I can't believe I have to say this but: be normal about loving your family. You can be affectionate, it's a beautiful thing to express it in a profound way. But it has to be healthy, otherwise, most people, myself included, are going to side eye you. This is the space I find myself in when looking at Carnie Wilson, niece to the late Beach Boys member Dennis Wilson. One moment she's recalling her relationship with him, the next she's getting a little too weird about it.
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Recently, she went on Billy Corgan's The Magnificent Others podcast. There, she recalls growing up around The Beach Boys. However, when it comes to her uncle Dennis, Carnie gets really weird. "He was always like this mysterious, sexy man, and he was my uncle, but like, I'd get butterflies around him," Wilson says. "He's very handsome. He was very sensitive."
Carnie Wilson Gets Really Weird When Talking About Her Late Uncle Dennis
The Wilson Phillips singer was only 15 years old when Dennis passed away at 39 in 1983. The Beach Boys member drowned by Marina Del Rey, California while battling drug and alcohol abuse. Beforehand, he'd been desperately trying to detox. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes and irreparably changing Carnie, the band, and the rest of his family alike.
As for how Wilson views the rest of her Beach Boys family, she speaks highly of them, particularly of Dennis' younger brother Carl. "Carl was an amazing writer, amazing singer. He really had such a great sound. He was protective," Carnie says.
"Dad just wasn't ... We just weren't spending time with him. But then he said to us, 'I follow you on the charts every week,' so he was watching [from] behind his door," she continues. "But Carl was like, 'You guys just have to keep going.'"
