Being in a tremendously successful band may look easy on the surface, but as many artists will tell you, there is an undercurrent of stress to it that is often difficult to shake. Expectations are high, money is at stake and fans are counting on you.
In December of 1964, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys reached his first major breaking point. It was around this time that the band’s touring schedule had ramped up significantly, which was both exciting and, in many ways, terrifying. The Beach Boys had gone from a Southern California garage band to international stars within just a couple of years.
It was also in December of 1964 that Wilson married his first wife, Marilyn Rovell. It was all quite a lot at once for a 22-year-old young man whose lifelong struggle with his mental health was only just beginning.
Brian Wilson’s First Nervous Breakdown
Things came to a head one day when Wilson experienced an apparent nervous breakdown on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, where the Beach Boys were scheduled to begin a two-week U.S. tour. Just five minutes into the flight, Wilson began screaming, crying and moving spastically about the cabin.
His bandmates did not know what to do.
“We were really scared for him,” Al Jardine later told the Houston Press. “[We were] concerned for him because he was so upset. He obviously had a breakdown. None of us had ever witnessed something like that.”
Mike Love actually did not recall witnessing it: “I don’t know if it was because I wasn’t there or some other reason. [I] might have been in another part of the plane. I think his brothers were closer to that than I was at the time.”
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That night, Wilson miraculously moved ahead with the performance in Houston, but it was clear he was not, by any definition, “alright.”
Musician Ron Foster, who was then a member of the Houston band the Detours, visited the Beach Boys in their dressing room before the show and found Wilson in a troubling state.
“He was just kind of staring off into space,” Foster recalled. “He wasn’t rude. He didn’t tell us to get out or anything like that. He was just kind of like staring off into the corner like he wasn’t there.”
Brian Wilson’s Subsequent Mental Health
That would wind up being Wilson’s last regular performance with the Beach Boys for 12 years, instead directing his attention to studio work. But unfortunately, more breakdowns followed, and the following year, he began experiencing auditory hallucinations, which were only made worse by mounting career pressure and intense drug use. For many years, Wilson’s schizoaffective disorder went untreated.
“Not until I was about 40, believe it or not,” he explained in a 2006 interview with Ability magazine. “A lot of times people don’t get help as early as they should.”
Eventually, Wilson, with the help of loved ones and professionals, was able to reach a point of stability where his mental health could be dealt with appropriately.
“My friends constantly assure me I’m going to be okay, that they’re on my side and they’re my allies,” he said in 2006. “They tell me they are my guardian angels and they will help me through it.”
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
