Co-founding The Beach Boys in 1961, Brian Wilson helped elevate pop music to an art form. By the middle of the decade, Wilson had penned more than two dozen Top 40 hits, including “I Get Around” and “Good Vibrations.” Suffering from dementia following the January 2024 death of his wife, Melinda Ledbetter, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer died 17 months later at age 82. Eight weeks later, the legendary songwriter’s family laid him to rest. Now his daughter, singer Carnie Wilson, is reflecting on her dad’s legacy.
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Carnie Wilson Says Dad Brian Wilson “Can Hear and See” Her
Although estranged off and on for years when she was younger, Carnie Wilson and her late father, Brian Wilson, had reconciled by his death in June 2025.
Following her dad’s Aug. 6 burial service, the Wilson Phillips co-founder, 57, shared a heartfelt message on her Instagram account.
Posting a picture of a vibrantly colored floral arrangement, Carnie Wilson admitted that laying her father to arrest was “incredibly difficult.”
“[But at the same time it gave more closure and more of a feeling of restful peace,” she wrote. The last eight weeks have been extremely challenging and like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I love and miss him so much and I wish he could come back. There’s so many signs that he gives me every day and I know that he’s around …he can hear me and he can see me. He makes that apparent. I’m so grateful for this.”
The TV personality pointed to “a couple of monarch butterflies” who refused to leave the burial site as evidence of her father’s continued presence.
“It was comforting and beautiful,” she continued. “I’m trying to deal with my emotions -they’re so up and down. I know that he would want everybody to feel happy and not sad. He didn’t like it when I cried.”
Wilson died June 11 after experiencing respiratory arrest at his Beverly Hills home. A year before his death, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge had placed Wilson under a legal conservatorship following his wife’s death.
Knowing that she isn’t alone in grieving her father, Carnie Wilson wrote, “Thank you Daddy for your beautiful contribution to so much happiness and real raw emotions that you have brought to people. Thank you to all the beautiful loving and supportive fans out there for honoring him. We share this together. God knows what we’d be without him. Love, Carnie.”
Featured image by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
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