Q: You and Van Dyke Parks worked together almost ten years ago on a record called Orange Crate Art. But that was different.

A: Yeah. Orange Crate Art was a departure from anything I’d ever done. It was really quite an interesting album.

Q: And that was because you were -- you were the singer and Van Dyke had made this record and kind of brought you to it. You didn’t have to be the big boss at that point.

A: Right, exactly.

Q: It’s a wonderful record, by the way, listeners, Orange Crate Art, is the collaboration with Van Dyke and Brian that came out, I think, about ten years ago. About 19 --

A: So go out and buy Orange Crate Art, everybody. Go out and buy Orange Crate Art (laughs).

Q: And go out and get Smile, although we’re going to give you a little bit more of that. The DVD that’s coming out, Beautiful Dreamer, it has a lot more than the original TV show, doesn’t it?

A: Yeah, it has a lot more; much more than the original, yeah.

Q: Does it have the -- is there going to be the concert itself? Like, one of the England shows?

A: On the DVD?

Q: Yeah.

A: Yeah.

Q: Oh, wow. I’ve seen the TV show, but --

A: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Is that true?

Q: Not the whole thing, but parts of it.

A: Parts of it, right. Parts of it.

Q: New interviews and stuff...David Leaf assembled the documentary. Is it kind of strange when people know as much or more about you than you do yourself?

A: Well, he knows more about me than I know about myself and it really kind of embarrasses me a little bit. But I -- I really admire what he did. I really like what he did.

Q: It’s a -- it’s a wonderful piece of work that David did. You know, we were talking a little bit about Surf’s Up and that you performed that with Leonard Bernstein. I know some of the Beach Boys have made comments about the lyrics. To me, this is one of the most glorious pieces of music ever, the way it touches your soul. That’s what love sounds like. Brian, that’s another of the Smile songs that actually came out by the Beach Boys. Was it Brother Carl who sang it on the album Surf’s Up?

Q: I mean, to me, that is the sound of love. I do not know what Surf’s Up, the lyrics, mean, but I don’t feel like I have to. I like it to just wash over me. Do you do you have a meaning in mind when you sing it?

A: Surf’s Up?

Q: Yeah.

A: I want people to feel loved, feel like -- a good feeling, a good feeling of love.

Q: You accomplished that! I mean, that’s what Surf’s Up is. It just feels like the whole world is opening up and embracing.

A: Right. Exactly.

Q: It’s such a good feeling. When you compose at the piano, what do you look at, where you live? Do you have like -- do you get an ocean view?

A: No, I have a view of my purple drapes in my music room. I look at my purple, purple drapes while I write songs.

Q: Gives you room for your mind to wander, I bet.

A: Yeah, it does; really does.

Q: Something that maybe a lot of people don’t know is that you’re deaf in your right ear.

A: Yeah, I can’t hear out of it. It really hangs me up. I wish I could hear stereophonic hearing, but I just have the one ear – left ear.

Q: But maybe if you didn’t have that -- maybe that contributes somehow to the way you give us this music from your soul. I don’t know. It’s got to be a good thing, somehow.

A: It’s good for my soul and it’s good for everybody (laugh).

Q: If it’s good for your soul, it is good for everyone, because this music has affected so many millions of people with so much love and light.

A: It gives people good vibrations.

Q: Yeah. And there were so many years you weren’t on the road. You wouldn’t see the faces of people. Now, you’ve been on the road a lot.

A: Yeah, I have been. And I see people in the audience and I just love people.

Q: And they love you. I guess, you came back on the road shortly after you remarried. You got married about 10 years ago?

A: Yeah.

Q: And your wife, Melinda, is someone we have to thank for your --

A: For my solo career, yeah. For my concert career, yeah. I thank her very much.

Q: It’s so ironic that you left the Beach Boys in '64 because you didn’t want to be on the road and now you’re on the road all the time.

A: Right, exactly.

Q: How about your -- you have three -- three young children?

A: Yes. A daughter, eight; a daughter, seven; and a little baby boy, one.

Q: So when you go out on the road, do you get to take your family with you?

A: No, we don’t take the kids with us on the road.

Q: It would be a lot to --

A: Yeah, it would be too much, too much for us to do.

Q: And you are going back to Europe before too long?

A: Yeah, yeah.

Q: Are you going to do the Smile show in Europe?

A: No, we’re not going to do the Smile show this time. We’re going to do Beach Boy songs and Brian Wilson songs.

Q: Be a chance to play some of those songs from Gettin’ in Over My Head.

A: We’ll probably do a few of those, too.

Q: Which is the album that Brian put out pretty close in time to Smile. And that was a new solo album for Brian. And Smile, of course, is the masterpiece that we’ve looked forward to for so many years. We talked a little bit about you hearing Strawberry Fields on the radio. And people talk about the fact that you were competitive with the Beatles and --

A: When I heard Strawberry Fields, I said, “I’ve got to do something really great too.” Yeah, I really did.

Q: Were you a competitive guy like in school?

A: No. In athletics, I was, but I wasn’t as a person, no.

Q: What songs did you grow up hearing on the radio?

A: Oh, gosh, Rock Around the Clock, Come Go With Me, Over the Mountain, stuff like that.

Q: And that inspired you. Did you ever take voice lessons?

A: No, I never did. I’m a self-taught singer.

Q: And how did you learn to do these arrangements of voices?

A: I learned just by practicing, by practicing on the piano.

Q: That’s got to be something that was in your soul, because --

A: It is in my soul.

Q: -- so many of us could practice for ten lifetimes and we wouldn’t --

A: Right.

Q: -- we would not get there. The lyrics for Smile were written by Van Dyke Parks. Many of the lyrics for Pet Sounds were done by Tony Asher.

A: Right.

Q: Do you ever write your own lyrics? You do, sometimes, write your --

A: I write my own lyrics a lot, yeah. I have a lot.

Q: It’s odd that these two projects, though, you had a major collaborator.

A: Right.

Q: And it worked out fine. But when you sing the songs from Pet Sounds and Smile, by this point, those songs are coming from your heart anyway, those words?

A: They all come from my heart, yeah, they all do.

Q: Brian Wilson has been our guest today. Smile is the legendary album that’s finally being heard and being received the way it should be. And as Brian said, he doesn’t think it would have been heard that way if it had some out originally. So it’s -- it’s a big blessing. The thing is, wherever we are, wherever we go, we can always take Brian Wilson with us in all the love and the music and the melodies that you gave us. So thank you, Brian.

A: Thank you. And I’d like to send -- say good-bye with some Good Vibrations. Bye-bye!