Meeting Brian Wilson

This is for Custom Machine, Alan, and I think Sam, who asked for it a couple of years ago. This is a true story. No names have been changed to protect the guilty.

I have been a Beach Boys fan since 1970. A friend of mine at school played his older brother’s “All Summer Long” album one day in his basement. I kept asking him to put the needle back on “I Get Around” over and over until he told me he’d had enough. I went down and bought the single the next day. Then I found “Greatest Hits Vol. 1” at a flea market for some change. Then I heard “Good Vibrations” on the radio and bought that single and played it to death. After that, I picked up the “Carl & The Passions/Pet Sounds” dual package at the flea market for $2.00. I was confused a little bit about the band members and the difference in the music, but I gave both albums equal playing time on the stereo, going to sleep at night with the headphones on as the needle lifted off the record after “Caroline No” and “Cuddle Up”.

As soon as school was out back in the Summers of 1974 and 1975, my friend Tim and I drove down to Los Angeles to hit the beaches, find good looking surfer girls, and visit Beach Boys sites. During this time, he and I were competitive in collecting original Beach Boys and Beatles records, including all the albums and singles. We went to many record stores (especially used and collector’s ones) and actually had foot races to the “B” section of the store after parking the car. We usually received weird looks doing this. We went by the places we knew were old haunts of The Beach Boys; the Wilson house at 3701 W. 119th , the Love house at Mt. Vernon & Fairway, Foster’s Freeze on Hawthorne Blvd, United Western Recorders at 6000 Sunset Blvd., and Gold Star Studios (unfortunately it was closed). We went over to the Capitol Tower and parked in the parking lot, which covered the Capitol Records echo chamber and the site of the “Shut Down Vol. II” album cover shot, in addition to the site of the great monthly record collector’s swap meets in the 70’s. We cooled our heels in the foyer for awhile like Murry Wilson did, but couldn’t get in. More than likely, Voyle Gilmore was probably hiding under his desk from us. We walked over to The Beach Boys business offices at 1654 North Ivar near Hollywood & Vine, where we were provided with a couple of large Beach Boys “Surf’s Up” promo posters and WB press kits. We walked down the street to Wallach’s Music City and picked up some original Sea Of Tunes sheet music, and stopped by The Record Collector in Hollywood and Music Man Murray’s in Downey, and picked up a couple of rare records. We looked for the old site of the Radiant Radish but couldn’t find it. We also stopped by Dick Clark’s office on Sunset, (where I absconded a small reel to reel tape of the interview with Spring off of a table) without asking. Bad boy.

June of 1976. We were on a mission.We drove down to L.A. and stopped by Kittyhawk Graphics on Sunset to visit Dean Torrence and had a long conversation with him about Jan & Dean and The Beach Boys, especially Brian Wilson. He had a lot of stories to tell. Dean showed us his new design and mock-ups of the new Beach Boys album cover for “15 Big Ones”. He gave me a "Legendary Masked Surfers" picture sleeve for the single "Gonna Hustle You" as a ‘souvenir’ of our visit. We then stopped by Brother Studio at 1454 5th St. in Santa Monica. At first, we weren’t sure if we were there – no signs in the front; just an unassuming building made of brick, wood paneling, and a couple of windows with closed curtains. We went into the parking lot in the rear and saw a BSA motorcycle parked outside near the back door. On the sidewalk at the entrance to the locked door was a “Surfin’ USA” gold record embedded in the concrete. Only then were we sure we must be at Brother Studio. We knocked on the door many times, but unfortunately no one answered. It was late, so we figured everyone had gone home for the day, but the only band member who drove a motorcycle was Dennis, so maybe he was recording. Damn, if only we had waited around a little longer!

