2. Brian Wilsons Mental Health Was Declining
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31pCY1uDRzY As the sixties progressed and the success of the Beach Boys grew, Brian Wilsons mental health declined. He placed his piano in a sandpit in his house, and had a giant tent put up in his living room He became convinced that Phil Spector and his father, Murry, were both spying on him, and as a result he insisted on holding business meetings in his swimming pool in the middle of the night. His paranoia most famously took hold during the recording of the Fire section of SMiLE. After lighting a small blaze in the studio to enhance the songs vibe, he became convinced that the music they were recording was responsible for starting a number of actual fires in the immediate neighbourhood. He started hearing voices LSD-induced auditory hallucinations and at one point he even called these his heroes and villains, possibly in reference to the SMiLE song and 1967 Single. His mental health was also not helped by hearing Strawberry Fields Forever, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Its said he heard the song while driving, pulled over and
told his friend Michael Vosse that The Beatles had got there first. He started to believe that SMiLE could never top what The Beatles had already done, so why bother finishing it?