CRS Radio The Chat Reel With Billy and Friends Special Guest Billy Wilson

Motown Alumni Association

Billy James Wilson was born March 14, 1957, in Ann Arbor, Michigan to BJ and Anita Motley. He had 3 siblings and is the oldest of the group. He is the last living member of his immediate family (with the exception of his mother Anita).

Wilson originally grew up in Detroit, Michigan on a little known street called Mayberry Grand about a mile away from the former headquarters of Motown Records. Because of urban renewal the family was forced to Move to the small village of  Willow Run by the age of 6 years old. Where he lived down the street from Nick Ashford who would eventually become the second half of Motown songwriting team Ashford and Simpson; and around the corner of gospel great Marvin Miller, amongst others. Wilson’s parents broke up and went their separate ways by the time the move occurred, and when times got bad for his mother and she couldn’t properly take care of her four children, he and his siblings had to move with his father, who had moved to Ypsilanti Michigan a few miles from Willow Run.

With his father, Wilson lived a moderately middle-class life with his siblings and stepsister Chiquita Maine and Claudine Motley (his stepmother). His step mother (who he fell in love with immediately) “was a living, walking black Marilyn Monroe as far as he and my brother Bobby were concerned” said Wilson. “My last name is Wilson because my parents were not married when I was born” said Wilson. 

Wilson’s career started in Second Baptist church in Ypsilanti along with a bunch of family members what all went to the same church. His father forced Wilson to be a singer in church and he sucked really bad! Eventually as time went on he learned to sing well, got with his friend Tony Walker