Brian Wilson has died at the age of 82. The announcement was made by Wilson's family on his Instagram page.

Wilson wrote all of the Beach Boys' many hits and was considered one of the great pop songwriters alongside the Beatles in the 1960s.

Born in Inglewood, California, Brian Douglas Wilson formed the band—then called the Pendletones—as a teenager with his brothers, Dennis and Carl, their cousin Mike Love, and high school friend Al Jardine. Their first song, “Surfin’,” was released by Candix Records, who changed the band’s name to the Beach Boys without the members’ permission. A year later, the band signed with Capitol to release its debut, Surfin’ Safari; the following year, “Surfin’ U.S.A.” became the Beach Boys’ first U.S. Top 10 single. In 1963, the band released three albums: Surfin’ U.S.A., Surfer Girl, and Little Deuce Coupe...

In 1964, Brian Wilson decided to stop touring with the Beach Boys after experiencing a panic attack due to the band’s heavy schedule. He focused on his production, and, in 1965, started work on the landmark experimental pop album Pet Sounds. Wilson was the mastermind behind the Pet Sounds sessions, working alongside famed studio musicians the Wrecking Crew. At the time of its release, Pet Sounds was considered a relative commercial flop and critical failure. In 2004, it was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry due to its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

Pet Sounds was considered his masterpiece.

In both 2003 and 2020, Rolling Stone ranked “Pet Sounds” No. 2 on its list of the greatest albums of all time. (No. 1 was the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 2003, Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” in 2020.)

The LP was one volley in a celebrated creative rivalry between the Beach Boys and the Beatles. The producer George Martin later attested that “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the Beatles’ landmark 1967 album, “never would have happened” if not for “Pet Sounds.”

“It was ‘Pet Sounds’ that blew me out of the water,” Paul McCartney once said. “I figure no one is educated musically ’til they’ve heard that album.”

His plans for an ambitions follow-up album called Smile collapsed and weren't completed until decades later. By this time in the late 60s he was struggling with addiction and depression connected to a troubled childhood.

Despite the Beach Boys' soaring popularity and continued success on the charts, Wilson started to succumb to various mental instabilities brought on by depression over deafness in his right ear, an unofficial musical rivalry with the Beatles, the relentless nature of being on tour and what PEOPLE described later, in 1975, as "the excesses of the '60s," Wilson became a "victim of his own genius." Years later, after continued mental decline and increased self-destructive behavior, he went into reclusion after his father's death in June 1973.

In 1991, Wilson told PEOPLE his father's abuse and a "two-by-four [he hit him with] caused deafness in my right ear,'' adding that his ''childhood and adolescence were very sad times in my life, because I always had to turn my head to hear things, trying to imagine where those voices were coming from.''

With the help of psychologist Eugene Landy, Wilson eventually made a brief comeback in 1976, helping produce the album, The Beach Boys Love You, before falling back into another years-long depression fueled by drugs and alcohol...

"I've been through a great deal of mental anguish," Wilson told PEOPLE. "I felt like a fat slob. It was very embarrassing. I used to go onstage and it was scary. Now I'm getting used to it. I feel a little more confidence in myself." He added that through therapy, "I had to learn to get off a lot of bad stuff."

His relationship with psychologist Eugene Landy became the stuff of music industry legend.

Mr. Landy portrayed himself as a surrogate parent helping Mr. Wilson rebuild his life. “I’m the good father,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1983. “I’m re-parenting the way he perceives life.”

Mr. Landy’s techniques raised eyebrows, but in Mr. Wilson’s case they seemed effective. When the singer made the press rounds in 1988 for his first solo album, “Brian Wilson,” he appeared fit, energetic and focused. Mr. Wilson, and the band, credited Mr. Landy with a lifesaving turnaround.

Yet the extent of Mr. Landy’s control over his patient, and his involvement in Mr. Wilson’s career, drew concern among Mr. Wilson’s family and people in the music industry. The two men started a business partnership, called Brains and Genius, that allowed Mr. Landy — who charged Mr. Wilson as much as $35,000 a month and drove a Maserati bearing the license plate “HEADOC” — to draw profits from Mr. Wilson’s recordings, films and other ventures.

Mr. Landy was the executive producer of “Brian Wilson,” and he and his girlfriend, Alexandra Morgan, shared songwriting credits with Mr. Wilson on some tracks. Mr. Wilson said he even modified his will to make Mr. Landy its primary beneficiary.

Eventually, California investigated and Landy surrendered his license in 1989. Wilson's family then got a court order keeping Landy away from Brian.

Wilson was also involved in several lawsuits over royalties. He sued to get his music back and was sued by his ex-wife and his former bandmate Mike Love who eventually won co-writing credit on many of the early hits.

Wilson's second wife, Melinda Ledbetter, who he married in 1995, died last January. The family then set up a conservatorship to care for Wilson. He has two children from his first marriage and adopted five children in his second marriage.

What people will really remember about Brian Wilson is the great songs he wrote. I was lucky enough to see him perform back in 2017 along with original Beach Boys member Al Jardine. It really is something to listen to 90-minutes of music and know every word to every song. It's impossible to pick one favorite so I'll pick three.