Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys co-founder who masterminded the group's decades-long popularity and soundtracked the California dream, has died.
The statement on Instagram did not give a cause of death for the 82-year-old. Wilson was placed under a legal conservatorship last year due to a "major neurocognitive disorder."
"We are at a loss for words right now," said his family. "We realise that we are sharing our grief with the world."
The pop visionary crafted hits whose success rivalled The Beatles throughout the 1960s, a seemingly inexhaustible string of feel-good tracks including Surfin' USA, I Get Around, Fun, Fun, Fun and Surfer Girl that made the Beach Boys America's biggest selling band.
Wilson didn't surf but his prodigious pen and genius ear allowed him to fashion the boundary-pushing soundscape of beachside paradise.
His lush productions were revered among his peers, with even Bob Dylan once telling Newsweek: "That ear - I mean, Jesus, he's got to will that to the Smithsonian!"
But after five years of extraordinary songwriting, in which he produced 200 odes to sun and surfing, Wilson sank into a deep, drug-fuelled depression for decades.
He would emerge 35 years later to complete the Beach Boys' unfinished album, Smile - widely regarded as a masterpiece.
It was to be the follow-up to the majestic Pet Sounds, but life got in the way.
Pet Sounds was released in 1966 and is clearly Wilson's greatest achievement and widely regarded as one the greatest albums ever made.
Even now - nearly 60 years later - it is considered an impressive piece of work.
Although it's credited to The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson stayed at home and in the studio, writing, arranging and producing while the rest of the band toured.
It was a groundbreaking collection of introspective and reflective songs that marked a maturity for Wilson, and a band previously known for upbeat songs about surfing and having fun.
The track listing included classic tunes such as God Only Knows, You Still Believe In Me, Sloop John B, I Guess I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, Wouldn't It Be Nice and Caroline, No.
'Surfin' USA'
Beatle John Lennon said he considered Pet Sounds to be one of the best albums of all time, while Paul McCartney said Wilson was a "genius" - who reduced him to tears with one song from the album, God Only Knows, which Wilson apparently wrote in 45 minutes.
Its melancholic depths hinted at Wilson's own painful secret.
Born on 20 June 1942 in a Los Angeles suburb, Wilson found music as a haven of safety and joy after an upbringing in which he suffered abuse from his domineering father, who would go on to manage the group.
Music was his protection, and The Beach Boys was a family affair: he formed the band with his two brothers Dennis and Carl, his cousin Mike Love and neighbour Al Jardine.
Wilson did all the songwriting, arranging and sang and played bass guitar; his bandmates just had to sing in harmony.
Their first song Surfin, in 1961, was a loose prototype for the unique sound that would become their signature, a fusion of the rock styles of Chuck Berry and Little Richard with the preppy vocal harmonies of barbershop quartet The Four Freshmen.
By late 1962, there was hardly a teen who did not know them thanks to the eternal ode to youthful nonchalance, Surfin' USA.
Lost youth
But Wilson was ill at ease on stage and initially did not like recording studios. In 1964 he had a panic attack on a plane to France, after which he stopped touring.
He was deaf in his right ear and his mouth sagged when he sang - the result of the many beatings he received from his father.
"It was tough. My dad was quite the slave driver," Wilson told Rolling Stone magazine in 2018.
"He made us mow the lawn and when we were done, he'd say, 'Mow it again.'
The Beach Boys' early songs spoke of simple joys and innocence.
But Wilson's writing became darker as he began to eulogise lost youth.
He channelled the group towards the more psychedelic rock central to the hippie culture taking hold in California.
In 1966 he brought out Good Vibrations, a song recorded in four different studios that consumed over 90 hours of tape and included multiple keys, textures, moods and instrumentations.
The single topped the charts and sold one million copies in the United States, but Wilson was at the brink.
In 1967, his mental health deteriorated, worn down by his enormous workload and his wild consumption of drugs.
He abandoned Smile, planted his grand piano in a sandbox, and took vast quantities of LSD and acid.
Eventually diagnosed as schizophrenic, Wilson began hearing voices and thought the famed "Wall of Sound" producer Phil Spector was spying on him and stealing his work.
The Beach Boys eventually parted ways.
'Gentlest revolutionary'
The troubled artist had long stints of rehab and relapses as well as legal issues including a lengthy, eyebrow-raising relationship with a controlling psychotherapist who was eventually blocked by a court order from contact with Wilson.
The artist credits his marriage to former model Melinda Ledbetter as helping him to rebuild his life. He revived and finished Smile, releasing it in 2004.
His brother Dennis drowned in 1983, while Carl died of cancer in 1998.
Brian occasionally joined The Beach Boys as they toured for decades from the late 1970s onwards, but Brian still had some unfinished business.
He also enjoyed a solo career, most notably with the eponymous Brian Wilson album - which included Love and Mercy, which became his signature solo song.
Last year Wilson's family successfully pursued a legal conservatorship following the death of Melinda, with his longtime manager and publicist being put in charge of his affairs.
Wilson's seven children were consulted by the conservators regarding major health decisions as a stipulation of the agreement.
The musician's many accolades included a Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, when that committee dubbed him "rock and roll's gentlest revolutionary".
"There is real humanity in his body of work," they said, "vulnerable and sincere, authentic and unmistakably American."
Actor John Cusack - who played Brian Wilson in the biopic Love and Mercy - summed Wilson up in a social media post after the news of his death broke.
"The maestro has passed - the man was a open heart with two legs - with an ear that heard the angels. Quite literally. Love and Mercy for you and yours tonight. RIP Brian."
Source: AFP, with additional content from John Byrne.
