“I played with Clapton… 15 minutes later I was back in the office”: Probyn Gregory’s incredible double life

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For fear of taking the musical plunge, and despite his Guitar Institute of Technology pedigree, Probyn Gregory spent most of his adult life behind a desk – even after he’d scored the gig of a lifetime with Beach Boys architect Brian Wilson.

“When I got the job with Brian, I was still an editor and resident longhair at Economics Research Associates,” he tells Guitar World.

“I held that post for 24 years. That’s the same amount of time I was connected with Brian. They’d let me go on tour and just leave work piled up on my desk. And after I got back I was expected to come in at night and whittle away until it was gone.”

Life-changing moments, including the “magical” night when Wilson put his trepidation aside and performed a part of his fabled Smile project, always ended with a return to his desk.

On another night, it was back to the office after “playing a charity show, and the night ended with us backing Eric Clapton on an unrehearsed version of Layla.

“I got to play the iconic slide part at the end as the final tune of the night. It was amazing. Literally 15 minutes later, I was at Economics Research Associates making copies, thinking, ‘What an odd and speedy juxtaposition of ‘stardom’ and mundanity.’”

Then there was the experience of playing with Love’s Arthur Lee.

“He’s the single most mercurial performer I’ve ever backed,” Gregory says. “I’ve seen him crash and burn onstage while high on drugs at a festival in Spain, barely able to find the business end of the mic.

“Conversely, he was absolutely on fire at a show I played with him at Hollywood’s House of Blues – certainly one of the top rocking shows I ever was part of. When he was on, he was on. A true star.”

It’s not always been good, of course. “Our other guitarist, Nick Walusko, was sick one night. I tried to fill in and play Pet Sounds like him and failed, despite using his guitar and rig.

“It was the same when we toured with Jeff Beck – I got to play his Strat through his rig, and I couldn’t get anywhere near his sound. It’s all in the fingers!”

His gig with Wilson has been on hold since 2022; but that’s not stopping him. “I’m playing in Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel tribute bands, and subbing in with Al Jardine and Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean,” he reports. “I may have a side-man gig with a star, which I won’t jinx by naming, but that won’t be until next summer.

“Recently I produced and arranged a few songs written by the late Wilson father, Murry. And one of these days I’ll get around to doing a solo album. Enough of my peers are passing, and our own mortality is always unknown.”

What was your first guitar and amp?

“My first guitar was a no-name cheap folk/classical guitar that ended up having a second life when my brother Rohan took it to college and played it until it fell apart. My first electric was a 1967 Gibson Melody Maker. I bought it from one of the main guitar players in my little New Hampshire city for $50 when I was 14 in 1971.”

Do you still have it?

“I do – it can be heard on Brian’s You’ve Got a Friend in Me. As for my first amp, it was the guts of a tube home stereo and a Utah speaker that my high school shop teacher made with a nicely varnished cabinet.

“In the ‘90s, I accidentally destroyed the power transformer while experimenting – not knowing I had to have a speaker load when the amp was on. I only recently threw away the chassis.”

How did you decide you wanted to spend your life making music?

“In those days there was no real path for a future in rock music the way there is now. I just played coffeehouses as a solo act throughout college, or busked in the Boston subways, and did the occasional side-guy slot on guitar, trumpet, or bass in musicals and community theater shows.”

And at some point, you took a chance and moved to LA.

“I moved in 1980 to attend GIT, and I stayed after graduating, joining a reasonably successful surf band called the Wedge. I was in two or three bands simultaneously, trying to get signed – which never happened. I tried half-heartedly to start my own band, but there was always something going against it.”

One of those bands was the Wondermints.

“The sophisticated arrangements and heavy ‘60s global pop influence were definite attractive points to me. Retro but modern. Why I fit in is anybody’ s guess – probably due to the shared vision of being dedicated to the music and the willingness to play shows for gas money or drink tickets, like just about everybody else in the music scene.”

You had your day job until 2008. What changed?

“It ended in the recession of 2008. I’d been in LA for over 20 years, and even though I’d been in the Brian Wilson Band since ‘99, I wasn't making enough money to consider giving up my editing job.

“Years earlier I’d had an offer to be the arranger for The Arsenio Hall Show, but I was too fearful of jumping ship and committing solely to music, as I’d seen others do the same. The show was canceled after a month, leaving the team high and dry.”

As a Beach Boys fan, joining Brian’s band must have been a thrill.

“Oh yes! Way back when I was 8 I had my mind blown by the intro to California Girls. The Beach Boys have been in my top three bands forever, though it took me a long time to discover the Smile material. There was something so magnetic to me about the yearning in a lot of the Beach Boys’ output. I know I’m not alone there.

