Johnnie James Wilder Jr. (July 3, 1949 – May 17, 2006) was the co-founder and co-lead

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

of the R&B/ funk group

Heatwave A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the ...

, who were popular during the late 1970s with hits such as "

Boogie Nights ''Boogie Nights'' is a 1997 American period comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley and focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornograph ...

", "Mind Blowing Decisions", " Always and Forever", and "

The Groove Line "The Groove Line" is a 1978 single by the Dayton, Ohio/European funk- disco group Heatwave. It was written by Rod Temperton. It was included on Heatwave's second album, ''Central Heating''. History The song charted at number 12 in the UK Singles ...

Life

He served in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

era. On February 24, 1979, a van broadsided Wilder's car, paralyzing him from the neck down and hospitalizing him for a year. During the 1980s and 1990s, Wilder went on to

record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

other

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s with the group, as well as an album with his brother entitled ''Sound of Soul'' in 1989. Later he began a solo

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

career, singing a cappella on the albums ''My Goal'' and ''One More Day''. The latter album featured a re-recording of the song " All I Am" written by Lynsey de Paul and Susan Sheridan, that was originally recorded for the Heatwave album, ''Candles''. Referring to ''My Goal'' and ''One More Day'', he stated "The music that I'm doing is my way of giving thanks to God for being alive". He died in his sleep on May 13, 2006, at his home in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater ...

, aged 56, from complications of his paralysis. He is survived by his wife, Rosalyn.

References

External links

Johnnie Wilder Jr. at Find a Grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilder, Johnnie Jr. 1949 births 2006 deaths 20th-century African-American male singers 21st-century African-American people Musicians from Dayton, Ohio American funk singers 20th-century American singers Heatwave (band) members 20th-century American male singers United States Army soldiers