![\"Hot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b10252b0fc7cb36c44a4736baf395c88.png\"\/)
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Hot Chocolate singer Tony Wilson has died aged 78 (ITV Archive)<\/p>\n
Hot Chocolate singer Tony Wilson, best known for the hit song You Sexy Thing, has died aged 78.<\/p>\n
The bassist and co-founder of the beloved 1970s British soul band died in his native Trinidad on Friday, his family confirmed.<\/p>\n
Wilson\u2019s son<\/a> Danny revealed Wilson kept \u201cstaggering\u201d secret diaries<\/a> that detailed his and l<\/a>ead singer Errol Brown\u2019<\/a>s struggle to form Hot Chocolate in 1969 in the \u201ccut throat\u201d music<\/a> industry.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been an emotional weekend. On Friday, my dad, the one and only TONY Wilson Musician passed away, aged 89, at his home in Trinidad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWords don\u2019t do justice to the admiration I have for him as a human being or for his dedication to make his dream of getting the songs he wrote be heard.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until my mum dug out some old diaries of his from 1970 and \u201971 that I realised just how hard he had to work to achieve this dream.\u201d<\/p>\n Tony Wilson performing alongside Hot Chocolate bandmate Patrick Olive in 1974 (ITV Archive)<\/p>\n Danny went on: \u201cTrust me, it is truly staggering. The knock backs, the interviews, the touring, the radio shows, the meticulous documenting of record sales.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the pressures of what was a cut throat music industry in the 70s. It\u2019s all in those diaries.<\/p>\n \u201cI had the privilege of sitting down with him and going through those diaries with him on my trip to Trinidad with my family last year, and I will hold that memory dear for the rest of my days.\u201d<\/p>\n Hot Chocolate became the first predominantly Black British band to find success in the US charts.<\/p>\n (from left) Errol Brown, Larry Ferguson, Tony Wilson and Patrick Olive with Jackie Collins in 1974 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n They were best known for their 1975 hit You Sexy Thing, as well as Everyone\u2019s A Winner and Cheri Babe.<\/p>\n Wilson\u2019s daughter also shared an emotional statement to her father, recalling his final moments.<\/p>\n \u201cDad left us today, April 24th 2026. He left a lot of music behind\u2026forever and ever,\u201d she wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n \u201cI am thankful that on Friday 17th during our conscious talk time he was led to the Lord with understanding.<\/p>\n \u201cSome mornings later he asked for prayers. He said that he was leaving.<\/p>\n \u201cThe peace that I have is knowing that his soul escaped. He is in and at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson\u2019s cause of death is not yet known.<\/p>\n The musician left Hot Chocolate in 1975 to pursue a solo career and released two albums – I Like Your Style and Catch One.<\/p>\n He had already debuted as a solo act in 1964 before co-founding Hot Chocolate, writing several songs that made it onto UK charts.<\/p>\n He penned songs for Herman\u2019s Hermits, Mary Hopkins, and Mavin John among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hot Chocolate singer Tony Wilson has died aged 78 (ITV Archive) Hot Chocolate singer Tony Wilson, best known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[190722,96,190719,59,190720,177548,190721,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-554958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-diaries","tag-entertainment","tag-errol-brown","tag-gb","tag-patrick-olive","tag-tony-wilson","tag-trinidad","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/33968b4e59dff3a23cb767c4c8c6300c.png\"\/)
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