Every time I hear his real voice, his 60s voice, I'm taken aback. It is so beautiful, gentle, genuine, and pure... It makes me realize that those are the qualities I've always sought in music. You can also completely understand why he'd feel insecure about it. It's not masculine, not that it matters. It's beyond that; it makes those matters seem completely immature and meaningless, because it comes from that eternally playful, emotive and childlike place -- where true creativity, openheartedness and empathy spring from, and unfortunately somewhere most people forget about and willfully discard as they grow older...

You have to be brave to express yourself like that. There's just no veil in his music. The truth is, the whole world chased a tougher image in the 70s and left music like the Beach Boys behind. We're still chasing that fake image today, perhaps worse than ever before. Brian's music reminds me of what humanity should really be like, how we all really ought to feel.

I think the biggest tragedy in music is the day his voice went for good. Somewhere in 1975 or '76, probably chainsmoking up a storm and drugging himself to his limits. He succeeded in his goal of catching the tone of his voice up to his years on the planet. But something utterly unique was extinguished forever.