He was a trumpeter, keyboard player and singer-songwriter who was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma as the son of a Pentecostal minister and the eldest brother of Charlie and Robert Wilson.
He and his brothers learned to sing in the church from around the age of 3 or 4 and from high school years they were performing with bands. They then formed Greenwood, Archer and Pine Band in 1967 and released their first album in 1974. They eventually became the Gap Band and started to see success in 1979 which carried on into the 1980s.
He co-wrote the several of the band’s songs including “Party Lights”. The band slowed down around 1984 but worked on the songs for the film I’m Gonna Get You Sucka as well as released the album The Gap Band: Alive and Well in 1997.
In 1984 he became a born again Christian and a pastor.
He appeared in the play Mama, I’m Sorry with David Peaston and Melba Moore.
He died after suffering a stroke in November 2021 when he was 73 years old.
Gap Band Recordings
Party Lights Remix (Charlie Wilson/Lonnie Simmons/Ronnie Wilson/Rudolph Taylor)
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