Between the Beach Boys, the influential California band he founded, and solo shows, Wilson performed in Milwaukee numerous times.

On July 19, 1964, Wilson and the Beach Boys played their first local concerts at what's now the Miller High Life Theatre; according to Milwaukee Journal reviewer Michael H. Drew, the group, described as "America's answer to the Beatles," was "received with screams of girlish exuberance" by packed crowds at both shows.

Wilson stopped touring later that year, focusing on writing and producing while wrestling with his psychological demons.

The Beach Boys returned to Milwaukee a few times in the 1970s, but Wilson wasn't with them. He returned with the band for a 1983 show at Summerfest — and again at the Wisconsin State Fair a month later.

Wilson continued to tour with the Beach Boys during the 1980s, including another Summerfest headlining show in 1987.

Starting in the late 1990s, Wilson began hitting the road solo and was a semi-regular visitor to Milwaukee stages, from a 1999 concert at the Pabst Theater to a 2019 show at the Riverside Theater. Beach Boys hits from "I Get Around" to "California Girls" to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" were staples of many of those shows — but so was Wilson's often stiff and erratic stage presence.

In a 1999 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wilson, then 56, acknowledged his reputation as a "troubled artist."

"I used to revel in it, but now it makes me feel like I have to live up to some idea of what people think I am," Wilson said. "You know, but I'm just, like, a great music maker."

He returned to Summerfest in 2001, this time as the opening act for another 1960s singing-songwriting legend, Paul Simon.

In his review, the Journal Sentinel's Dave Tianen said Wilson "seemed to be finding what for him passes as a comfort zone," at one point breaking out in a verse from "On, Wisconsin!" and telling the crowd: "It's great to be here! It's good to be at this place."

In 2013, a year after Wilson reunited with the Beach Boys at Summerfest, he performed at the Riverside with another '60s rock legend, guitarist Jeff Beck. Journal Sentinel music critic Piet Levy said the former Beach Boy appeared "vacant" on stage several times during the show, but "even if Wilson wasn't always present, his spirit was in the form of the music."

Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys reunite for a show at the Marcus Amphitheater during Summerfest on July 1, 2012.

Subsequent Milwaukee concerts, including a 2019 show with '60s hit-makers the Zombies, reflected Wilson's continued vulnerability — and the power of his historic body of music.

That 2019 concert, Levy wrote, followed a string of shows that Wilson, who had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, canceled that summer because he felt "mentally insecure."

During the show, he sat behind a piano but only occasionally played and didn't sing most of the show's 28 songs, relegating vocals to former fellow Beach Boy Al Jardine and others. When Wilson did sing, he missed cues, dropped lyrics and sometimes stopped his vocals altogether.

"But even if Wilson was off-key and disconnected singing 'God Only Knows,' he got a standing ovation, for writing one of the greatest pop songs ever made," Levy wrote.

This story has been updated to add new information and a photo gallery, and because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brian Wilson, who died at age 82, made many stops in Milwaukee, with Beach Boys and solo