Episode 119 – Brian Wilson vs Eugene Landy

don't go to sleep mother don't go to sleep and do me a favor don't disturb my friend he's dead tired well what the hell are you saying do you Roo half your body sleeping uh I sleep pretty hard welcome to rock and roll bedtime stories hey it's Brian and sitting in the second chair this week filling in for Murdoch Phil medley's back hey it's been a while how you doing Brian dude I'm good and I'm thrilled that you're here uh thank you so much for for filling in for Murdoch this week and I mean this show it's what it's about it's collaboration not just between me and you or myself and Murdoch but also between us and the listeners thank you for everyone who reaches out on a regular basis with questions and comments uh I I got to say like this show is better than I ever thought it would be because we get uh to to interact with folks that listen to the show and you can do that via email it's we are the story guys at gmail.com John wrote the show this week he's got the question oh man okay oh yeah let's go like I also will'll point out that much like Murdoch like I you said you would you would sub in but you do not know what we're talking about so you we could be headed somewhere we are headed somewhere sort of dark okay here's here's the question guys love the show could we get an episode about Brian Wilson and Eugene Landy oh snap so do you know that name Eugene Landy Landy yeah so I've heard it but I don't know yeah controversial self-help Guru that's how John describes him in his letter who resurrected Brian Wilson's career in the 1980s okay okay so first though I mean I know you know the name Brian Wilson so of course one of the big names in rock history Brian At The Beach Boys let's establish what we've already covered in the back catalog of this show for reference first way back on episode 14 we talk about the beach boys and their connection to the Manson family this has gone down in history as one of our most listen to episodes so if this is how you know us if this is how you came to the show you're in the right place more Beach Boys content uh that's also not our only Beach Boys episode we had the legendary rock journalist Joel Selvin on the show a while back that was episode 42 and we discussed uh The Beach Boys connections to Jan and Dean and some other stuff that about that musical scene in California at the time but today to answer this question we got to really dig into something totally different a totally different time period for the guys and for Brian Wilson but let's talk for a second just about The Beach Boys tell me about your relationship to the beach boys so funny story guy in college tells me and I am in the throws of like like I'm just starting to get into like indie rock and like John Spencer and like stuff like that yeah and he says and I told him I was like a huge Rolling Stones fan he's like he scoffs at it he says the only thing I'm listening to is sunvolt and Pet Sounds I'm like and what likeing Pet Sounds you know by the boys I'm like what a what a musical snob I'm gonna go home and listen to Exile in Main Street you take your little Beach Boys record um and then like five years later I was like well I guess I could try it you know out took you five years I was really mad at the guy for you know we're only listening to two records pooing your John Spencer Blues explosion you were mad at him that's quite The Grudge Phil yeah yeah and I think even like that b kind of um but uh and then so then listen was like oh oh it's pretty good you know it was interesting one of the greatest albums of all time yeah I'll put it there one of the greatest accomplishments of production of all time yeah I would definitely for the time right and remember this time this predates Sergeant Peppers The Beatles will openly say that Sergeant Peppers doesn't happen without Pet Sounds of course well and I think the the playing I think you have to give some credit to those session people who were just well yeah out of this world I mean we're going to talk about this but Pet Sounds is a Brian Wilson solo record yes like it's not a it's not a Beach Boys record yeah with Carol K on Bas dude for years I have had a picture of Carol K on my desktop like just minimize on my desktop to occasionally I will run across it and be like Carol K what I can only hope she's wearing awesome glasses yes she's wearing incredible glasses in the photo I [ __ ] love that you know exactly what I'm talk who I'm talking about what I'm talking about Carol K if you don't know Carol K do yourself a favor Google that [ __ ] right now um but yeah so I similar sort of thing I discovered Pet Sounds in high school I think someone told me about it I I must have I don't know read about it on a list or something and I think in maybe it was a BMG music Club pack of CDs or something at some point I got myself a copy of it and you know the the big songs on there uh have always been important to me but it is a really interesting record when you read about the history of it and the period of of the Beach Boys history that it happens in and then of course all this sort of stuff where the the beach boy sort of just real quick primer the beach boy sort of disintegrate into two different things in the mid-60s like they sort of become Brian Wilson and then they become the Beach Boys but half the time it's just labeled The Beach Boys um but right we're jumping ahead we're going to get into all that let's get specifically uh back to the beginning just for some context setting right The Beach Boys a Band of Brothers with a cousin and a friend thrown in you have a you have a band with a cousin yes you're like you're like the Beach Boys they're all cousins yeah I was going to say I hope you're in better Health than the Beach Boys were by the end but so they were managed by their father they they form in 1961 they have a hit record in 63 that's surf in USA that's the first one mhm Murray is their dad we could do a whole episode on Murray and what a terrible person he is but because he's terrible uh he fights to get what he wants and he gets them meetings and exposure and he gets him a record deal with capital and this is that time period where like