I Am Brian Wilson

For the first time in his own words, the legendary musical genius of The Beach Boys reflects on his tumultuous life and astonishing 21st-century comeback to live performance and renewed creativity.

Brian Wilson was the driving creative force behind The Beach Boys, a band that defined an era and charted nine consecutive gold albums and hit after unstoppable hit. But he was derailed in the 1970s by mental illness, drug use, and the shifting fortunes of the band he'd helped to create. Amazingly, he persisted. With the right support network, including his second wife, Melinda, the right doctors and the right medication, Wilson found his way back to the foundation of his creativity. In the 2000s, he was able to emerge as a solo performance artist, and complete
Smile, the unfinished Beach Boys record that had become both the symbol of his genius and of his destabilization.

I Am Brian Wilson is the story of Brian Wilson's life, told by an older, calmer Brian Wilson. He reflects on his difficulties, his extraordinary accomplishments and forgiveness for the people who complicated those accomplishments, and his life. Wiser, more measured, though still possessed of the youthful spark that helped him rise to the top of the rock-and-roll world, Wilson relates his life with emotional honesty: "Telling my story honestly means remembering things I sometimes prefer to forget. I would like people to get to know what I've gone through, and I hope that my story will give them strength."