Al Jardine recalls late Brain Wilson's last words

Al Jardine just recalled what Brian Wilson’s last days were like.

The 82-year-old spoke to PEOPLE magazine and revealed that he had met the now-late The Beach Boys musician, a month before he died at the age of 82.

“The first thing he did is he looked at me, right in my eyes. He said, ‘You started the band,’” Jardine said, adding, “I said, Okay, well Brian, thank you, but you had a little bit to do with it too.’”

Recalling how he bumped into Wilson on the way to class one day back in school, stating he was the one who “ignited in [Wilson] to act on his music.”

“I said, ‘Brian, we’ve got to start a band together.’ And it just started. It just happened right then,” he fondly remembered.

Jardine continued, “And we searched desperately for people to be in our band, but no one on campus could quite cut it. So he said, ‘You know what? My little brother Carl plays a guitar, and my older cousin has a really great baritone. Come over to my place and I’ll introduce you.’ And that’s how it started.”

Even though the co-founder’s time with the band, The Beach Boys, was on and off, he and Jardine remained on friendly terms with the latter swinging by his home every few months.

“The band would get together and sing for him. He wouldn’t participate, but the idea was to keep him involved. It was really cool…. He was having difficulties, but he seemed to be recovering from it. So [his death] has been quite a shock,” Al Jardine concluded.