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Mon 22 December 2025 18:45, UK
Given the wild stories surrounding the making of some of The Beach Boys’ music, it’s no wonder they became stars. It almost feels like they had to be, just to justify the lengths they went to.
From massive orchestras and field recordings to strange rituals and acid trips, their creative process was anything but ordinary. And in one case, they even turned to God.
It all comes back to Brian Wilson. One of the people sadly lost this year in 2025, the tributes that flooded in for the artist repeated the same word over and over again: genius.
“Jesus, that ear. He should donate it to the Smithsonian,” Bob Dylan once said about the star. “I figure no one is educated musically ’til they’ve heard Pet Sounds,” Paul McCartney claimed. “He was one of the most gifted writers of our generation,” Paul Simon declared, as the praise from other idols has come thick and fast forever. Broadly regarded as one of history’s best, Wilson is also regarded as a true prodigy, a rarity, a God-given talent with a gift that surely must have come from above.
But he wasn’t taking that for granted. Instead, during the making of the band’s most iconic and adventurous album, Wilson was regularly checking in with the big man upstairs to ensure that the gift stuck around and the record ended up reflective of it.
“The record spoke for itself, and it was a religious experience,” he once said, and that could be taken metaphorically since Pet Sounds often feels like a religious experience simply listening to it, as the sheer beauty of it, paired with how epic and perfected it is, produces a feeling close to total awe. It’s an album that makes the hair on your arms stand up and seems to only get more powerful with the years.
Wilson, however, was talking literally. “Carl and I were into prayer. We held prayer sessions in our house on Laurel Way,” he said as they would actually gather up their friends and bandmates for group prayer. I’m sure some of those spiritual wishes had to do with the more classic requests of good health, joy, peace – that sort of stuff. But for the Wilson brothers, their prayers were a direct request, pleading, “Dear God. Please let us bring music to people.”
In Wilson’s eyes, when Pet Sounds was then released to overwhelming critical acclaim, it seemed to solidify his faith. “It happened. A cool trip,” he said as it became the record people connected with the most.
Nine times out of ten, if he was going to be stopped in the street by a fan, the songs they would mention sat on that record and had gone on to hold a truly special place in their hearts. “A lot of people say to me that Pet Sounds got them through high school or college,” he said, and the joy of that was never lost on him.
To him, it was God’s doing. Or, at least, some of it was. The rest was his own tried, tested and noted perfectionism.
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