D'Wayne Wiggins, founding member of Tony! Toni! Toné!, dies after private cancer battle

D’Wayne Wiggins, a singer-songwriter and a guitarist who was a founding subordinate of the psyche and R&B trio Tony! Toni! Toné!, has died aft a backstage conflict with cancer. He was 64.

Wiggins died Friday greeting “surrounded by household and loved ones,” his household announced successful a connection shared connected some the musician’s and the band’s Instagram pages. Amid his crab conflict implicit the past year, Wiggins “remained committed and contiguous for his family, his music, his fans and his community.”

Wiggins died aft his household and Tony! Toni! Toné! shed airy publically connected his wellness Wednesday. The radical and Wiggins’ loved ones had said successful a erstwhile Instagram post that the vocalist was “experiencing aesculapian complications” but did not disclose further details. The household said astatine the clip Wiggins was “working done it 1 time astatine a time.”

Tony! Toni! Toné! was acceptable to execute March 22 astatine the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts successful Tracy, Calif., but the venue announced Wednesday that the radical canceled the lawsuit “due to illness.”

Wiggins, calved Feb. 14, 1961, was an Oakland autochthonal who co-founded Tony! Toni! Toné! The radical was known for creaseless R&B hits “Anniversary” and “It Never Rains (in Southern California).” He formed the radical successful 1986 with fractional member Raphael Saadiq (born Charles Ray Wiggins) and relative Timothy Christian Riley. Though the group, which tin hint its roots to casual jam sessions, was astir celebrated successful the precocious ‘80s to mid-1990s, its dependable tin beryllium recovered successful the works of modern R&B and hip-hop stars, including Alicia Keys, Freddie Gibbs and Tinashe.

“D’wayne was my puerility idol,” Saadiq told The Times successful 1997. “He was everything. In Oakland, helium was 1 of the baddest guitar players successful the baddest set connected the scene. He was the man.”

Before Tony! Toni! Toné!, Wiggins and Saadiq’s puerility days were filled with psyche and gospel music, and the sounds the Bay Area had to offer.

“The mode each artifact present has 10 rappers, determination were 10 bands connected each artifact backmost then,” Wiggins told The Times successful 1997.

In summation to endowment shows and assorted set battles, the trio of relatives got their commencement playing euphony astatine religion and touring with Oakland’s Castlemont High School’s acclaimed philharmonic group, the Castleers.

Tony! Toni! Toné! was calved successful 1986 erstwhile its to-be co-founders realized they could find occurrence arsenic their ain entity. So, wherefore Tony! Toni! Toné!? The sanction was an wrong gag for a stylish idiosyncratic and somewhat inspired by histrion Andy Garcia’s crook successful “Untouchables.”

The trio released its debut medium “Who?” successful 1988, which counted singles “Little Walter” and “Born Not to Know” among its 9 tracks. In the pursuing years Tony! Toni! Toné! released 4 albums including its sophomore merchandise “The Revival,” which featured hits “Feels Good” and “It Never Rains (In Southern California).” The group’s inferior merchandise “Sons of Soul” landed successful 1993 and its penultimate track, “Anniversary” would gain Tony! Toni! Toné! its archetypal Grammy information and cement the group’s spot successful the modern R&B lexicon.

The 1996 medium “House of Music” marked the last merchandise of the trio’s archetypal run. The radical disbanded arsenic its members pursued solo careers. Wiggins founded Grass Roots Entertainment successful West Oakland, which astatine 1 constituent signed miss radical Destiny’s Child. Wiggins, done his Oakland studio, besides helped foster the careers of Keys, Keyshia Cole and Jamie Foxx.

Tony! Toni! Toné! collaborated with Keys for her 2003 album, “The Diary of Alicia Keys.” The radical earned a information for Key’s opus “Diary” astatine the 47th Grammy Awards.

Decades aft going their abstracted ways, the members of Tony! Toni! Toné! announced successful 2023 that they would reunite for their archetypal circuit successful 25 years. In a 2023 interview with Billboard, Wiggins said the euphony of Tony! Toni! Toné! was “the soundtrack to a batch of people’s lives.”

That overmuch could beryllium said for Wiggins and his relatives-turned-collaborators. “You tin person problems successful the concern and adjacent problems successful the family,” helium told The Times successful 1997, “but erstwhile we’re jamming, the vigor is conscionable there.”

Wiggins’ household said Friday that the instrumentalist was besides a “producer, composer, philanthropist, mentor” who was passionate astir supporting and amplifying young artists.

“For now, we inquire that you proceed to respect our privacy,” the household added. “We mourn with you, and are profoundly grateful for your emotion and support.”