Beach Boy Wilson on New Wave of Success

Brian Wilson, the reclusive Beach Boy who has been credited for much of the celebrated rock group’s success, made a rare public appearance Saturday afternoon at the Hard Rock Cafe in La Jolla.

The occasion was the dedication ceremony of a gold star honoring the group’s contributions to pop music. The three-foot-by-three-foot star, set in black terrazzo, will be embedded in the sidewalk outside the cafe’s front door on the corner of Fay Avenue and Prospect Street.

Cafe officials say the star will be the first in a series to be placed in what will become a “walk of fame.”

Looking fit, trim, and healthy, Wilson, 48, was decidedly out of character. He joked, shook hands, signed autographs, and even posed for photographs next to the star--hardly what you’d expect from the shy introvert he’s long been described to be.

A recluse plagued with drug and alcohol problems during much of the past two decades, Wilson has made a significant comeback in recent years. When his first solo album, titled “Wilson,” came out last year the national rock press went wild, with many critics proclaiming it the best thing he’s done since the Beach Boys’ landmark “Pet Sounds” album in 1966.

He’s currently working on his second solo album, which will feature such prominent guest musicians as Tom Petty, Paula Abdul, Jeff Lynne, and David Lee Roth’s band. It also reportedly will include Wilson’s first rap song, he said.

Recording sessions are scheduled to be completed sometime next month; Warner Brothers Records is hoping to release the record either this fall or next spring.

Wilson has not always appeared so calm and collected. Although he has been appearing in concert with the Beach Boys, including six recent Canadian concerts, he made a surprise appearance last May, when he walked in on a press conference his cousin, Stan Love, had called to discuss a court petition Love filed requesting to become the singer’s conservator.

In his petition, Love claimed that Wilson has been “brainwashed” by a former psychologist who has taken “extensive control” of Wilson’s recording enterprises--and his life.

At the May press conference Wilson angrily denied Love’s claims, telling reporters, “I feel great and my life is back on track. I see who I want to see and I am in charge of my own life.”

Wilson denied those claims again in an interview with The Times immediately following the brief dedication ceremony at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Wilson admitted that Eugene Landy is his songwriting partner, his business partner, his guidance counselor, and his constant companion.

But he reiterated that the former psychologist doesn’t control him; he said he motivates him. And he said it’s been that way right from the very start of their controversial relationship.

“He took the pressure off me--the pressure that had been holding me back, for so many years--and I got going, I started creating and everything,” Wilson said. “It wasn’t just Gene--I also had to motivate myself--but the collaborative effect between he and I gives everything I do a special glow.

“He knows how to get me going, he knows what I’m like--he just knows. He’s my executive producer, the guy who motivates me and comes up with the concept of what I’m doing. I carry it out, and somehow, it works--I don’t know how, but it does.

“And that’s really all there is to it.”

Throughout the interview, Wilson sat sandwiched between Landy and Landy’s mother-in-law. Before answering each question, he turned to Landy, as if for approval.

And on one occasion, Wilson referred to Landy as “my boss,” then quickly corrected himself by saying, ‘He’s not my boss, he’s my teacher.’

Wilson’s comeback has come since he began receiving treatment from Landy in the late 1980s, after nearly two decades of being criticized for mediocre songwriting. During the 1970s and early ‘80s he also made only infrequent live appearances with the Beach Boys and was continually unsuccessful in his attempts to conquer his drug- and alcohol-induced illnesses.

During the past two to three years, Wilson has stepped up his touring schedule with the Beach Boys, playing upwards of 30 dates a year. And he has become sober, thanks, he says, to 24-hour-a-day therapy with Landy.

Wilson appeared pleased with his new projects, and he expressed optimism about his work: “The new album, even at the stage it’s in, is better than the first album,” he said.

“It’s going to be a knockout. I just got done listening to the tracks we’ve cut, and I felt proud. It was a tense moment in my life, because I’m very self-critical about my art and the stuff we (he and Landy) do together, collaborating and everything--it’s quite an endeavor to do that,” Wilson said.

“So it was a very tense moment, but at the same time, it was very beautiful. The first ten minutes of any songwriting are the hardest, but once you get through those ten minutes, once you conquer that original doubt, if you do conquer it, then you can go on, and that makes you feel proud.”

Wilson is also working on his autobiography, which he’s co- writing with People magazine’s Todd Gold. The book’s working title is “Love and Mercy,” and it is scheduled to be published by Harper and Row in the fall of next year.

“I used to be a person who had no ability to communicate with people,” Wilson said. “I was a loser person in life, but now I’m a new person. I’m positive, I burn off positive energy, I give positive music to the people and it works, I’m happy.

“Gene helped me realize that life is not a thankless job, which is what I used to think. Life is giving--in my case, giving music--and that’s your reward, right there.”