The Bizarre True Story Of the Beach Boys’ Connection to Charles Manson

The 1960s were a roaring time of cultural revolution, with new social movements forming in response to the Vietnam war and other world events. Sexual freedom, drug experimentation, and musical expression was huge across America, especially out in California, which had adopted a laidback, free spirit lifestyle. The hippie movement began in the ‘60s, and while the general outlook was peace and love, that doesn’t mean every person regarded those values.

California in the ‘60s also experienced terrible tragedies, one of which was the Manson Family Murders, where at least nine people were killed at the hands of members of what was believed to be a hippie commune. After being released from prison in 1967, Charles Manson settled in San Francisco and began recruiting women to live with him. Just two years later, the group turned into a criminal cult with over 30 confirmed members, living at the now-infamous Spahn Ranch.

An aspiring musician, Manson was determined to make it big as a singer-songwriter, one of the many ways he charmed his followers—on top of the heavy drug use and manipulation. And this nearly came to fruition when befriending Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys.

How Dennis Wilson and the Manson Family Met

As recalled in the new Netflix docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes, getting involved with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson was a happy accident for Manson. One day in April 1968, Wilson picked up two hitchhikers, who ended up being Manson Family members Patricia Krenwinkel and Ella Jo Bailey. This led to Manson and his followers showing up at Wilson’s home in Pacific Palisades soon after.

“I think [Manson and Wilson] must have hit it off,” former Manson Family member Dianne Lake shared in the 2020 docuseries Helter Skelter: An American Myth. “Charlie was teaching Dennis how to play the guitar and Dennis welcomed Charlie and us girls into his home, and we would take his Rolls Royce and go dumpster diving.”

Though their meeting was anything but conventional, Manson and Wilson became friends, spending a lot of time together playing music and taking psychedelic drugs. Just days after meeting, per the Washington Post, the Manson Family even moved into Wilson’s home. The same friendship wasn’t shared with other members of the Beach Boys, however, who found Manson to be creepy. Singer Mike Love later recalled one bizarre night during a 2017 interview that included a naked dinner and acid.

“Dennis was enthralled by him at one time, and it didn’t hurt that Charlie Manson came with this group of girls -- young girls, who were very enamored with Charlie, and looked up to him as a leader,” Love explained to ABC News.

Manson’s friendship with Wilson came with a lot of doors opening career-wise, and he felt like real opportunity was in front of him. That all crumbled, though, when the drummer decided it was finally time to move on from the Manson Family. The catalyst for this decision came when Manson pulled a knife on Wilson’s team at the studio, and it all escalated from there.

Charles Manson’s Beach Boys Song

As told in the recent Netflix docuseries, Manson had been working on a song called “Cease to Exist” at this time, and eventually sold it to Wilson. But Manson was shocked when later that year, the Beach Boys released a song titled “Never Learn Not to Love”—a tweaked version of the song with new lyrics—and he was not credited.

“He didn’t want that,” Wilson told Rolling Stone in a 1971 interview when asked why he didn’t credit Manson. “He wanted money instead. I gave him about a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of stuff.”

But more so than the writing credits, Manson was enraged over the changed lyrics to the song—a song Mike Love later claimed the Beach Boys had no idea came from the cult leader. Manson even went as far as to place a bullet on Wilson’s bed as a threat, something he discussed years later during an interview for the 2017 ABC documentary Truth and Lies: The Family Manson.

“I gave Dennis Wilson a bullet, didn’t I? I gave him a bullet because he changed the words to my song,” Manson told Diane Sawyer.

Eventually, the Manson Family’s association with the Beach Boys fizzled out, and just over a year later, in August 1969, the tragic Tate–LaBianca murders took place. The five responsible—Manson, Tax Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten—were each convicted and given life sentences without parole (originally death sentences but updated in 1972 when the death penalty was abolished in California). Manson died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83.

Looking back to 1968, Love told ABC News that Manson was “the worst thing that could possibly happen” to the Beach Boys.

“You know, it’s just an unfortunate episode that happened because of one of our group members, one of our family members unknowingly invited Satan into our midst,” he added.