On June 11, leader of The Beach Boys legendary pop composer Brian Wilson died at the age of 82. Below, Grammy-winning producer and performer Don Was remembers Wilson, who he cites as "the Claude Monet of rock and roll.

I’ll never forget the first time Brian Wilson made me see God. It was 1973, and I was sitting in the mostly empty balcony of a second-run movie theater finally watching “American Graffiti,” the movie everyone in my high school was talking about.

“Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special. The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were simple and brilliant at the same time. I loved him, and was privileged to be around his bright shining light for a little while. How we will continue without Brian Wilson, ‘God Only Knows.’”