Charles Manson believed becoming a rock star could spread his influence and he befriended the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson in 1968 in hopes of getting there, a former Manson follower wrote in a memoir reported on by Fox News.
Dianne Lake, now 64, began her relationship with Manson when she was 14, noted Fox News, and in her book "Member of the Family" she talked about Manson's relationship with Wilson, the Beach Boys drummer.
"Dennis really took Charlie under his wing," Lake said per Fox News. "Charlie was teaching Dennis how to play the guitar and I think he admired Charlie. He was proud to show him off to his friends. They had a good time together."
The relationship, though, began to sour when Wilson scheduled a recording session for Manson which fellow Beach Boy Mike Love attended, Fox News said. Lake said when Love questioned the arrangement and Manson didn’t get his way, Manson pulled out a knife.
"They stole one of Charlie's songs and changed the name," Lake said. "So he wasn't happy about that… It just wasn't the same. I think they tried to mold him into being a rock star and Charlie wasn't going for it. Because I think Charlie's message was more important to him than being a rock star. He didn't want the words to his music changed. He didn't want to dress differently. He wasn't happy."
Love wrote about Dennis Wilson's relationship with Manson in his 2016 memoir "Good Vibrations," People magazine said. Wilson, who drowned in 1983 at age 39, had just broken up with his wife and was living in a former hunting lodge on Sunset Boulevard when he met Manson in summer of 1968, People noted.
"Dennis was the perfect mark – a famous, well-connected entertainer who could help a musical neophyte get discovered," Love wrote, per People. "Dennis lived in a luxurious house, on three acres, with a swimming pool and plenty of guest rooms. Guileless about others, indifferent about his own possessions, Dennis was all too happy to allow Manson and his girls to move in, use his charge cards, take his clothes, eat his food, even drive his Mercedes."
Love estimated that Manson and his family cost his cousin and bandmate $100,000 before they ended their friendship several months later. It would be less than year until members of Manson's "family" killed seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate in August 1969.
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