Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis.

This is a story about the quiet one, the genius in the bathrobe, the savant, the ghost,

and it's a story about murder, about theft, about manipulation. It's a story about the cost of music,

and the way a sound can save a person and the way it can drown them, too.

It's about the beach boys, yes, but it's also about the wave that never stops pulling.

And this is a story about love and mercy and about family,

and the violent cracks that split these things apart.

It's about the man who made pet sounds,

and it's about the people who nearly destroyed him for it.

People who medicated him, isolated him,

rewrote his contracts, manipulated his mind, and stole his future.

It's about a murder that marked his descent,

a theft that changed his legacy,

and a manipulation so complete, it turned a fragile artist into a legal hostage. It's a story about Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, a man who made great music. Unlike that loop I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great

music. That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Pick and Cass forever. I played you that loop

because I can't afford the rights to Monday Monday by the Mamas and the Pappas. And why would I play you that specific slice of your mother's Laurel Canyon cheese,

could I afford it?

Because that was the number one song in America on May 16, 1966,

and that was the day Brian Wilson's Beach Boys released pet sounds and changed the course of pop music forever.

On this episode, murder, theft, manipulation, love and mercy, and the broken beauty of Brian Wilson.

I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. The surfboard hit Brian Wilson's head so hard that it brought on total blackness.

But when he opened his eyes under the wave, the salt brought a sharp sting.

...