At the time, we were real interested in the recording process and wanted to meet and talk with a recording engineer about how they do their job; maybe find a career in the recording business. We decided to visit the RCA building, where some legendary recording studios are. Tim and I walked into the lobby of RCA like business professionals. We waited around until we saw the security guard temporarily step away from his post at the lobby elevator. One of the receptionists was distracted talking to someone, so we made a beeline into the elevator and immediately pushed the button to go up. We had the guts of burglars. Luckily, nobody yelled or chased us. We got out of the elevator on a randomly selected upper floor, snooped around, and came across a mastering lab. Oh boy, oh boy! Like kids in a candy store. We stepped gingerly into the room as if we worked there and watched a gentleman in the process of mastering an album. Real nice guy, and he told us what he was working on and for what artist. I asked him if he’d by chance ever worked on a Beach Boys album before. He says, “Yeah, in fact, I think Brian Wilson is downstairs right now in Studio A”. What??!! We said thanks to the engineer and zipped out the door and downstairs to the ground floor, asking people along the way where Studio A was. This was where Elvis, The Stones, and The Monkees recorded! Just as we were approaching Studio A in the hallway, a big guy who looked like a bear was coming out the door. The only way we could have recognized him was from an artist’s rendition in a Crawdaddy magazine article a month earlier. If not for that and the engineer telling us that he was on the premises, there’s no way we would have recognized him. Brian was very big. He was with a guy who looked a little bit like Mike Love, so at first I thought it was Mike, but it was Mike’s brother Stan. We approached Brian and said hello and shook hands with him. He was on his way out the back door of RCA, and I immediately barraged him with “Hey Brian, we’re huge fans and we have all the Beach Boys records and I have your “Bob and Sheri” and “Kenny & The Cadets” singles” and went on and on. He said, “You still listen to that sh*t?” We glanced out the window and could see a blue/gray Cadillac Sedan deVille limousine pull up and Brian said he had to go with Stan. I said, “Well, is there a chance we could talk to you again soon, Brian?” He said, “Here, you want my phone number? Call me tomorrow”. We wrote it down. He got in the back of the limo and waved. As they drove off we stood there and exclaimed, “Ohhhhhh shiiiiiiit!” The rest of the day we were talking about our meeting with Brian. We went over to Tower Records and picked up the latest Beach Boys single, “Rock & Roll Music” that had just been released. The next day, we called the phone number Brian had given us. It was the wrong number! Damn! Did Brian write down the wrong one on purpose to give us the shake or did he not remember all the numbers correctly? We weren’t about to let him off the hook now. I decided to call fellow Beach Boys aficionado/record collector Derek Bill up in Oxnard, just North of L.A. He said that he knew where Brian lived. So Tim and I drove up to Derek’s house to pick him up. We then drove back to L.A., and up Sunset Blvd. to the the entrance of Bel-Air. At the guard post, the security guard came out and we told him we were there to see Brian Wilson. “Does he know you’re here to see him?”, the guard asked. “Yes he does”, I replied, speaking in a low tone and sounding business-like. The guard went back into the guard house, and a minute later the gate lifted and Tim drove through and up the hill to Bellagio Rd. We drove up and down the street a couple of times and I was thinking about the picture of the front wall of Brian’s house in the May 1976 Crawdaddy article. I was also thinking about the lyrics to “Busy Doin’ Nothin’” with the directions to Brian’s house. I believe it was Derek, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, who finally spotted Brian’s house. Yep. 10452 Bellagio Rd. We could see a couple of garbage cans by the gate with the name “Wilson” spray painted on them, so we knew we were at the right place. It cracked me up – like someone might steal the garbage cans, so they tagged them! Tim drove the car to the driveway entrance and stopped in front of the iron gate. I got out slowly and walked up to the call box, which was mounted on the wall near the gate. A small sign next to the call box read, “Stand back – speak normal”. So I did. I pressed the button and a lady came on the speaker (I think it was Marilyn) and said, “Yes?” Again, with a business-like voice, I said, “Uh yes, we’re here to see Brian. We met him yesterday at RCA and he gave us a phone number to call, but we called and it was the wrong number”. There was a long pause and I thought we were going to be given the brush-off. All of a sudden there was a buzzing sound and the front gate to the driveway started opening! I quickly walked back to the car and hopped in. Tim, who was the driver, completely froze. He’d heard the conversation on the speaker phone and had started to tense up. I said, “Hey man, drive through the gate!” His leg was shaking so bad he couldn’t push the accelerator pedal! So Derek quickly got out of the back seat, told Tim to get out of the way, and drove us through the gate and down into the driveway next to the house. We parked next to the familiar limousine we had seen the day before with the license plate that read “Love 1”. We got out of the car and Brian came out the front door of the house and walked toward us. He asked us if we had a tape recorder and if we were going to interview him. We said no; we just wanted to visit with him. Then he asked us, “Hey, you wouldn’t have any coke with you, would ya?” I said, “No, we don’t. Sorry, Brian.” We followed Brian into his house. After engaging in small talk for awhile, he motioned for us to come over to his piano and asked us if we wanted to hear a few songs that he’d just recorded. I noticed that on the piano bench cover that the opening notes to “California Girls” were sewn into it. On the wall not far from the piano was a framed macramé piece with the words, “Stay Cool Bri – Cher”. Derek’s neck was on a swivel, looking back and forth and all around at the house’s surroundings. Then we noticed the stained glass window above the front door with the same artwork as the “Wild Honey” album cover. The sun was shining through it and it looked beautiful! There was also a “Wild Honey” ashtray on the piano. Then……I saw someone lurking in the shadows under the stairwell leading upstairs. He was watching us closely. I later found out it was a guy named “Scott Steinberg”, who was Gene Landy’s accountant’s son, acting as Landy’s spy. He wasn’t very big and he sure wasn’t gonna kick anybody’s ass if things didn’t go the way he or Landy wanted!! There were no remnants of a home studio in the house that I could see. So Brian proceeded to play us songs on the piano and we were standing there next to him and our jaws were on the floor in awe the whole time. Tim couldn’t speak. Derek was looking around at various artifacts and making comments under his breath. We couldn’t believe we were actually in the house of the legendary reclusive Brian Wilson. Just then, we saw Marilyn shuffling Carnie and Wendy out the front door and they waved “Hello” to us. Brian played “Back Home”, “Palisades Park”, and a couple of others from the soon to be released “15 Big Ones” album. At the time, we were taken aback at the change of his voice, and thought it was temporary. At no time did he display any eccentric or odd behavior. Just completely lucid and normal. He was obviously very comfortable with us and happy in his surroundings. When he was done playing and singing for us, I asked him to sign my “Crawdaddy” magazine and new “Rock & Roll Music” single. Tim handed him a copy of his “Beach Boys Deluxe Set”. Brian stared at it for a minute and said, “That’s a good one, isn’t it?” and Tim replied in the affirmative. I told Brian that I have a rare single of his called “The Surfer Moon” by “Bob & Sheri”. I asked him who “Sheri” was and he replied, “I f*cked her once, ya know!” I asked him if he’d thought about going on tour with The Beach Boys again and he said that the guys had asked him but he didn’t think he was in good enough shape to do so. Then Brian said he had to go – that he had relatives in the other room waiting for him. We shook hands again and thanked him for his time and he walked us to the door and we said good-bye.

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When I got home I wrote Brian a letter thanking him for the visit and encouraged him to go on the road with the group that Summer. I ended the letter with, “Looking forward to seeing you in Oakland!” And sure enough, he was there on stage with the band in Oakland the following month, on July 2, 1976. It was Brian’s first public performance with The Beach Boys in several years.

Let’s hear your stories about meeting Brian Wilson or other member of The Beach Boys!

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