No good vibrations as dementia beaches Brian Wilson

Revered songwriter should be in a court conservatorship because he is no longer capable of managing his personal and medical decisions, a judge ruled.

Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson at the piano in 2017, and inset, rear right, with the band in 1966. Main Picture: AFP

Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson should be in a court conservatorship because he is no longer capable of managing his personal and medical decisions, a judge has ruled.

Wilson’s manager and publicist have been appointed by a Los Angeles court as his conservators, due to the 81-year-old’s advancing dementia.

Wilson’s relatives, including his seven children, asked the court to step in after the death in January of his second wife, Melinda, whom he married in 1995, and who had previously managed his affairs.

In February, the family requested the court order, saying her death had left him “unable to properly provide for his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing or shelter”.

Wilson, who wrote hits such as I Get Around, Good Vibrations and God Only Knows, lives in Beverly Hills with two daughters and a long-term live-in carer. He can move around with the help of a walking frame, said Robert Frank Cipriano, a lawyer appointed by the court to represent Wilson’s interests.

Cipriano found that Wilson had a good sense of who he is, where he is and when it is, but could not name his children beyond the two that live with him. He said Wilson was “mostly difficult to understand and gave very short responses”.

During Thursday’s brief hearing at the Los Angeles superior court, judge Gus May approved the new legal role for Wilson’s publicist, Jean Sievers, and manager, LeeAnn Hard, who have worked with Wilson for years.

Wilson and his wife Melinda Ledbetter, who managed his affairs until her death in January, in 2015. Picture: AFP

Judge May said the case was straightforward. “I find from clear and convincing evidence that a conservatorship of the person is necessary,” he said.

He granted a request from two of Wilson’s seven children, Carnie and Wendy Wilson from the singing group Wilson Phillips, that all the children be added to a group text chain about their father and that all be consulted on medical decisions.

Wilson did not attend the hearing, after his doctor said in February that forcing him to do so “would be emotionally very stressful, physically difficult and detrimental to his health”.

Revered by fans and acclaimed as a performer, producer, arranger and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys and a masterful innovator of vocal harmony, Wilson struggled with mental health and substance abuse that upended his career in the 1960s.

After Wilson spent long periods as a recluse, addict and under the influence of Eugene Landy, a controversial psychologist, his career had a resurgence in the 21st century until July 2022, when he played a final concert in Michigan and cancelled any further tour dates for “unexpected medical reasons”.

In February’s petition, a doctor reported that Wilson had a “major neurocognitive disorder”, and was taking medication for dementia.

One of Britney Spears’s Instagram posts.

Judges in California can appoint a conservator for a person, their estate, or both, as was the case with Britney Spears. Her case brought intense attention to conservatorships, known in some states as guardianships, and prompted legislative changes after a campaign to “free Britney” from a ruling that allowed her father to have control of her finances and personal affairs.

Wilson’s case is closer to the traditional use of a conservatorship, when it is put in place for an older person in irreversible mental decline.

The Wilson petition did not seek a conservator for his estate because his assets are in a trust, with Ms Hard as a trustee.

The Times