A Charity That Sends Out Good Vibrations

When the late Carl Wilson wasn’t onstage singing such Beach Boys hits as “God Only Knows” and “Good Vibrations,” he was a dad like many others--enthusiastic and proud of whatever his two sons happened to be involved with.

“He thought everything we did was great,” says 32-year-old Jonah Wilson, Carl’s elder son.

That changed, however, when Jonah’s younger brother, Justyn, decided to pursue a career in music, just before his graduation in 1995 from USC with a degree in communications.

“Until that time, it was like we could do no wrong,” Justyn, 29, said during an interview at a West Hollywood restaurant. “But when it came to music, he said it would be a disservice to me, and to my music, if he wasn’t anything but completely honest. I really appreciated him for that.”

Unlike Murry Wilson, a frustrated musician who by all accounts tormented his sons Brian, Carl and Dennis as they rose to become the most successful American rock band of the 1960s, Carl always coupled his blatant honesty with unwavering support and love, his sons say.

That’s the legacy Jonah and Justyn Wilson aim to honor this weekend with a 5K walk and concert that will raise money for the Carl Wilson Foundation, the organization they set up in 1999 as a way of dealing with their father’s death a year earlier from cancer.

The foundation, which has raised $150,000 to date, disperses money to various groups that aid cancer patients and their families or conduct cancer research. This year’s beneficiaries are the City of Hope, the Silver Lining Foundation (tennis champion Andrea Yeager’s fund to help children with life-threatening illnesses) and the Lester Petrillo Memorial Fund for Disabled Musicians, specifically those with cancer.

Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson and his band will headline Sunday’s concert at the El Rey Theatre, his second appearance playing for the foundation that carries his brother’s name.

Brian’s daughters Carnie and Wendy, of the pop group Wilson Phillips, will appear, as will Chicago’s Robert Lamm, America’s Gerry Beckley, the Honeys and In Bloom, a trio featuring Justyn and Dennis Wilson’s son, Carl, playing drums.

Beach Boys biographers have long painted Carl, the youngest of the three Wilson brothers, as the stabilizing force in the oft-embattled group. He mediated between Brian’s drive for uncompromising artistry, cousin Mike Love’s push for continued commercial success and Dennis Wilson’s freewheeling pursuit of the hedonistic Southern California lifestyle the band’s music often celebrated.

“He was the Rock of Gibraltar of our group,” Brian Wilson said in a separate interview. “But he was very underrated as a singer. He was a great singer.”

Featuring Songs Sung by Carl Wilson

Brian says he’ll play several Beach Boys songs originally sung by Carl, including “God Only Knows,” and “Darlin’,” along with “Lay Down Burden,” a song Brian wrote as a tribute to Carl after his death.

In later years, Carl and Brian had become estranged, a situation that didn’t change when doctors told Carl in 1997 that he had cancer.

“We weren’t very close, you know. I wish I had [mended the relationship],” Brian says.

He has, however, increased his contact with Carl’s children. “We talk now and then, more than we used to,” Brian says.

Carl became so frustrated with the inner wranglings of the Beach Boys at the end of the 1970s that he quit. He released his first solo album, “Carl Wilson,” in 1981, and put out a second, “Youngblood,” two years later.

That was the same year Dennis Wilson drowned while swimming off his boat in Marina del Rey, an accident that stunned the other members of the group and prompted Carl to return to the fold.

Through the ‘90s he also worked on a non-Beach Boys project with Lamm and Beckley, which surfaced last year with the album “Like a Brother” under the Beckley-Lamm-Wilson moniker.

Although Jonah and Justyn also sing their father’s praises as a musician, guitarist, songwriter and producer, both say they still find it hard to hear his music.

“It still hurts that he’s gone,” says Jonah, whose round face is strikingly similar to his father’s. “I have to be in the right place to listen to it.”

Expect the tone of this weekend’s activities, however, to be anything but somber.

“It’s not going to be a downer,” says Justyn. “The great thing about these events in the past has been that people come from all over just to celebrate. There’s a real feel-good mood, which I also think reflects the way people thought of our dad.”

*

The fourth annual Carl Wilson Foundation 5K Walk Against Cancer and benefit concert will be held Sunday. The walk begins at 9 a.m. at the Santa Monica Pier. Registration is $40 for adults, $15 for kids 11-15 and free for those 10 and younger. The concert is Sunday at the El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 7 p.m. $100. Information: (800) 965-4827 or https://www.carlwilsonfoundation.org.