artists are just just run out for any worth that the record label can get from them I don't I don't know if you've ever done this math on when their records come out Pet Sounds which we were just talking about comes out in 66 and did you hear me say they got the record deal in 63 yeah that was that's a quick asent do you know how many records are in between 63 and 66 probably 20 nine 20 nine okay yeah which I mean 20 was a funny number nine is the actual number which is ridiculous which is hilarious people release albums every four years right now yeah I know well and when we talked about Jerry Lee Lewis uh on the show recently we were talking about his Wilderness years and I made this crackpot claim slosa theory that rock was dead in America in the early 60s and I I stand by that somewhat because I don't really think of the Beach Boys as a rock band do you think of the Beach Boys as a rock band oh not especially when you play them next to the killer right you play the you play the Star Club disc the jly Lewis stuff next to the The Beach Boys it's not the same thing right they're a pop band right pop band that's fair well and I this is also why I do not give them the crown when when I get into this conversation that I bring up on the show all the time that I love to talk about which is greatest American rock band like who gets that title and people will often say well you have to give it to the beach boys and I'm like but were the Beach Boys a rock bandn like I'm not sure they were either of those things most of the time though yeah they did put out Pet Sounds which one of the greatest albums of all time we've already established anyway it it is worth noting that the Beach Boys are in this void between Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis and then the British Invasion on the other side they get their head spun around by the British Invasion just like everybody else they actually maintain some Commercial Success during this period but it definitely makes Brian at least a little self-conscious about his lyrical themes and so like the Beatles land in February of 64 and like by April of that month Brian Wilson like publicly stops writing songs about surfing it's like no more he's like they ain't doing it yeah yeah they ain't doing it uh so a whole bunch of circumstances Collide right there's this Chang in culture Brian's mental health has never been good a lot of this armchair psychology traces back to Murray and the way he was treated by his father and his family he's got this desire to not be so hemmed in and so you have Brian doing something and I don't know I'm curious if you knew this did you know he does what the Beatles will do a few years later he retires from public performance I did know that he stopped with and the rest of the band kept playing they kept going and do you know who they get to fill in for him on a temporary basis no Glenn Campbell oh Glenn Campbell was in The Beach Boys for like a year in the mid-60s wow but yeah he pulls the guys together after Christmas of 64 because there's this whole thing where like two days before Christmas he's on an airplane and he has a panic attack and yep he says I'm I can't go on the road anymore so Glenn Campbell comes in and they eventually replace him permanently with uh another guy from the scene but now Brian Wilson now has the time he needs and wants so he can experiment and make new things in the studio that aren't about surfing and is this where he puts sand in his living room this probably uh this starts the nons surf period of the band there's this really good uh Al Jardine quote that he's asked about Pet Sounds and he says quote it wasn't music you could necessarily dance to it was more like music you could make love to oh or maybe I I would that's that's pretty good I would I would rephrase it and say it's it's also music you could do drugs to because that's what Brian was doing Brian was doing lots of drugs yes yes LSD in particular uh the guy's fragile already so LSD does not help um and it's funny because if you read about him Brian's supposedly like anti-drug in the early days of the band but they he gets in with this guy who's a talent agent Talent agents will corrupt everything right his name his name mostly Lauren Schwarz is the guy's name he will turn Brian onto psychedelic tripping in like 65 and Brian gets really into it uh he justifies it by saying it's about self-discovery it's about I'm discovering myself it's not Recreation man I'm doing some work on myself do you know who he writes Pet Sounds with do you know who the other main songwriter on Pet Sounds is no but I knew he he was not alone no but it's this is an insane story man so it's this guy named Tony Asher now yes yeah yeah yeah yeah you may know his past work because before this he was writing Jingles about Barbie dolls uh I'm not kidding this dude literally only thing he was doing was working for an ad agency recording jingles and he was happened to be it depends on the version of the story that you believe but there's either he met Brian Wilson at a party or he was at the studio next to Brian Wilson one day recording jingles singing about Barbie singing about Barbies or some sort of doll or something uh Brian will end up calling him and inviting him to collaborate mostly because it's a weird choice right like because he's trying to do stuff very different than he's done before he's been very hemmed in by his family so he's like oh cool a 26-year-old copywriter with eight credits on the greatest album of all time no why not um there is this Tony quote where he says that Brian was doing LSD but he says his crazy behavior probably had just as much to do with the quote Whole claustrophobic scene with him and his family so the family stuff will haunt him you know on and on and on now Pet Sounds like we've already said credited as a Beach Boys album essentially a Brian Wilson's and Tony Asher solo Endeavor and this is where this split I talked about happens right like where you you've got Brian Wilson creating things and sometimes it's under the Beach Boys moniker and sometimes it's not and they're out on the road without him and there's stuff happening and in all of this it's just