Brian Douglas Wilson was born on 20 June 1942, in Inglewood, California USA, of Irish, English, German, Dutch and Swedish descent. He is a record producer, composer, singer, musician, as well as a songwriter, but undoubtedly best known as one of the founders, a lead singer and the driving force behind the famous rock band called “The Beach Boys”.
So just how rich is Brian Wilson? Authoritative sources estimate that Brian’s net worth is over $75 million as of mid-2016, the main sources of his wealth coming from his long career in music, which now stretches well over 50 years in the entertainment industry.
Brian Wilson Net Worth $75 Million
Brian and his brothers had early musical encouragement from their parents, and the interest has never waned. Brian enrolled at El Camino College to study psychology, but music was his passion, and with his brothers Carl and Dennis plus cousin Mike Love and Al Jardine they formed “The Pendletones” in 1961, a band that would later take up the name of “The Beach Boys”.“The Pendletones” released their first single titled “Surfin” in 1961, which became a local hit and peaked at #75 on the US Billboard charts. The band followed up with another successful single entitled “Surfin’ U.S.A.” that peaked at #3 on the US charts. Around this time, the popularity of the band, as well as its members was constantly on the rise, which in turn contributed to Brian Wilson’s net worth, seeing as he was not only a singer with the band, but organist/guitarist, song-writer, the manager and a producer as well.
In 1963, “The Beach Boys” released their second studio album entitled “Surfin’ U.S.A.” to generally positive reviews and critical acclaim, which is proven by the 78 consecutive weeks that the album spent on the US Billboard charts, reaching the #2 spot. Even though Brian Wilson was heavily involved with “The Beach Boys”, he also tried to focus more on his career as a record producer, so the same year that the band released their commercially successful album, Brian Wilson collaborated on a song with Jan Berry entitled “Surf City”, which became a #1 hit song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Brian Wilson continued to work primarily with the band however, and in 1965 produced a new, soon-to-become legendary album entitled “Pet Sounds”. Named as the greatest album of all time by NME magazine in the UK, and featured at #2 on the list of 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, “Pet Sounds” is considered to be one of the most culturally and historically important albums, subsequently boosting Brian’s net worth considerably.
With the overwhelming fame came many issues, especially Wilson’s drug abuse. As a result, he began losing his voice and for some time could not partake in many of the band’s projects. Nevertheless, Brian returned to work with “The Beach Boys”, and together they have released a total of 29 studio albums, 50 compilation albums, seven ‘live’ albums, in addition to which are 10 solo albums recorded by Wilson. In the ensuing 50 years, they toured extensively around the world, never seeming to lose their appeal, particularly relating back to the surfing craze of the 1960s on the US west coast, as evidenced by Brian’s steady rise in net worth.
Today Brian Wilson is a highly respected person in the music industry, being described often as one of the most influential musicians of 20th century music. Wilson has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame(2000), and together with “The Beach Boys” was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Brian Wilson is also a Grammy Award winner, and a Best Historical Album Award winner.
In his personal life, Brian Wilson was married to Marilyn Rutherford(1964-79) and they have two children. He married Melinda Ledbetter in 1995, and they have adopted three children.
