Ronnie Wilson, a founding member of the R&B and funk band The Gap Band from Oklahoma, passed away on Tuesday. He was 73 years old at the time. Linda Boulware-Wilson, Wilson’s wife, confirmed his death on Facebook on Tuesday morning. She also shared to TMZ that he died in the hospital after one week in semicoma caused by a stroke. “The love of my life was called home this morning, at 10:01 am,” she wrote. “Please continue to pray for The Wilson, Boulware, and Collins family, while we mourn his passing.”
“Ronnie Wilson was a genius with creating, producing, and playing the flugelhorn, trumpet, keyboards, and singing music, from childhood to his early seventies,” she added.
“He will be truly missed!!!
A little insight of Ronnie Wilson’ The Gap Band
The Gap Band was created by Wilson and his brothers Charlie and Robert. The brothers, who were born in Tulsa, were originally known as the Greenwood Archer Pine Street Band.
The name was inspired by three streets that were stormed by a white mob during the Tulsa racial massacre in 1921, according to the group’s website.
Therefore, The G.A.P. Band’s name was subsequently reduced to The G.A.P. Band, with the periods removed. The Gap Band signed with Mercury Records in 1979 after releasing two albums on Leon Russell’s indie label in the mid-’70s. Singles like “I Don’t Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (Oops! ),” “
Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me),” and, most notably, 1982’s Gap Band IV. Which featured the hits “Early in the Morning,” “You Dropped a Bomb on Me,” and the oft-s Ronnie Wilson and his brother Charlie co-wrote “Party Time,” one of the band’s final charting singles, in 1983.
However, The Gap Band remained active throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with their most recent album, Y2K: Funkin’ Till 2000 Come, released in 1999. Following Robert Wilson’s death from a heart attack in 2010, the brothers officially disbanded the Gap Band.