important to note that Brian Wilson is not doing well it's it's interesting because we're sitting with a 2022 lens on Mental Health looking back at the 60s yeah and now we know there's terms and there's phrases and there's all these things that you're supposed to do to take care of yourself and it just you know it a different time which is a TR thing to say but a true thing to say and uh there are lots of legendary anecdotes over the next few years right he works on Good Vibrations he tries to make this album that we now know as smile uh smiley smile smiley smile was what it was called first you're right like I thought that was a joke when I read it um and that says something about your mental health right and and yeah his mental health is not good and you can imagine something like this not good for a marriage Brian Wilson's first marriage the one that produces Wendy and Carney shouts to wilon Phillips uh yeah that like that first marriage could be an episode of its own her name is Marilyn and I got to say it's hard not to find her stamina impressive as she will stay with Brian Wilson until 1979 a 15-year marriage that's yeah he's only only married only married twice only married twice well uh 15-year marriage is basically troubled from the moment it starts and this is what's messed up dude so they meet when I believe the Beach Boys are on two early 60s and there's this girl group opening for them teenage teenage girls they're like 15 16 and they're sisters and it's pretty clear that Brian was never sure which sister he was the most into like even yeah even after the marriage even after the marriage he like there's this I I came across this in the research that there is some documentation to say Brian was like encouraging Marilyn his wife to sleep with other people so he could like do her sister sleep as a sister wow and to make him more messed up yeah he was producing a record for the two of them together in the early 70s so this is all happening at home on top of the erratic Behavior the paranoia and the generally out ofc control aspect of Brian's descent into drugs so it's it's not surprising that it is said to be Marilyn that first wife who is the one who along with Beach boy's management which again it's all in the family right the main manager is Stan Love you'll recognize that last name he's also a cousin um yep and it is it is a love cousin who will um along with Marilyn call Eugene Landy so let's bring this [ __ ] into the story uh bet okay okay I'll just read from his oit he died in ' 06 this is New York Times obit uh a psychotherapist who is variously called a savior and a snake oil salesman and that's that's sort of actually a nice description of him one of the nicer ones I read to cut to the chase a little more a Brian Wilson biographer named Peter Ames Carlin is quoted as saying Landy definitely transformed Brian's life and knocked him off of what was a suicidal death spiral in the early 80s but his new Lee live came with a deed restriction again these are like the nicest things I found about him so who is this guy like who is Eugene Landy so he's he's born in Pittsburgh born to a couple of psychology professors apparently it's the family Biz um that's not what he wants to do though and and here's the thing when you read about this guy this guy ends up going into the family business because he can't hacken in Show Business for some reason but he clearly only wants to be in Show Business he starts trying to hack it in Show Business at a very young age there's these anecdotes if you read anything about him and pulling back the curtain a little bit when I create this show when I do the research I typically will read something repeatedly about someone especially if they're sort of a bit player in a story and then I will go and try to go a couple layers deeper to see if I can find more verification of this in more details right because they're sort of the Wiki of it all where people will just say Eugene did this and then there will be like not a lot of backup for it so I go try to find the backup I will say the stories about him at a young age are repeated often I found them in a lot of places but I could not get a below that layer of here's this random one sentence about Eugene here are the sentences that you will read when you read about Eugene Landy supposedly at age 16 he pursued a career in Show Business he produced a nationally syndicated radio show wait a minute at 16 yeah at 16 and wow which I mean he was born in 34 so that means in like 1950 he was like I don't know and then he discovers 10-year-old child prodigy get ready for this named George Benson you know George Benson no I don't oh okay so I'm excited that I can talk about George Benson for 90 seconds on this show George Benson is a jazz guitarist is really what he get he becomes known as but he played with like Miles Davis in the 60s done all sorts of crazy stuff but he had this string of hits in the 80s and he had this song called Turn Your Love Around do you know that song I used to play that song on AC radio turn your love around hold on Taste of yesterday if he stays at home all they get is lonely turn your love around oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah I know that hug dude I used to rock that song man yeah so supposedly eug lady discovers George Benson as a 10-year-old child prodigy I like I find that hard to believe uh but I mean it's so weird though it's such a weird detail it's like not the one I would make up if I was making up detail so I don't know maybe it's true yeah uh and then because of that he he supposedly briefly serves as his manager and then he works OD jobs as a radio producer something both of us have done um he promotes records and supposedly produces a single for Frankie Avalon this is all like before he's 20 yes yeah he's real young at this point despite these detours The Story Goes that he does eventually fall in line with that family Biz he gets a bachelor's degree in LA and a master's in Oklahoma listen I used to live near Oklahoma and go to Oklahoma a lot I have no problem with it but it's suspect to me that a guy's like my undergrads in LA and now to get my in the 60s to get my doctorate in Psychology I'm moving