When Beach Boys member Dennis Wilson met Charles Manson in the late 1960s, he had no idea how connected his group would become to one of the most notorious murder sprees in modern history.
According to Biography, Wilson was living outside of Los Angeles, California, when, in 1968, he stopped to pick up two female hitchhikers on the Sunset Strip. He invited them back to his home, and the women told him about their guru, Manson.
One evening, Wilson saw that Manson had broken into his home. Appearing to mean no harm, Manson reportedly kissed Wilson’s feet, and thus, an unlikely friendship was born.
At the time, Manson was reportedly looking to secure a recording contract. Wilson introduced him to several of his industry friends, not knowing how deeply disturbed his new acquaintance was.
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“Through Dennis and some of those gatherings, I met a lot of people with solid connections, including Terry Melcher, Gregg Jakobson and several others who liked my music enough to want to record and market me and my material,” said Manson in the 1994 book, “Manson in His Own Words.”
The Manson family was said to have moved into Wilson’s home and would not leave, even after Wilson had ended his friendship with the group’s members. He reportedly moved out, leaving his landlord to evict the group.
During that time period, Manson gave the Beach Boys a song titled “Cease to Exist.” Wilson rewrote some of the lyrics and the title to “Never Learn Not to Love,” added it to their 1969 LP 20/20, and did not give Manson a writing credit, reported Rolling Stone.
“Never Learn Not to Love” was the B-side to the Beach Boys song “Bluebirds Over the Mountain,” released in December 1968.
According to one of the rare times Wilson spoke of his interactions with Manson and his not being credited for the song, he said, “He didn’t want that. He wanted money instead. I gave him about a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of stuff.”
Wilson added, “But I don’t think you should put that in your story. I see no reason the story should mention him at all.”
The Washington Post reported that shortly after their friendship ended, Wilson found a bullet on his bed. After Manson threatened his family, Wilson reportedly beat him up.
Manson’s music career was at a dead end, having gotten nowhere with Wilson and Melcher, who lived at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon home with his girlfriend, actress Candace Bergen, reported ABC News. Shortly thereafter, Sharon Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski, rented the home.
To reportedly send a message to Melcher, who didn’t give him a recording contract, Manson sent his followers to the home, reported TIME Magazine. Manson was said to have told Tex Watson to kill everyone in the house, including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent. The next day, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their home.
The Tate-LaBianca murders occurred in August 1969, around a year after Wilson and Manson’s physical altercation. Mike Love, Wilson’s cousin, told ABC News, “For my cousin … our group member to be involved with that and to have the guilt associated with that, I mean, had to be a tough … burden for him to carry for the rest of his life,” said Love.
Dennis Wilson died of an accidental drowning in 1983. Charles Manson remained in jail until his death in November 2017.
This story was originally published by Parade on Jun 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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