>LIKE BRIAN WILSON SAID . . .

Excerpts from the memoir I Am Brian Wilson:

The Barenaked Ladies song “Brian Wilson” “I didn’t know about it until the guys in the band brought it to rehearsal. It was a song about a guy who is trying to write a song and can’t, and he compares himself to me when I was under the treatment of Dr. Landy. In the song, the guy has a dream that he gets up to 300 pounds and then starts floating until the ground is so far away that he can’t see it anymore. I never had that dream, but I was cool with playing the song if we did a good job.” Don Henley The Eagles frontman was backstage with an original copy of Pet Sounds and asked Wilson to sign the record. “I wrote on his record, ‘To Don: thanks for all the great songs. Brian Wilson.’ Don was so grateful. It was almost like he couldn’t talk. He turned to leave. ‘Hey Don,’ I said. ‘Wait a second.’ I took the record back, crossed out ‘great’ and wrote ‘good.’ Some people would have been mad, but Don just looked at it and laughed.” Mike Love “Mike had a funny way of looking at things. He was always an aggressive person . . . The day Mike came to dinner and I was working on That Lucky Old Sun, we went out to the car. I had written a song called ‘Mexican Girl,’ which is probably the best song ever written about a Mexican girl. I played it for Mike and asked him if he would want to work on the lyrics. ‘I could make it 25 per cent better, but I don’t want to,’ he said. ‘If we do anything, I want to start from scratch.’ There were times that would have made me sad or angry, but in the car it only made me laugh a little. Mike was Mike. You can’t wallow in the mire.” Bono “I was at the Ivor Novello Awards once and a young guy came up to me. ‘Brian, Brian,’ he said. ‘Hey man,’ I said, ‘can you score me a Diet Coke?’ It was Bono. I didn’t know him that well.” Elvis Presley “I met him once in a studio. He was down the hall. I heard that he liked karate and I did some moves, but he didn’t seem impressed.” Magic Johnson “If I’m not at home, I still try to walk. There are parks and beaches everywhere. In Maui once I came up a path and someone else was coming the other way. It was Magic Johnson. ‘Hi Brian,’ he said. I waved, saying ‘Hey, Magic.’ I kept walking. I had season’s tickets to the Lakers back then, so I knew I would see him again.”