to Oklahoma how long was he there four weeks that's weird right and and he's not even done with all this stuff until the late 60s it's 68 when he comes out of school but between being free from school and meeting Brian Wilson at the of 75 so there's a gap there of like seven years he builds this nice little business and as I said This Guy's real focus is being in the orbit of the entertainment business it's all he wants to do in a 1976 interview with rolling stone he will give this quote I've treated a tremendous number of people in Show Business for some reason I seem to be able to relate to them yeah okay this dude a psychologist dude this is the best part this psychologist had his own press kit a bio and a head shot he was ready to rock like this was his whole thing he was like gonna do it up weird he's he wants to be a movie star yeah yeah 100% that's all that's what he wants to do he wants to be in the Limelight but what is it that this guy actually does for people besides try to hog their stardom how does he get these LA and Hollywood types to pay attention to him here's the deal he basically latches on to these radical ways of treating people for addiction that's an oversimplification but it getes you the idea the big idea he gets obsessed with is this idea that he can do 24-hour treatment or what he calls Marathon therapy basically it's just he's going to control people for 24 hours straight so we've got Brian Wilson mentally troubled drug adult person we've got Eugene land he's a controversial crackpot who's obsessed with celebrity but how do these two come together and like I said it's that first wife of Brian's Marilyn and the band management who will hire Eugene the first time and yes there's a first time and a second time so 1975 Marilyn is very concerned and she's at the end of this long list of ideas she had for helping him get his life together I think it's funny to mention that one name that gets dragged into you're going to appreciate this one name that gets dragged into this as being the person who sort of enables Brian during this period is Danny Hutton from Three Dog Night Joy to the World such a guilty pleasure of mine dude like so you used to program one of the greatest oldie stations in America uh that no longer exists and he's coming dude I know you used to rock the Three Dog Night on that stage I actually so I Saw Three Dog Knight in 2000 yeah no in like 2006 my wife worked for a hospital uh that would their Foundation would do a fundraiser every year and one year they brought in The Pointer Sisters and the second year they brought in Three Dog Knights so I have a picture of baby face me maybe I need to find it and put it on Instagram rock and roll Bedtime Stories on Instagram uh of me with the guys in Three Dog Knight I cannot remember if Danny Hutton was in the band at that point let's say that he was so he he basically used to party all the time with Brian Wilson the reputation of Three Dog Knight has just like not aged to ever seem controversial or scandalous so this idea that like I literally read that Marilyn Brian Wilson's wife would send people over the fence at Danny Hutton's house so they like to sneak in and retrieve Brian and I find that my gosh hilarious that is great to go get him reconnaissance so yeah let let's talk for a second about the insane stories that have surfaced over the years about Brian's behavior in the early' 70s right and again I want to be I want to be thoughtful and careful when we're talking about any of this because we're talking about a mentally ill person yeah yeah but we're also talking about a person who was doing a lot of drugs and taking a lot of chances and was you know had his moments of rock stardom um here's here here are a few I can't say 100% that any of these are true but they are definitely on the circuit in terms of rumors that might be Paul and Linda McCartney are said to have visited Brian in April of 74 but Brian would not let them in his house no Paul no thanks come back no I don't I don't want what you're selling yeah uh Jimmy Web says that Wilson's Presence at the session for Harry Nelson's Salmon Falls saw him sitting in the back of the studio playing D Ron Ron on a B3 organ just halfhazard um Wilson was photographed this one's good at Keith Moon's 28th birthday party wearing only his bathrobe well yeah Wilson interrupted a set by jazz musician Larry Corel at the trador by leaping on stage and singing Biba palula while wearing a bathrobe bathrobe was like the thing for a while yeah yeah and here's the best one Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop are said to have been at Danny Hutton's house again hilarious uh for a Brian Wilson L sing along of the folk song shorten and bread after which Brian Wilson proclaimed it was quote the greatest song ever written okay can you imagine let's just imagine what that would sound like Alice Cooper Iggy Pop Brian Wilson all singing shorten and bread for all you guys who thought that Iggy Pop was so cool that he couldn't hang out with Three Dog Night In The Beach Boys wrong okay uh as you can see Brian was clearly needing some help and maryn will say that like during this period she would take him to doctors and he would like just all of a sudden sort of I I don't think it was that he would snap out of it but like he would be able to carry on enough that it would keep any of these doctors from taking it super seriously right like he would just sort of snap into Focus well I imagine too like they would they would play it all off as drugs right well and that obious skates everything cuz he was on a lot of drugs and what starts to happen is there's no way of being able to pull out the permanent damage and the temporary damage right right right right to separate it sure so here's this is there's also this weird cultural thing in the Beach Boys Camp right because it's all in the family and I mean you see this families are beautiful I have one I love it and I think that being able to do something as a family even with extended family is awesome so I'm not knocking your band Phil but I do want to point out that there's this culture that sometimes is created in these situations where like it gets so insular