion of being shorter than he was/is.

Hope JB joins the forum. Really looking forward to hearing more from him about Brian's adventure down south, and perhaps seeing more pics if JB has them. I first heard this story years after it happened and as a resident of San Diego county I found myself wondering if it was possible that I may have actually seen BW sleeping under a tree or wandering around with his head down and assumed it was some homeless bum. As a fan I had no idea at the time how bad off Brian was. I later met a woman who had worked as a nurse at Alvarado Hospital and as soon as she found out I was a BB fan she told that Brain Wilson had spent some time there in the late seventies and was in really bad condition.

This is good stuff. Many thanks for the heads-up… one of those nice little things hat occasionally turns up when least expected, defying all probability!

Brian doesn't look too bad in those photos.  Did they give him a shower? I've seen him look a lot worse.  The clothes are fine too.

This is what JB has answered to the last questions:

I have not a clue on what street we found him. I haven't been back to LaJolla in 35 years.
My brother was getting married to a girl whose family lived in La Jolla and he and I were staying at the grandparents house out there before the wedding (that's where we took Brian back to). Luckily they had a spinet piano, so that's why we took him there instead of to my brother's fiancé parents house in la Jolla.
Brian just drank a lot of margaritas at dinner and beers back at the house. We do not take drugs. He wasn't hitting us up for food or drinks. We just gave him whatever he wanted. The restaurant was called mi casa, su casa.
Brian deflected questions on Smile. You could just tell he would say things he knew we wanted to hear. He does that a lot in his interviews also.
Brian was wearing sneakers when we found him. He was wearing the same clothes the following day also.
Brian played whatever song we asked him to. Surfer Girl, in my Room, Calif Girls, etc.
When Brian started to lose it and was crying pretty badly at end of the evening, we took him back to the Gypsy's house.
I have no idea why Brian's body looks shorter than normal. I guess the camera angle.

Ps. It sounds like the guy is trying to poke holes in the story. He can't. It's all true!!

It's hard to know too much from some pics, but I'd definitely say that circa 1982 photo someone posted of Brian looked far more grave and worrisome than these 1978 pics (though he seemed to be possibly  in a jolly mood at the moment the '82 shot was taken).

I've always just been surprised how *different* Brian could tend to look from one year (or one day) to the other, especially between 1975 or so and 1983. I guess it was just a mixture of weight fluctuations (obviously), hair style changes (longer shaggy hair versus the close crop circa September '77), and the degree of craziness and unkemptness of the beard.

A couple of little notes about seeing Brian in '78: Brian was unkept, and you could tell it was a day since his last shower but he didn't smell. I remember when he was playing Shortenin Bread, I noticed how long his fingers were and how long his finger nails were also. Not very pretty! The arrangement he played for Shortenin Bread was amazing. His hands were up and down the keyboards. I was pretty impressed with his playing actually. When I met him again in 2012, he said he didn't remember anything about our time in La Jolla...... JB

This is incredible... thank you so much!
I'm glad TMZ didn't exist back then. They would have had a field day if they spotted him.

Thanks for sharing your story!  I've seen photos of Brian from various times in the '70s, '80s, and '90s where his fingernails were longer than my wife's...

This whole story would make a great movie - as long as Rocky doesn't write the screenplay...

tho, it could easily work on the Syfy network with a Pamplin screenplay

If anyone wants to dine at the same restaurant, they better make it quick.

http://www.lajollalight.com/news/2015/dec/02/su-casa-development-dpr/