The Beach Boys story includes member whose roots began in Peoria, Illinois
Brian Wilson, the musical genius at the center of the iconic surf band The Beach Boys, died on Wednesday, closing a large and important chapter in the band's incredible legacy. He was 82.
Another chapter includes a Grammy Award winner whose own story began in Peoria, Illinois.
Bruce Johnston, 82, was born in Peoria in 1942 and "kept for just a few weeks at the Crittenton Home in West Peoria, then a haven for unwed mothers," according to a 2009 Journal Star story. After a few weeks, Johnston was adopted by William and Irene Johnston of Chicago, who then soon took their new family to Los Angeles.
Johnston still tours with The Beach Boys, along with co-founder and front man Mike Love and guitarist Al Jardine. They have shows planned this weekend in New York and will be at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois, on Sept. 5.
The Beach Boys last played in Peoria in 2016. In 2009, Johnston told the Journal Star that he had worked with Crittenton Centers to find some of his family with roots in Peoria. "I was able to track down my family. Very cool," Johnston said of finding half-siblings in Georgia. "It was a good thing."
Johnston's time with The Beach Boys began in 1965, one year after Wilson stopped touring with the band.
The move allowed Wilson to focus on studio work — where in 1966 he created the band's masterpiece "Pet Sounds," what brittanica.com calls a 1966 "bittersweet pastiche of songs recalling the pangs of unrequited love and other coming-of-age trials." It was said to have inspired The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Clubs Band," released in 1967.
Johnston briefly left the band in 1972, but returned in 1978. While solo, Johnston won a Grammy Award for writing the Barry Manilow hit "I Write The Songs."
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria-born Bruce Johnston joined Brian Wilson-led Beach Boys in 1965
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