During the mid 1960s Brian Wilson’s growing countercultural associations brought him into contact with West Coast “nature boys”, vegetarians such as Eden Ahbez and the radio programs of the Mojave Desert health food faddist Curtis Howe Springer. The Beach Boys’ leader told Teen Set magazine in the late autumn of 1966 that he wanted “people to turn on to vegetables. Good, natural food. Organic food.” The same year he wrote the song “Vegetables” during the aborted SMILE sessions. Three years later in 1969 Brian opened his own West Hollywood health food store, the Radiant Radish, selling organic produce, vitamins and other supplements. Occasionally he would appear behind the cash register, usually late at night and clad in his ever present striped bathrobe and pyjamas.