Brian Wilson gave the first Q&A/performance session at the Grammy Museum's 200-seat theater on Thursday, giving short and specific answers to the questions of museum executive director Bob Santelli.
That's how it goes with Brian. He keeps the observations and anecdotes to a minimal amount of words, offering little explanation after giving a statement of fact. A curious fan wanted to know what's on his iPod. "About 500 songs" was the aswer. 
Before a sharp performance of six songs -- "Surfer Girl"/"Midnight's Another Day"/"Southern California"/"California Girls"/"God Only Knows"/"Surfin' Safari" -  Wilson offered a number of observations that might surprise fans. The top 10 disclosures:

10. His favorite songs on the 1977 album "The Beach Boys Love You," now regarded a BB classic, are "The Night Was So Young" and "Ding Dang."
9. Elvis Presley was wearing a floor length cape when he met him in the 1970s. He asked the King if he would come into the studio and listen to what he was working on. Elvis said "no." 
8. He wrote "Love and Mercy" after drinking half a bottle of Champagne.
7. "Sh-Boom" by the Chords was the first record to "blow his mind."
The list of surfing sites in "Surfin' Safari" came from his girlfriends' brother.
6. Every time he went into the studio, the goal was to "outdo Phil Spector." "It never happened."
5. A hard rock record continues to be a goal and versions of "At the Hop" and "Proud Mary" are already in the can.
4. The three acts he would want to perform on a desert island would be the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bee Gees and the Eagles. (Yes, he was asked about three and answered with four).
3. The best audiences during the Beach Boys early days were in Boston and Sacramento.
2. The first time he ever met Chuck Berry, whom he considers the most influential songwriter, was about a year ago - in Hawaii. 
1. "Pet Sounds" was named because of the initials P.S., which stands for Phil Spector.

  Brian Wilson will be the first guest at the Grammy Museum's “An Evening With” program, appearing Jan. 15 for an interview and performance. Museum executive director Robert Santelli will ask the questions.
Session will take place in the hall's 200-seat sound Stage. Wilson will be asked to comment on  songwriting, the landmark Beach Boys albums and his new album, "That Lucky Old Sun."
Tickets are $20 - $18 for  members - and go on sale Monday.

Zooey Deschanel learns what many of us who have interviewed Brian Wilson have discovered: It's fantastic to be in the presence of the great one, but it can be tough getting lengthy answers. Brian's list of his favorite tunes beyond "Be My Baby" included "Strangers in the Night" and "Rhapsody in Blue" on the day of their chat, with "What a Fool Believes," apparently dropped. Wilson and band just finished a three-day stand at the Hollywood Bowl

Artist on Artist: Brian Wilson & Zooey Deschanel

Prince and Ray Davies did it in the U.K.; Brian Wilson is first veteran act to do it in the States: Promote a new album through newspapers.
From Friday until Labor Day, more than 50 Gannett newspaper and TV station websites will stream Wilson's new album "That Lucky Old Sun." It will be released Sept. 2.
Gannett sites include USATODAY.com plus 32 local newspaper websites and 19 TV websites. The audio player will link to Amazon.com to pre-order the CD, limited edition CD/DVD and digital album.
After some September dates that are expected to be limited to the hits, Wilson will tour with his band , performing songs from "That Lucky Old Sun."

Brian Wilson performed some of his new songs about California for a hometown crowd Wednesday, the premier on U.S. soil for material that will be included on his Sept. 2 release "That Lucky Old Sun."
Event was the filming of a Yahoo! concert that will appear online on Labor Day, the day before the album's release on Capitol Records. Wilson and his band, featuring a new drummer and bassist, performed a quartet of Beach Boys classics before diving into the new material, which strives to evoke L.A. in the '50s and '60s when Wilson was growing up in Hawthorne, soaking up the music of the Four Freshmen and Chuck Berry. (Wilson and his band  debuted the material at a London concert.)
The new songs performed tap into  a post-"Smile"-era vibe: the tunes are lush and harmony-soaked, rich in dynamics  and shifts in meter, dominated by keyboards. The lyrics are wistful reconnections with the Beach Boys early days, pledges of allegiance to the sun, the surf, his late brothers and that surfer girl from long ago.
A number of interesting reference points crop up: "Forever My Surfer Girl" is a first cousin of the Four Seasons; the medley of "Can't Wait too Long" (a "Smile"-era remnant) and "Midnight's Another Day" is the sort of balladry that came to define Wilson at the time of "Pet Sounds"; "Going Home" is a blues at its core yet includes some fun-loving eight-vice a cappella singing; and "Southern California" is about the most sentimental piece in the Wilson songbook.
The Beach Boys founder also took questions from the audience and in his own unique way delivered short, emphatic answers - except for when he listed all the drugs he did in the '60s and '70s, noting "they didn't do me much good."
The one answer, though, that brought an instant hush to a crowd filled with fans who bought those early hits as they were being released on 45s pertained to the question about what song, besides "Be My Baby" did he wish he wrote.
He didn't have to think about. With no hemming or hawing, he blurted out " 'What a Fool Believes.' Doobie Brothers."  That's Brian for you.
(James Minchin III took the new photos of Brian Wilson).

The set list:
California Girls / I Get Around / Help Me Rhonda / Good Vibrations / Morning Beat / Forever My Surfer Girl / Can't Wait Too Long >  Midnight's Another Day / Going Home / Southern California Dream / California Girls / I Get Around

Brian Wilson will return to Capitol Records - his original label home with the Beach Boys - with the Sept. 2 release of "That Lucky Old Sun."
Last summer, Wilson became inspired by the 1949 song, “That Lucky Old Sun.” He bought Louis Armstrong’s version of the track and was inspired to again collaborate with former crony Van Dyke Parks and bandmate Scott Bennett to create spoken narratives.
Wilson describes That Lucky Old Sun as an “interwoven series of ‘rounds’ with interspersed spoken word,” and as an autobiographical travelogue of sorts. Album was produced by Wilson.
Wilson debuted "That Lucky Old Sun" at London’s Royal Festival Hall in September. It has been described as a musical love letter from Southern California; “Midnight’s Another Day” was termed by Mojo magazine as “glorious.”
The track listing:
1. That Lucky Old Sun
2. Morning Beat
3. That Lucky Old Sun (narrative)
4. Good Kind Of Love
5. Forever My Surfer Girl
6. That Lucky Old Sun (narrative)
7. Live Let Live
8. Mexican Girl
9. That Lucky Old Sun (narrative)
10. California Role
11. That Lucky Old Sun (narrative)
12. Oxygen
13. Can’t Wait Too Long (vocal excerpt)
14. Midnight’s Another Day
15. Going Home
16. Southern California

Brian Wilson unveiled a commissioned work Monday in London. It seems that the Times of London enjoyed it; Uncut call the songs "beautiful"; NME compared it to "Smile"; and we hinted that it just might, overall, be an improvement on that legendary "lost masterpiece."