Join The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson on an intimate journey through his legendary career as he reminisces with Rolling Stone editor and long-time friend, Jason Fine. Featuring a new song,” Right Where I Belong,” written and performed by Wilson and Jim James (My Morning Jacket), and interviews with Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Jonas, Linda Perry, Jim James, Gustavo Dudamel, Al Jardine, and more.
Speaking about the project, director Brent Wilson (no relation) reflects on his introduction to the Beach Boys, the band’s impact on his early life, and the desire to produce this film;
‘Truly great artists have a way of making their art feel as if they were created specifically for you. Brian Wilson has perfectly executed this magic trick for over 60-years and for millions of fans around the world. Including me.
It was the summer of 78; I was 9-years old and just lost my father to an accident. On my journey to discover more about my father, I began to explore his massive record collection. There were hundreds of albums from the great singers and acts of the 60s and 70s, but on that day, one record, in particular, caught my attention. The album cover was a photo of a group of guys standing around a hot rod.
I didn’t know who these clean-cut guys in their matching jackets were, but to me, they looked like the coolest cats in the world. As I dropped the needle on the album’s first track, I heard the sounds of a car revving up, and the words…‘Tach it up, tach it up, Buddy’s gonna shut you down.’ Could there ever have been a greater intro to a song? This was Brian Wilson’s 1963 hit, “Shut Down” for his group The Beach Boys, and in an instant I discovered the power of a song, and specifically a Brian Wilson song, to speak directly to your soul. You see, my father was a weekend drag racer and his name was Buddy. As I dug deeper into the Beach Boys catalog, my connection to Brian was reinforced in a more traditional way.
Like so many others before me (including Bruce Springsteen and Jim James, I would later learn) it was Brian’s dreamlike prayer, “In My Room” that fully convinced me that somehow, someway, no one knew me better than Brian Wilson. Many albums, concerts, and years later, being a thread in the legacy of Brian Wilson is now one of the great privileges of my life. My partners and I set out to tell Brian’s story in a way that had never been done before. With so many books, documentaries and films already out; I knew this was an almost impossible goal. I needed our film to feel personal and intimate, but not be a hagiography. I needed music to be at the heart, but with so many hits, I also wanted something new for the ear. Most importantly, Brian Wilson is an icon as famous for being Brian Wilson as he is being Brian Wilson, and I needed to bridge that gap between myth and reality. For me, that’s what Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road has done.”
The movie, in Theaters and on VOD from November 19, 2021, has been selected for the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.
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