Jeff Lynne calls Brian Wilson’s Let It Shine session horrible
Jeff Lynne said working with Brian Wilson on Let It Shine was horrible. jeff lynne described a studio period shaped by Wilson’s personal struggle and the presence of Dr. Landy in the background.
Malibu session with Wilson
Lynne said, “We wrote ‘Let It Shine’ at his house in Malibu. He was really struggling in his life. It was horrible, and he was being treated badly. But you could see what a nice guy he was despite everything happening in the background.”
The song credit matters because it places their collaboration in Wilson’s home, not a formal studio setup, and it ties the writing session to a period when Lynne said Wilson was having a hard time. Lynne, who has worked with ELO and The Beatles Anthology, framed the experience as one of the most difficult he went through with a major collaborator.
Dr Landy around the studio
Lynne said, “It was all very distressing. I only saw Dr Landy a couple of times, walking around with his cape and walking stick. I don’t really want to talk about that.” He also said it was difficult to figure out what Wilson wanted in the studio.
That puts the collaboration in a more specific frame than a simple creative dispute. Lynne was not describing a disagreement over notes or arrangement alone; he was talking about trying to work while Wilson was, in Lynne’s words, being treated badly and struggling in his life.
Wilson’s harmony imprint
Lynne’s account lands with extra weight because he has long been treated as a producer who could translate ambitious sounds into records, even when the process was messy. His description of Wilson’s situation shows how much the session depended on a fragile environment around the artist, not just the song itself.
For readers tracking the legacy of both men, the takeaway is blunt: Let It Shine was not just another writing credit. It was a collaboration Lynne remembered as distressing, and he made clear that Wilson’s treatment in that period shaped how he still talks about it now.