You met Brian in 1989, 10 years before you joined his band.

“I was loading in my gear for a band rehearsal, and through a door, I heard what sounded like Brian singing along with a track from his solo album. I asked the guy behind the counter, and he said it was Brian Wilson himself. I couldn't resist – I knocked on the door and spent maybe 30 seconds telling him how great his music was and being the geeky fanboy.”

“A couple of years later, the Wondermints were part of a tribute show to Brian – the Wild Honey series of tributes, which is still ongoing, sending proceeds to autism research. We were doing some fairly hard material. Brian attended the show, saw us, and apparently liked us. We got asked to back him up on a few occasions; and once in a while he came to a Wondermints show to sing Do It Again.”

How did you secure the gig with him?

“In 1999, the Wondermints got the call to fly out to St Charles, Illinois, where he was living at the time, to audition for the new Brian Wilson Band. I guess we passed! My main value was being a multi-guy on guitar, banjo, French horn, [the theremin emulator] tannerin; and, of course, vocals.

“Regarding the audition, I used a Fender amp head. Maybe a Bassman, which said ‘Al Jardine’ on it, while other Beach Boys gear was lying around – which was very impressive to me!”

What was your initial touring rig like?

“I had a Fender Twin amp once owned by Waddy Wachtel – I love the Linda Ronstadt anvil case it came in – and the same Boss pedals I’ve had since forever. But I needed tremolo and reverb, as I was going for that retro ‘60s sound.

“I looked around for a guitar worthy of the gig, and after a couple of months of trying mostly Fender Teles, I landed on a G&L ASAT that I still adore. And I had a Danelectro reissue 12-string.”

Was it tough adapting Brian’s studio catalog for live performance?

“Apart from dense middle-period things like Fire – with no breakdowns of tracks – not really. We knew it could be done because people had played real instruments on the originals, although it was the Wrecking Crew, the greatest session crew ever assembled.

“Even though we didn’t always have enough manpower, between the occasional keyboard sample and other people doing double duty, we were pretty much in the ballpark after assiduous listening and fine-tuning.”

I’m sure you reveled in doing Pet Sounds live.

“For sure! Remember that the finest guitarists in Los Angeles were the ones called to do this stuff. Most of the time, it’s a matter of getting your fingers around the parts and playing them as fluidly as the originals. But then it demands the right application of reverb and overall touch.”

What was the reception for Brian and the band like then?

“It was phenomenal – it definitely felt like a renaissance for him. So many people had been waiting so long to see him do more than the occasional appearance. We tried to make a good supportive base for him to flower in.

“I’d never been part of a band that received such appreciation and respect, so it was quite validating for me. Here, I was part of a team not only getting applause but also getting paid and doing music I loved. What a blessing and an honor.”

How did you help Brian see Smile differently?

“The procession of events is a little unclear. My sense is that Brian’s wife, Melinda, was on top of what was being said by fans online, and a recurring theme was, ‘Will the Smile fragments ever see the light of day?’ The band had already tackled Pet Sounds live, and some of us were giant fans of the Smile material.

“As many know, in the early years of the band, we weren’t even allowed to say the words Heroes and Villains or Surf’s Up – let alone play the songs. Brian told us it reminded him of a bad time in his life. Everyone knew Smile was an albatross around his neck.

“Then, magically, one night at a party, he sat down and just started playing Heroes. The band all freaked out and rushed over to the piano and joined in. That sort of broke the ice, and later that year, we debuted Heroes... at the big tribute show at Radio City.

“I’m not certain, but I think the next song we tackled was Surf’s Up. Brian wasn’t ready to address the entirety of Smile – that was slowly approached over the latter part of 2003, although he still was extremely trepidatious.”

Was the Beach Boys reunion as much a surprise to you as it was to the rest of the world?

“I think all true Beach Boys in their hearts hope for a reunion, as happened in 2012 with the 50th. It’s hard to say what politics are in play behind keeping reunions from coming to pass. I think it’s harder than most understand to have a team pulling on the same end of the rope.

“Especially a team that’s been in each others’ business for years and has slightly different expectations of what parameters a reunion might entail. Just for starters, what songs can they all agree on?”

Brian hasn’t toured since 2022 and he’s in ill health. Is he done touring?

“It’s hard to say. The official word is that he has dementia and he’s under conservatorship. That’s apart from his manic depression and the audio hallucinations he’s had for many years. Right now, he seems incapable of doing live shows.

“But some of us have been up to his house a few times lately to sing, and occasionally, he’s sung with us a bit. And he’s come back many times in the past when everyone thought he was down for the count – that guy is a trouper.

“He has already given himself to the public for the clear majority of his life. Whatever path he takes, he has earned the right to retire – or do whatever the hell he wants.”