Carnie Wilson confesses she used to ‘get butterflies' around uncle, Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson: ‘Mysterious, sexy man'
Hold on. Baby, hold on.
Carnie Wilson says she got 'butterflies' as a teenager when she was around her late uncle, Beach Boys band member Dennis Wilson.
The Wilson Phillips singer, 57, shared her recollections of Dennis on the Wednesday episode of Billy Corgan's podcast, 'The Magnificent Others.'
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'He was always like this mysterious, sexy man, and he was my uncle, but like, I'd get butterflies around him,' said Carnie, who was 15 when Dennis passed away in 1983 at the age of 39. 'He's very handsome. He was very sensitive,' she recalled.
8 Carnie Wilson says she got 'butterflies' as a teenager when she was around her late uncle, Beach Boys band member Dennis Wilson.
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8 Singer Dennis Wilson of American rock band The Beach Boys, during a reception at the Hilton Hotel in London, 18th December 1967.
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Dennis was the middle of the three Wilson brothers who formed the Beach Boys' original lineup. His older brother Brian, Carnie's father, co-founded the legendary California surf rock band in 1961. Their younger brother, Carl, completed the trio of siblings in the group, which would add Mike Love and Al Jardine.
'They all three had big, big talent,' Carnie said of her dad and her uncles.
Dennis suffered from drug and alcohol abuse at the end of his life. He checked in to and out of detox just days before he drowned in the waters off of Marina Del Rey, Calif., in 1983. He was later buried at sea — an honor usually reserved for service members but which was granted by then-President Ronald Reagan, a Beach Boys fan.
8 June 1975: Carl Wilson (1946 – 1998), guitar and vocals, and Dennis Wilson (1944 – 1983), drums, of the American surf group The Beach Boys, performing live.
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8 The Beach Boys in 1964: From left to right, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson (1944 – 1983) and Carl Wilson (1946 – 1998).
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8 'They all three had big, big talent,' Carnie said of her dad and her uncles.
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Dennis' younger brother Carl died in 1998 from lung cancer. He was 51.
'Carl was an amazing writer, amazing singer. He really had such a great sound. He was protective,' Carnie remembered.
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'Dad just wasn't … We just weren't spending time with him. But then he said to us, 'I follow you on the charts every week,' so he was watching [from] behind his door,' the 'Hold On' singer said of her band Wilson Phillips, which she founded with her sister Wendy and Chynna Phillips. 'But Carl was like, 'You guys just have to keep going.''
8 'Carl was an amazing writer, amazing singer. He really had such a great sound. He was protective,' Carnie remembered.
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8 1964: The Beach Boys pose around a dragster in London's West End during a visit to England in 1964 to promote their new single 'When I Grow Up'. From left to right, Carl Wilson (1946 – 1998), Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson (1944 – 1983) Mike Love and Al Jardine.
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8 (L-R) Melinda Ledbetter (who passed away in January 2024), Brian Wilson and Carnie Wilson on June 2, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California.
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Carnie confessed, 'I miss him very much. I think about him all the time, and I have pictures around my house and I feel his spirit a lot. And my dad really misses his brothers, like a lot.'
In 1993, Carl provided background vocals for Carnie and Wendy, 55, on their 1993 Christmas album 'Hey Santa!'
Carnie also spoke about her dad Brian, who — in addition to losing his wife Melinda in January 2024 — is under a court-ordered conservatorship due to what legal filings listed as a 'major neurocognitive disorder (such as dementia).'
'I'm so proud of him for being the survivor he is and the contribution to music,' she said. 'I don't want to cry, but his contribution is so beautiful and the layers of all his music is so beautiful, and what I want people to understand is he is so grateful. He is so grateful to the people that love his music and the lives that he's touched and he's aware of it all.'
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