They say there are no second acts in American lives, and third acts are almost unheard of. That''s part of what makes Brian Wilson''s story so astonishing.

As co-founder member of the Beach Boys in the 1960s, Wilson created some of the most ground-breaking and timeless popular music ever recorded. With intricate harmonies, symphonic structures, and wide-eyed lyrics that explored life''s most transcendent joys and deepest sorrows, songs like ''In My Room'', ''God Only Knows'' and''Good Vibrations'' forever expanded the possibilities of pop songwriting.

Derailed in the 1970s by mental illness, drug use, and the shifting fortunes of the band, Wilson came back again and again over the next few decades, surviving and - finally - thriving. I Am Brian Wilson reveals as never before the man who fought his way back to stability and creative relevance, who became a mesmerizing live artist, who forced himself to reckon with his own complex legacy and completed Smile, the legendary unfinished Beach Boys record that had become synonymous with both his genius and its destabilization.

Wilson''s story, told in his own voice and in his own way, unforgettably illuminates the man behind the music, working through the turbulence and discord to achieve, at last, a new harmony.