Johnnie James Wilder Jr. (July 3, 1949 – May 13, 2006) was the co-founder and co-lead

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

of the R&B/

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

group

Heatwave A heat wave or heatwave, sometimes described as extreme heat, is a period of abnormally hot weather generally considered to be at least ''five consecutive days''. A heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the area and ...

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

Boogie Nights ''Boogie Nights'' is a 1997 American drama film written, directed, and co-produced 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 pornographic ...

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

The Groove Line "The Groove Line" is a 1977 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

Johnnie Wilder Jr. was born in Dayton, Ohio. He served in the U.S. Army during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

era, serving briefly in Vietnam as an infantryman before being reassigned to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, where he first began performing solo in taverns and night clubs, following his discharge, he opted to stay in Germany before relocating to the United Kingdom where he met future Heathwave songwriter/keyboardist Rod Temperton through an ad placed in a local paper. 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 other albums with the group, as well as an album with his brother titled ''Sound of Soul'' in 1989. Later he began a solo

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

career, singing

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

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 Lynsey de Paul (born Lyndsey Monckton Rubin; 11 June 1948 – 1 October 2014) was an English singer-songwriter and record producer. After initially writing hits for others, she had her own chart hits in the UK and Europe in the 1970s, starting ...

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 had a wife, Rosalyn. The couple had a daughter together named Carla. He died in his sleep on May 13, 2006, at his home in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, aged 56, from complications of his paralysis and was laid to rest in Dayton National Cemetery.

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 musicians Musicians from Dayton, Ohio American funk singers 20th-century American singers Heatwave (band) members 20th-century American male singers United States Army soldiers People with tetraplegia Singers with disabilities