Brian Wilson (Casey Curry, Invision/AP)

How Brian Wilson heard ‘Rubber Soul,’ got baked and wrote ‘God Only Knows’

Rock legend Brian Wilson supports legal cannabis — in moderation.

Of course marijuana often played a part in Wilson’s creative process, something the former addict talks about more and more as the years pass.

In a recent interview with music site Reverb, Wilson addressed his support of weed legalization, which comes with a qualifier.

“I think (legalization) is good if people do it in moderation,” Wilson told Reverb. “If you get hooked on it and it becomes too much of a habit, I don’t think it’s a cool idea, though.”

Wilson also said that marijuana played a significant role in the creation of what is considered one of the greatest rock albums of all time, the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds.” Wilson was stoned while writing “God Only Knows,” a track ranked by Pitchfork as the greatest song of the ’60s and by Rolling Stone as the 25th greatest song of all time.

“I listened to ‘Rubber Soul’ and smoked some marijuana and was so blown away that I went right over to my piano and wrote ‘God Only Knows’ with a friend of mine,” he told Reverb.



And let’s not short-change “Rubber Soul,” which The Beatles’ John Lennon once called “the pot album.”

“‘Rubber Soul’ was the pot album and ‘Revolver’ was the acid,” John Lennon said in 1972, as Rolling Stone recalls. “The drugs are to prevent the rest of the world from crowding in on you.”