they don't let Outsiders in and so for a while Marilyn is trying to figure out how to solve this problem with the family and so they hire the basketball player love now his name is Stan I think I said Stan was the manager earlier there's another love that's the manager but Stan Love is Mike Love's younger brother who is a professional basketball player oh my gosh and they hire him to basically be Brian's bodyguard and caretaker and this last for like 3 months it doesn't go super well and so Marilyn will hear about this guy Eugene Landy and and the fact that he'd been treating some of Bryan's friends like Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper who were over at Danny's house and so she will meet with Eugene Landy to discuss the situation and Landy tells her oh well you know he's an undiagnosed and untreated schizophrenic that's a pretty bold assessment Marilyn said that during one of land's visits to their home he like makes this house call where they're still in the interview phase I guess Brian just walked in the room and said something's wrong with me I need your help and that started it all that's a quote from Marilyn so I think the idea first is to try one of these radical 24-hour therapy sessions because this is the thing he's been pedaling right right and Brian isn't just acting weird and using drugs he's also gaining weight there's like this fat Brian Wilson phase that comes and goes yeah Landy says Okay first there's a fitness regimen to follow if we're g to do this and we're going to do it right this 24-hour parlor trick that I have means that you're never alone so he has this Bevy of assistance that kick into action and Brian is with one of them and under observation 24 hours a day this is a quote from Landy about his approach I had to be crazier than Brian there's only room enough for one crazy person in Brian's head and that's got to be me I have to have the ultimate power in the situation I said he had to get out of bed and start living a normal life he said make me so how do you make a guy get out of bed after so long explain it to him first no you throw water on him first and that's what I did who like literally he's not kidding he would throw water on this is from a New York Times piece at first Mr Wilson appeared to respond to Mr landy's treatment protocol which included pushing him to exercise padlocking the refrigerator and on mornings when Mr Wilson wanted to stand back de dousing him with water whoa wait so let me ask you yeah are you I don't know what uh I mean we know each other pretty well but I don't know what vices you might be struggling with do do you think you need a self-help Guru to move in and put you under 24-hour observation I mean water's starting to sound better than my alarm clock but uh I don't know I don't know so they let this guy stick around for like a year and a year yeah Brian doesn't like it but land's always threatening him with commitment to an institution that's the other thing that's crazy about this right it's like well if you fail this the next step is probably you know your wife's at the end of her rope you're probably going to end up in a in a institution there's a bunch of crazy stories about how Landy starts to push his influence into the band and he gets Brian Wilson to do SNL have you ever seen the Brian Wilson SNL performance oh no so Landy is standing off stage with Q cards reminding him to smile [Applause] I love the colorful clothes she [Applause] wears and the way the sunlight plays upon her head I he sound of a gentle word on the wind that lifts her perfume through the air I'm picking up good vibration she's me theit I mean it gets mixed reviews but it's not that bad it's sort of interesting to see him during this period I'll throw that in the show notes if you want to see the video it's uh you know people have described it as disturbing but I think it's like because we now know what was going on during this period of his life right but you know it this is the sort of stuff Eugene Landy starts doing he starts attending beach boy band meetings Brian was still trying to be with the band or how yeah so this is this whole period where like he's writing stuff and sometimes it's going to the band and then he's also doing solo stuff and there so there's there is this overlap and they're still trying to include him and it's there's like this certain point where Landy will leverage the band in Brian's inclusion to get access to the band because the band wants to use like there's just all sorts of weird crazy stuff that happens now the the big problem here with Eugene Landy is that he gets very greedy and he keeps raising his fee while he's doing this treatment so it's like a monthly fee and it starts to get more and more expensive and on the Third Rate hike which happens in December of 76 the management and Maryland decide they're done so they kick him to the curb and they rehire the basketball player and the basketball player brings his buddy to the gig this time he's like listen I need back up he brings this guy Rocky Pamplin now I'm assuming you don't know that name I don't unless you or your wife keep copies of the 1976 uh issues of play girl around because he was on the cover in May of 1976 uh I'll have to check and maryn starts having sex with him so oh it all gets very complicated say like if there is somebody I feel bad for in any of this it's maryn I mean she marries Brian Wilson when she's 16 years old go she signs up for the next 15 years of her life to basically take care of a man who is not well and so you know this is a this is a nude male model paying her attention I get it this episode is brought to you by CarMax car buying reimagined if you're looking for your next car you have to check out CarMax they have tens of thousands of Carmax certified quality vehicles and you can shop on your own terms online in store or any combination of the two plus CarMax offers an unrivaled 30-day money back guarantee up to 1,500 M so you can make sure you found the right car and buy with confidence to learn more tap the banner or visit carmax.com for details oh wow so that could have been the end of this right so they they bring in the the mail model uh they kick