MILFORD — Even at a young age, musician Junior Wilson was always a step ahead.
Recalled Mr. Wilson’s childhood friend, Greg Ellingsworth: “Before the music, when we were kids, we used to race go-karts. Junior was always 110% on whatever he did. I had a single-engine go-kart, West Bend, and he always had a double-engine go-kart that would go like 60 miles an hour.”
Later on, Mr. Wilson taught Mr. Ellingsworth how to play guitar. The latter became a successful musician himself, performing with Mr. Wilson in groups such as The Movies.
“He took me under his wing and has always been a great influence on me,” Mr. Ellingsworth said.
But, on Jan. 30, Mr. Wilson, a longtime local performer and builder of stringed instruments, took a fall at his Milford home studio. It resulted in surgery on his skull for internal bleeding, then months of rehabilitation and hospitalizations.
Mounting medical bills have followed, so Mr. Ellingsworth and a host of other supporters are looking to defray those costs with a Sept. 15 benefit at The Palace, 556 S. Dupont Blvd. in Milford. The event is set from 1-5 p.m.
Joining Mr. Ellingsworth will be Mr. Wilson’s longtime musical partner Chad “Chatty” Cooper; Edgar Fernandez, keyboard player for On the Edge, as well as Mr. Wilson’s former bandmate; Double Agent with Kathy Martin and Mike Naumann; saxophonist Everett Spells; and the duo Tricia & Matt.
DJ and entertainer Sky Brady will serve as host.
“A lot of people are interested in performing, and we’re just going to put it all together,” Mr. Ellingsworth said. “They’re going to do their thing, and we’ll probably end up all jamming together, also.”
In addition to his performances, Mr. Wilson is well known for building and repairing guitars. His fall occurred while working.
“He was going up the stairs one evening with two guitars in his hands, going up to his workshop,” Mr. Cooper told the Daily State News in May. “He lost his balance and fell back all the way down the steps.”
He got up from the fall with a bit of blood on his head, cleaned up and continued with his night. However, his wife, Bonnie Wilson, then noticed he was slurring words and took him to the emergency room at Bayhealth Hospital, Sussex Campus, Mr. Cooper explained.
Mr. Wilson was eventually transferred to Bayhealth’s Dover hospital to be closer to his surgeon.
He was later sent to St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington to begin rehabilitation, then moved closer to home, to the Polaris Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center in Milford. There, he celebrated his 75th birthday in April.
“He has suffered ups and downs in the past seven months, but he’s home now and pushing through extensive rehab. He has a long way to go, but we all have faith, and many friends and family (members) are praying for full recovery,” Mr. Ellingsworth said.
Due to his injury, Mr. Wilson was noticeably absent from his regular gig at the Delaware Electric Cooperative’s annual meeting at the Delaware State Fairgrounds in Harrington last month.
And, though unable to perform presently, Mr. Wilson hopes to attend the upcoming benefit.
“We’ve been friends forever. It really messed me up when he (had the accident),” Mr. Ellingsworth said.
“I was talking to him the day or two before. He was full of ambition, doing this and that and everything, and then, next thing, nothing.”
Fifty percent of the proceeds from food and drink sales during the gathering at The Palace will go toward Mr. Wilson’s medical bills. Donations will also be taken.
Junior Wilson’s story began when he was born Alden Wilson Jr. on April 4, 1949, on a pony farm between Lincoln and Ellendale. His mother played the organ, and his father the guitar.
Since age 5, when he started playing steel guitar in church, Mr. Wilson has entertained folks all over the mid-Atlantic, either as a solo act or in a number of bands, while performing on nine instruments.
In a 2020 interview with the Daily State News, he compared his love of music to walking into a big house.
“It’s like you walk into a room, and there’s four doors, and you walk through one door, and here’s another room with four more doors, and you walk into another room,” he said.
“If you’re cocky and you think you got it, you’re sadly mistaken. You think you’re a master of something. You’re not a master of anything. There’s too much to know.”
Back in 1958, his father, Alden Wilson Sr., opened a music shop on Walnut Street in Milford and then expanded to a store on Loockerman Street in Dover. It was at the Milford location where Mr. Ellingsworth and the younger Mr. Wilson came together when they weren’t racing.
“He lived in Lincoln, and I lived in Milford, which was close by,” said Mr. Ellingsworth, who now resides in Harrington.
“My mom and dad knew his mom and dad. And, lucky him, he grew up in a music store. He is three years older than me, but back in the day, three years made a difference. I always looked up to him, and I envied him that he could play anything with strings on it. He was amazing, and I never got to that point.
“He can play banjo, fiddle, mandolin, whatever, and I basically can play guitar and bass and a little bit of keyboard. He even had one of those big stand-up harps that he could play,” Mr. Ellingsworth continued.
“He is so knowledgeable. And he did better, businesswise, repairing instruments, than he did playing.”
In an interview four years ago, Mr. Wilson said he thinks of his instruments as his buddies.
“They’re kind of like your friends or your cohorts. You’ve got instruments that you really love. And, sometimes, your initial thing, you say, ‘Well, I should really like this instrument, but I’m not connecting with it.’ And, sometimes, you say, ‘Well, I just don’t like the tonality of it. I don’t like the shape of the neck, the things that are tangible,’” he said.
“And, other times, it’s like just a bandage. It just takes one thing.”
Mr. Ellingsworth is hoping to see many of Mr. Wilson’s friends and admirers at the benefit concert. Everyone, he said, is rooting for Mr. Wilson’s recovery.
“He’s not depressed at all because he really doesn’t understand all of what’s happened,” Mr. Ellingsworth said. “But he’s a fighter. He always has been. He’s still pushing, and we’re still hoping and praying.”
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