Carnie Wilson Pays Tribute to Dad Brian Wilson Following Family Funeral: ‘God Knows What We’d Be Without Him’

Two months after his passing at age 82, Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson was laid to rest in a family ceremony earlier this week. The musical savant’s eldest child, singer Carnie Wilson, paid loving tribute to her dad in a lengthy Instagram post on Thursday (Aug. 7), in which she expressed both her feelings of unending grief and peaceful solace about the loss of her guiding light.

“Today we laid my Daddy to rest. It was incredibly difficult to see that happen, but at the same time it gave more closure and more of a feeling of restful peace,” Carnie wrote. “The last eight weeks have been extremely challenging and like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I love and miss him so much and I wish he could come back. There’s so many signs that he gives me every day and I know that he’s around …he can hear me and he can see me. He makes that apparent. I’m so grateful for this.”

Wilson’s death was announced by his family on June 11, with TMZ reporting that the musician’s immediate cause of death was respiratory arrest, with sepsis and cystitis listed as contributing causes.

Carnie continued, “Today we had a couple of monarch butterflies that just would not leave the site. It was comforting and beautiful. I’m trying to deal with my emotions -they’re so up and down. I know that he would want everybody to feel happy and not sad. He didn’t like it when I cried.”

The singer who performed in the 1990s pop trio Wilson Phillips with her sister Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips — daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas — added that she talked to her old friend Gunnar Nelson — son of Ricky Nelson — about how their parent’s music will live on well beyond their time on Earth.

“He reminded me that the world will have his music to sing to and remember him every single solitary day until we are all gone,” Carnie wrote. “This is a really special and a real heavy duty thought. It’s much bigger than I can wrap my head around. For this I am grateful for though because I know it’s the truth. So I just wanna say thank you… thank you Daddy for your beautiful contribution to so much happiness and real raw emotions that you have brought to people. Thank you to all the beautiful loving and supportive fans out there for honoring him. We share this together. God knows what we’d be without him.”

Check out Carnie Wilson’s tribute below.