out the crazy self-help Guru SL like Christ therapist whatever he is but let's bring him back well yeah right Brian I mean the problem is Brian regresses so much so by the end of 1978 he is just a mess again and these relab stories are as crazy as they are sad like at this point it's getting very I mean it's even sad to sort of talk about right he hitch hi he hitch hikes to West Hollywood at one point and he plays piano for free drinks at a gay bar the guy from there drives him to Mexico he then hitchhikes back to San Diego Police will find him Barefoot and passed out in a park after that whole incident that's terrible um this is also the period of the hamburger sessions or the cocaine sessions depending on who you talk do you know about this period of the Beach Boys so this is true there's this period of the Beach Boys where Dennis Wilson is convinced he can get the best takes out of Brian and he knows Brian's a good singer but he knows Brian has to be taken care of with what Brian wants and so there are these like Dennis will get Brian isolate him from the rest of the band cuz the rest of the band knows what's up and they do not want this to happen and he will buy Brian McDonald's and cocaine and then they will go right together and so like if you are a Beach Boys fanatic you know about these sessions because there's this set of sessions that happen uh that do go to record that I think are available somewhere that you can find where they are what is referred to as the hamburger sessions or the cocaine sessions because it's the music that comes out of this Dennis Brian collaboration over shitty fast food and hopefully good drugs what's your what's your shitty fast food of choice when you're recording I remember one time only making like $15 at a gig and so me and Joe were mad at the other two because they didn't play real well this is this was not my cousins this was like one of the other lineups and so we went to White Castle and spent all $15 which is hard so I'll say white GLE that is the most Brian Wilson story you could have possibly just told me I appreciate that okay so in the midst of all of this something else is happening Brian is finally losing his marriage and I mean obviously as I've already explained this marriage had all sorts of problems but sure Marilyn cared enough to sort of keep Brian from getting fully taken advantage of like she was trying pretty hard it seems like now when she's out of the picture it it becomes a lot easier to get your claws into this guy and so that's how Eugene Landy gets back in to the Beach Boys compound oh man and this time he's not going after a year the the culminating event happens in 1982 Brian overdoses on a combo of alcohol cocaine and psychoactive drugs the fam the management they convince Brian it's time to seek treatment and for some reason land's name gets brought back up because I guess if you look at it objectively he was a pain and he was expensive but he did get Brian back to decent Health in' 76 he was sober for like 6 months he lost a bunch of weight and got fit and so as messed up as it was I mean these are people who live again they live in their own insular bubble in this family and they're also have tons of money so they go to Landy and they're like Landy will you come back with Brian and Landy the ultimate con artist plays hard to get and he he says no I don't know I don't know and the reason he does that is this is his chance so this is what he says okay listen if you guys want me to come back I'm only taking him back on a as a patient under one condition you have to give me total control with no interference well he cuts them off from everybody and he moves them to Hawaii on the surface he gets it done he gets him healthy he soers him up to some extent at least but he cuts him off from everybody he gets him back to LA in March of 83 and won't allow him access to even his ex-wife or his kids and Landy keeps asking for more money but they're seeing results right so Carl Wilson ends up giving a quarter of Brian's publishing royalties to Eugene Landy oh my gosh wow and then then Eugene Landy swoops in to the business and creative side of the Brian Wilson Enterprise think about this this is nuts you're a musician you have a band this guy is a psychologist and suddenly he is Brian's business representation he is at meetings he shows up to talk about stuff like he's the guy you deal with if you're going to deal with Brian Wilson oh you know the term that's often used for this is svin [ __ ] do do you know do you know that expression do you know where it comes from I I've heard it but no I don't know where it's com from so people will say that if there's somebody who's like puppet mastering someone else they're this fin golly this is comes from a novel from 1894 by a guy named George de uh the novel is called Trilby and zingali is a character in this novel who seduces dominates and exploits the Title Character Trilby a young half Irish girl and makes her into a famous singer now you know that honestly uh this book is super racist and I'm really surprised we still use that phrase yeah there you go bottom I maybe we should just call it being a Landy instead of being a SP I think Landy is a little better yeah I mean he's a white dude and he's an [ __ ] so yeah but bottom line Landy has his hooks in Wilson now if you want to see this for yourself and I caution you because this is sort of hard to watch but there is this wild and pretty famous video clip of this interview with Landy from 83 had a year or two to live and he' died he was he was he was Tom UL called me in and said and said we are worried that Brian Wilson is going to follow Elvis oh God God no yeah that's what Tom said to me he said we've got to do something we can't let him just stay 300 lb Brian is sitting beside him like they're sort of touching which is weird like not in like a sexual way but they're just like sort of close and Brian's like not talking most of the time and he seems very out of it and when he reacts it's so weird and childlike he's like oh oh Brian Wilson may not be on the drugs he used to be on but he's clearly on drugs right they they've got him on that's what I'm wondering yeah yeah ly probably