Beach Boys' Brian Wilson's cause of death revealed

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Brian Wilson’s cause of death has been revealed, two weeks after he died at the age of 82.

According to his death certificate, the Beach Boys legend died of respiratory arrest, which occurs when breathing stops while the heart is still beating, according to the Merck Manual. TMZ was the first to report the news.

Sepsis and cystitis were also listed as contributing factors, as well as chronic respiratory failure and chronic kidney disease, neurodegenerative disorder and obstructive sleep apnea.

According to the death report, an autopsy was not performed.

Wilson’s family posted news of his death to his website and social media accounts earlier this month.

“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” they shared on Instagram. “We are at a loss for words right now.”

Last year, a judge ruled that Wilson should be in a court conservatorship to manage his personal and medical decisions after the death of his wife, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, who was instrumental in looking after him.

A doctor’s declaration said Wilson had a “major neurocognitive disorder,” was taking medication for dementia, and was “unable to properly provide for his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter.”

In a report, Robert Frank Cipriano, an attorney appointed by the court to represent Wilson’s interests, said the musician acknowledged the need for the conservatorship.

Cipriano’s report to the court said he visited Wilson at his “impeccably well maintained residence in Beverly Hills,” where he lived with two of his seven children and a long-term live-in caregiver.

Wilson was able to move around with help from a walker and the caregiver, Cipriano said, and at the time had a good sense of who he was, where he was, and time, but he was unable to name his children beyond the two that lived with him.

Wilson co-founded the Beach Boys with his brothers Dennis and Carl, along with their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine in the early 1960s. 

At their start, the Hawthorne, Calif., natives became fan favourites thanks to their pop vocal harmonies and breezy rock ‘n’ roll energy. Wilson elevated the ensemble in the studio with his mercurial musical arrangements and creative choices that helped them evolve during the ’60s and ’70s as it ushered in what became known as the California Sound.

But after their meteoric rise, Wilson suffered a series of nervous breakdowns that forced him to stop touring with the quintet. 

In an interview with Postmedia last year, Love, who was the band’s chief lyricist, said that Wilson’s decision to step away from the road and focus on their studio output allowed the Beach Boys to achieve music immortality. To this day, he still leads the group on the road with new musicians having been brought into the fold.

“The power of the music to create happiness is amazing. The biggest blessing of my life is that I can still sing the lead on the songs … That partnership we created, my cousin Brian and I, with the lyrics and the harmonies, it’s like a reincarnation every time we step onstage,” he said. “There are thousands of people rocking out and singing to our songs. The power of that music to create happiness is amazing. And the words I wrote are being communicated with the musical tracks that my cousin Brian conceived of and recorded.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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