al Jardine, a founding member of the Beach Boys, recently recounted his last encounter with Brian Wilson, his longtime friend and bandmate. In an interview, Jardine shared that he visited Wilson at his home in May. Wilson, who passed away at 82, greeted Jardine with a surprising statement: “You started the group.” Jardine’s full reflections will be featured on an upcoming podcast.

Jardine responded with a laugh, “Yeah, you helped. You were part of it too!” He elaborated,”But he is not wrong,because we bumped into each other on campus and I said,’We’ve gotta start a band. We gotta start a group, Brian.’ And he remembered that.” This acknowledgment from Wilson offered Jardine a sense of closure, affirming his role in the Beach Boys’ formation.

Despite Wilson’s health challenges, Jardine had hoped for his recovery. “I thought he was gonna get better,” Jardine said. “He had blood-oxygen-level problems, but his oxygen was coming back.”

Ultimately, according to Jardine, Wilson “just wore out… He went peacefully, in sleep, and I’m grateful for that.”

Jardine had previously joined wilson’s solo band for a Pet Sounds tour in 2006 and began touring with him regularly in 2012. He recalled, “My first show was at UCLA, and I got a standing ovation just walking out on stage. And I’m going, ‘Holy cow. This feels like the old days, you know, the old Beach Boy days.And so we instantly kicked in where we left off.”

leading up to Wilson’s final performance in 2022, Jardine noticed a decline. “The last tour, he was quite reticent,” Jardine noted. “He didn’t have the get up and go. He was just kind of slumped over the piano a little bit and not really engaging. So we noticed that, and finally we realized something’s amiss here.” Jardine believes that Wilson’s health declined considerably after contracting Covid: “That was the end of it. He never came back after that.”

“He invented the Beach Boys and he invented a style of music…He could do anything, and each time it was a joy.”

Jardine is currently preparing for his own tour with members of Wilson’s solo band, with hopes that Wilson could have joined for a show. The tour will feature Beach Boys hits and lesser-known tracks, including those from the 1977 album The Beach Boys Love You. “I was hoping he’d be ther to approve,” Jardine said.

Jardine emphasized Wilson’s remarkable talent, calling him “beyond” a genius. “He invented the Beach Boys and he invented a style of music,” he stated. “A style of putting eight notes together in a different way. He could do anything, and each time it was a joy to hear his arrangement of something as simple as ‘Surfer Girl.’ writer, arranger, producer, singer – all five of those things. And he left us with the best repertoire for the rest of our lives to re-record,re-sing,replay.”