supplied him definitely had him on all sorts of drugs and we'll get we'll get into what how severely he had him on drugs in a minute but in 88 when he's finally releasing a solo album a solo album which by the way Eugene Landy will get credits on both for production and songwriting not only that Eugene land's girlfriend of the time will get songwriting credits with Brian Wilson songwriting credits yeah that's those the best kind those are the best kind well I was thinking about this though when I was reading about this are they the best kind if no one listens to the album like well I guess not if it gets no airpl yeah then it's probably not that great but so when this when this is coming out this record's about to come out Rolling Stone EDS a journalist with Brian Wilson for a week I can't believe that Landy signed off on this and this piece is in the show notes and it's nuts if you want to go read it it's like six pages long and uncomfortable and goes into a great description great detail about what life is like for Brian Wilson at this point and keep in mind this is 5 and a half years after the intervention and Brian going back under land's care this guy details that there's like depending on the moment all these different versions of Brian that you get um and it's rough stuff so check that out in the show notes if you want by the time this article hits though things are starting to unravel for Landy and part of this happens because of another woman in Brian's life so he's divorced in 79 in ' 86 he goes car shopping Brian and Landy they go to the they go to the car lot and they meet this woman at the car dealership named Melinda lead better she used to be a model as most people in this story apparently and within six months she will call the state's attorney General trying to figure out how to get Brian out of landy's control because they start spending time together here's a quote it was so obvious he was being drugged we'd get in my car to go somewhere and the first thing that would happen is he would fall asleep in my lap that's sad this I mean the whole story is sad like there's parts of it that like you're tempted to laugh at some of these anecdotes about shorten and Brad or whatever but like this is a tragic story of a man who is so you know and it's hard to tell were the drugs to hide the pain was the pain bringing on the drugs like there's just this like you know how mentally affected was he by his childhood would the did the drugs really do that much you know what I mean was was he going to have these struggles anyway it's like really hard to know because all these things are intertwined and once Landy figures out that Melinda is influencing Brian in any way shape or form of course he has full control over Brian so he will ban the two of them from seeing each other here's how it all starts to come apart though there's this guy named Peter he's a therapist and he goes to a beach boys fan convention in 1990 okay and he meets Brian Wilson and as a therapist he's like something's not right with that dude and he thinks and this is back to your point about what sort of drugs did Eugene Landy have Brian Wilson on he thinks that Brian Wilson might have something called tardive discinesia there you go a neurological condition that's basically brought on by overuse of antis psychotic meds huh so this guy I mean he's a fan basically right like what's he going to do about this so he finds the number to this guy named David Leaf who has been uh writing I guess about the Beach Boys and David Leaf then uh calls Carl Wilson and during this period they start going through paperwork and they figure out that Landy has been named as a chief beneficiary in a revision of Brian's will oh gosh he's gonna get 70% 70% the remainder gets split between his girlfriend and Brian's two daughters so wow this discovery gets made by this woman named K Gilmer and she's a publicist she's actually imployed by Landy she calls she sees it's wrong she sees it's wrong and she's going through this paperwork and she sees this she calls Gary Usher Gary Usher says if Landy knows that you're calling me he will kill you he will literally kill you and so this woman leaves her job two weeks later takes expired drug bottles as well his names phone numbers and bank account information and turns them over to the California Board of medical quality assurance wow boy there that's a gutsy move uh dude th this woman is the unsung hero of the story now when you read this in passing in most places they basically say that like the family just discovered some stuff was ay and then they they take legal action K gets totally written out of the story which is a bummer because of because of what she does Stan Love is able to uh file for conservatorship but he doesn't get it because and this is crazy so he does a press conference is at the Lecter and he's talking about what's going on and all of the sudden Brian Wilson walks up on stage oh gosh he grabs the microphone and he starts reading from a piece of paper I have heard the charges made by Stan love and I think they are outrageous I feel great I mean this is creepy stuff dude yeah man creepy creepy stuff so then Carney and Wendy Wilson shout outs Wilson Phillips uh Carl and Audrey will contest land's control of Brian they'll pursue legal action on May 7th of 1991 and then Brian will start giving interviews where he says his family is just trying to control him so this guy is so deep in his head yeah he's got him doing interviews defending him that he's got him defending him it's it is crazy now eventually there's been all of this stuff piling up over several years against um against Eugene Landy there's actually stuff if you go back and look all the way back to 1984 there's a uh a case brought against him where people are saying well we don't think you know and it starts to build and then there's this whole thing where Melinda lead better calls uh from the car lot and and alerts them and then there's like there's these things that start happening and they will finally get some action and get him completely out of Brian's Life by the early 90s the cute ribbon on this story is that once land's out of his life Melinda lead better will