D'Wayne Wiggins, One Third of the R&B Group Tony! Toni! Toné!, Dies at 64

New York Times

08-03-2025

D'Wayne Wiggins, who brought his smooth baritone to millions of fans as a founding member and the lead singer of the R&B trio Tony! Toni! Toné!, which had three platinum albums and a slew of hits in the 1980s and '90s including 'Feels Good' and 'The Blues,' died on Friday at his home in Oakland, Calif. He was 64.
His family said in a statement on social media that the cause was bladder cancer.
Mr. Wiggins was born and raised in Oakland and lived there most of his life, absorbing and blending the blues, funk and hip-hop sounds that he encountered on the city's streets and in its clubs, where his father, a blues guitarist, was a regular performer.
He formed Tony! Toni! Toné! in 1986 with his half brother, Charles Ray Wiggins (later known as Raphael Saadiq), who sang and played bass, and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley, who played drums.
The trio first found success performing around the San Francisco Bay Area, but they did not release their first album, 'Who?,' until 1988. It was an immediate hit: Their debut single, 'Little Walter,' reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart; three more singles from the album reached the Top 10; and the album was certified gold.
'Who?' leaned into the traditional blues sound that the trio had grown up with, but their next three albums ventured into new territory, incorporating hip-hop, upbeat soul and dance-pop — a blend that came to be known as New Jack Swing.
Their sophomore effort, 'The Revival' (1990), included their best-known hit, the radio-friendly 'Feels Good,' which topped the Billboard R&B chart and reached No. 9 on the Hot 100.
Though Mr. Wiggins bristled at the suggestion, critics often labeled the trio 'traditional' because of their use of guitars and organs and their deployment of blues and soul arrangements.
As he pointed out, they also incorporated turntables, flashy clothes and ecstatic onstage dancing — even, in their spry youth, cartwheels and splits.
'A lot of writers and very seasoned musicians stay stuck in their zone and don't want to branch out and don't want to accept when it's new,' Mr. Wiggins said in a 2017 interview with The Chicago Tribune. 'I like pulling it into the fold.'
Dwayne Patrice Wiggins was born on Feb. 14, 1961, in Oakland to Charlie and Mary (Brown) Wiggins. It was, he later recalled, an excellent place for a budding musician to grow up.
'I grew up across the street from DeFremery Park, where Sly Stone used to play and the Black Panthers would hold rallies,' he told The Las Cruces Sun-News in 2016. 'Today, you have 20 million rappers in one city; back then you had 20 million musicians, bands all over the place.'
He, his brother and his cousin were prodigious musicians. They played in their high school band, which performed in Europe and Hawaii, and all three went professional after graduating.
Mr. Wiggins joined a number of bands around Oakland and eventually went on tour with the gospel singer Tramaine Hawkins. His brother and Mr. Riley worked with the Scottish singer Sheena Easton and joined her on a world tour with Prince.
When the three returned to Oakland, in the mid-1980s, they decided to form their own band. The name Tony! Toni! Toné! came from a private joke about a mutual friend's name.
'When we came off the road, by that time we realized what we had — and that we could be making a lot of money and music as our own band,' Mr. Wiggins told The Los Angeles Times in 1997.
Along with 'Who?' and 'The Revival,' the band's albums included 'Sons of Soul' (1993), which went double platinum, and 'House of Music' (1996), which went platinum and is widely considered their best work.
The band broke up soon after 'House of Music' was released but reunited in 1998, without Mr. Saadiq, who went on to a successful career as a producer; Amar Khalil performed in his place. They did not release any new albums.
The original lineup of Tony! Toni! Toné! reunited in 2019 for a one-time concert, then again in 2023 for a short tour.
Along with his brother, Mr. Wiggins's survivors include a son, Dylan.
In 1995 Mr. Wiggins founded the company Grass Roots Entertainment and opened a studio, House of Music, in his home. It quickly became an incubator for new talent: Destiny's Child, Keyshia Cole and India.Arie all recorded there, and they all spoke often of Mr. Wiggins as an important mentor in their early careers.
'I love working with artists that I'm inspired by,' he told The Sun-News. 'I really like when I can be a fan of an artist and do production, because it's all about artists coming together and speaking, and seeing what magic they can create.'