Multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory worked with Brian Wilson for 23 years and helped the Beach Boys founder finish 'Smile.'
features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory.aficionados who appreciated the full extent of his genius.
Gregory picked up the trumpet in the fourth grade and would try to play along to Herb Alpert songs on the radio. Around the same time, he tried to teach himself acoustic guitar by learning the songs of the Beatles, the Byrds, and the Monkees. He continued to sharpen his skills when his family moved across the country in late 1967 after his stepfather accepted a teaching job at Keene State College in New Hampshire.
When he wasn’t working, Gregory played briefly with Peter Case, and the Negro Problem, but nothing really took off until he met up with a bunch of likeminded musicians calling themselves the Wondermints. Everyone in the group shared a love of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and it wasn’t long before they were backing their hero. Nick Walusko were the founders, and the two main writers. I finagled my way in to the band, and began playing trumpet with them.
I think the first Beach Boys record that came back on my radar was a Pickwick compilation record in the early Seventies. I had a crazy assortment of songs where “409” would follow “God Only Knows.” It was disjointed. Then, of course, in 1974, I fell under the influence, as everyone else did, of thealbum. That double album essentially remade the Beach Boys’ career, and got them to be a really successful live act again.
The next time I met him was a few years later. We were playing a Brian Wilson tribute show for Wild Honey, which was this charity organization. We were doing “Surf’s Up,” and I happened to be singing lead on that one. I looked into the audience, and there was Brian Wilson. I was like, “Oh my God. I have to sing this hard song, his song, one of his best songs, to him?” I was very nervous. We met him briefly, then he actually played at his own tribute show.
Yes. But I didn’t even really know what the touring band was up to. My friends told me in the Seventies and the Eighties that the touring band didn’t float their boat. They said, “Just listen to the records. Don’t bother going to the show. You’ll be disappointed,” which was stupid, and I’m sorry I ever listened to them, because I could have seen Dennis play. I never saw Dennis play before he passed away. And similarly with Carl. But the time I got around to seeing the Beach Boys, it was 2000.
We’d been rehearsing a lot. We really wanted to do the music justice. I think everyone gave it their A-plus shot, and really focused, and really tried to emote, and tried to break down the fourth wall as much as we could. Even though it’s Brian’s show, it’s up to him to do it. But as the backing band, we wanted to make sure that we gave him as solid a bed as we possibly could so that he could thrive.
We debuted “Heroes and Villains” at the Radio City Music Hall tribute to Brian Wilson later that year. And it was only a couple years later, in 2003…and I think that Melinda was a big mover here in making this happen. She had heard what the fans wanted. They wanted to hear things like “Surf’s Up” and “Cabinessence” and things offShe suggested to Brian, “What about finishing this thing up? It’s been dogging you all these years.” And slowly he got into the idea.
Prior to 2012, most fans felt a Beach Boys reunion tour with Brian was an impossibility. Did you think it was impossible or were you optimistic it could happen?
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