come back into his life and they'll get married in '92 and they still married oh wow now if you dig a Little Deeper there is a quote from 1998 where one of the Wilson daughters shout out Wilson Phillips calls Melinda Mandy inferring that Melinda is also controlling Brian and that he's basically gone from one's Vali to another now that's less publicized or known I mean maybe that's something we will know in future years regardless it's tough all of this is tough and it's it's tough because it's it'd be tough about anybody but it's tough because it involves one of the greatest song writers in most brilliant musical Minds ever I mean this guy with minimal collaboration created Pet Sounds yeah which we didn't even we didn't even mention that Pet Sounds was like a failure when it came out people did not like it yeah it's it's definitely a case of what could have been right I mean like this is we talk we've been talking a lot recently on the show about these like sliding doors moments where Rock and Roll History could have been really really different there was there was one about you know with if Rick James hadn't illegally fled the country and dodged the draft same thing with Jerry Lee Lewis if Jerry Lee Lewis hadn't married his first cousin once removed which is so stupid right this is another one right it's like if if the Beach Boys had had a better functioning family Dynamic and if Brian Wilson had been more mentally healthy yes would the Beach Boys not be thought of as a Nostalgia act you know what I mean right there's still a version of them running around with like John Stamos playing oh I'm sure and is like a kind of a I mean they're not a flash in the pan right but it's this very small window of of legitimate productivity right yeah I mean they so there is there is Beach Boys music all the way up until the late 70s but like nobody's really paying attention to it yeah exactly much after Pet Sounds right 63 to 66 a three window that's the money yeah right there is is 63 to 66 and it's I mean we talk about this all the time on this show but nobody has careers like that anymore like the the the not with that much output in that short of time right it's wild it is nuts yeah so okay let's on a happier note do you have a favorite Beach Boy song so I was thinking about that because I was thinking about like what's your favorite song on Pet Sounds um Good Vibrations is not on Pet Sounds but that is I mean from a production standpoint it's pretty amazing I think it was done in like three Studios um like it's like three songs put together so that one always has a you know high ranking for me but songwriting there were there were a couple of pet sounds that blew me away here to day that one was like oh this is amazing you know and I don't know why like I don't know why that one sticks out and there was one other one um I'm waiting for the day those were the two off that album forget you know wouldn't it be nice and I know there's an answer where God Only Knows I'll take those two any day yeah I do love God Only Knows God Only Knows is beautiful also a song I've grown a lot of appreciation for I remember my first exposure to Sloop John B was in fifth grade choir in which I was a soprano uh and I didn't really understand the implications of that but it was like made a big deal that I was a soprano music teacher would always pointed out and I was like yeah so what who cares I'll be a soprano for another four years like I was a Spano for a long time guys uh and then yeah uh but I remember being like this song's really dumb uh so hoist up the John be like why are we and now when I hear it in its original context it's a pretty beautiful song I like it it is now it's like an old folk song isn't it yeah um and here's the other song that I really like on on Pet Sounds I also really like a particular cover of it and I I know you do too so I'm using I'm using this as an excuse to play it right now this is Frank Black's cover of Hang On to Your [Music] [Applause] Ego I know so many people who think can do it alone they isolate their heads and stay in the city but what can you tell them def I mean the hook dude the hook is everything you're right and and it seems like he recorded that twice uh Brian Wilson did right cuz he did hang on to your ego and I know there's an answer he cut it both ways oh yeah yeah he he didn't like hang on to your ego because he thought it was too selfish and then he so I think the album cut on Pet Sounds is I know there's an answer right yeah I think Hang On to Your Ego is actually maybe on the anniversary edition yeah like the like the be side uh yeah I mean any excuse to play Frank Black I will take so so be honest if Murdoch was here would you play Frank black or did you play Frank Black for me Brian uh I don't know man I mean he definitely is a Frank black appreciator as well but I do know that you and I that particular Frank black solo album is something that you and I have had more than one conversation about and celebration of yeah so I mean because it opens with headache right that's is that record or Los Angeles oh okay it's that Angeles no you're right yeah no it's Los Angeles headache is on the other record yeah um oh yeah yeah yeah headache's on on teenager yeah okay uh so um wow this has been a journey thank you for going along with it I'm sorry that like on a on a random evening I'm like just like let's get really depressed talking about let's get heavy man let's get heavy yikes uh if you've got a question uh because that's what this all started with so someone send us an email it's we are the stgu gmail.com on Instagram you can find us at rock and roll bedtime stories you can hit up Murdoch on Twitter at hey it's Murdoch and uh until next time you got to do the heavy lifting here what should people keep doing oh man keep telling stories W nailed was that it was you nailed it you got it you nailed it that was perfect rock and roll bedtime stories is a story guys production the show is produced and edited by Brian ien Berger get more stories hear more podcasts and book the guys for your conference or house party at we are the story guys.com copyright boy have we got stories Productions All rights Reserve [Music]