children Wilson maintained an active interest in music, which he passed along to his sons, encouraging them to learn to sing and play instruments. Murry reflected, "I've been writing songs for as long as I can remember. My family has always had a great appreciation for the value of music. Many an evening my wife and I used to gather our sons and sing around our organ. Those were pretty lean days for us. We couldn't afford to go to a show, so we entertained ourselves with music." According to White, Murry was often forceful in this field. The Wilson brothers did not publicly discuss their problematic relationship with their father until they were adults. Many stories of physical and verbal abuse surfaced, including a supposed incident where Murry hit Brian in the head with a 2×4, resulting in the permanent loss of hearing in his right ear, and another occasion in which he disciplined Brian by forcing him to defecate on a plate. Murry denied such reports when approached by Rolling Stone in 1971. According to biographer David Leaf, Murry later "telephoned Brian and angrily demanded that he retract the stories. Reportedly, Brian laughingly told his dad, 'I'll tell you what. Let's tell them that I shit in your ear, and you hit me in the head with a plate." Out of the three Wilson brothers, Dennis was the most likely to get spanked by their father. Audree recalled, "Dennis had it the hardest; he got some very hard spankings. [Murry] was tough; I used to think he was too tough." Dennis later described his father as "a tyrant ... I don't know kids who got it like we did." Carl declined to comment on the accusations against his father. Brian's 2016 memoir states, "Lots of things have been written about my dad and the way he treated me and my brothers. Lots of them are true. Some of them are dirty lies. But even the things that are true aren't always what they seem." Leaf wrote, "Some people loved Murry, others insist he was a 'sick man,' but few will deny that he physically and verbally abused his children. ... In private, many people confirm that the Wilson brothers had it very hard." Although he was a strict parent, Murry frequently surprised his children with gifts, such as a BB gun and a go-kart for Dennis. For Dennis's