Brian Wilson’s Live at the Roxy Reissue Brings His “Second Act” Back to Life — With Bob Lizik on Bass

The world lost a musical genius with the passing of Brian Wilson on June 11, 2025. However, there’s still plenty of his music to explore.

Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy Theatre has been reissued and expanded for its 25th anniversary with never-before-heard performance tour recordings from the era. The original album marked the Beach Boys mastermind’s first-ever live solo album and included classic songs like “California Girls,” “Surfer Girl,” “I Get Around,” and “Good Vibrations,” as well as later originals like “The First Time” and “This Isn’t Love.”

“Those nights on the Sunset Strip turned out to be the beginning of Brian’s great second act…,” says author and historian David Leaf. “Looking back now, it’s clear: the Roxy was where Brian’s rebirth as a performer truly came alive.”

Wilson was backed by a 10-piece band featuring Bob Lizik, a Chicago-based bassist who has also worked with Billy Joel, Mavis Staples, Dennis DeYoung, and Barbra Streisand. Lizik first got into Wilson’s orbit after a producer asked him to finish some tracks for the songwriter’s 1998 album, Imagination, after which he was asked to play some live shows.

“We did a few dates and we thought that was it,” Lizik tells ACRN. “And then I had a call. I said, ‘Okay, we’ve got another few more dates, like four or five dates. We can do that.’ And then it was again, ‘Okay, we’re going out to the West Coast to do a couple of shows. Something that I thought was only going to be a week or two, and it turned out to be 26 years.”

The bassist, of course, had to learn Wilson’s back catalog, which was a task he underestimated until revisiting Carol Kaye’s iconic bass work on the Beach Boys classics.

“At first, I thought it was going to be all simple,” Lizik said, “until I started actually listening to the entire library. There’s a lot of great music in there and a lot of great bass lines that Carole played. It had to be duplicated. ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ is a great bassline. The entire Pet Sounds album – those are specific lines. And people know them more than I know them. They had to be authentic.”

You can Lizik hear doing the iconic bass parts justice in this lyric video for “God Only Knows”:

Brian Wilson’s Live at the Roxy Theatre (25th Anniversary Edition) is out now on a 2-CD set or a triple vinyl bundle.

Live at the Roxy Theatre (25th Anniversary Edition) CD Track List:

Disc: 1

1. The Little Girl I Once Knew (Intro)
2. The Little Girl I Once Knew
3. This Whole World
4. Don’t Worry Baby
5. Kiss Me Baby
6. Do It Again
7. California Girls
8. How Many Cigarette Lighters?
9. I Get Around
10. Back Home
11. In My Room
12. Surfer Girl
13. The First Time
14. This Isn’t Love
15. Add Some Music to Your Day
16. Please Let Me Wonder
17. Band Intro
18. Brian Wilson
19. ‘Til I Die
20. Darlin’
21. Let’s Go Away for Awhile
22. Pet Sounds
23. God Only Knows
24. Lay Down Burden
25. Be My Baby

Disc: 2

1. Good Vibrations
2. Caroline, No
3. All Summer Long
4. Love and Mercy
5. Sloop John B
6. Barbara Ann
7. Wouldn’t It Be Nice
8. Help Me Rhonda
9. Fun, Fun, Fun
10. Let It Shine
11. Drive in
12. Soul Searchin’
13. Southern California
14. Johnny B. Goode
15. Interview with Brian