Lauderdale: Star Hilton Head musician getting by with a little help from his friends

David Wingo is a name in lights when it comes to live music on Hilton Head Island.

For 40 years, he has entertained a sea of people from the Quarterdeck Lounge at the Harbour Town Lighthouse in the 1970s, '80s and '90s, to his gig Friday night at the Hurricane Bar at the Black Marlin Bayside Grill.

His own club, Wingo's, was a fixture in Park Plaza for another decade. It brought in Dr. Hook, the Ventures, Larry Coryell and Randy Lewis, the one-armed bass player for Mose Jones. Local John Mellencamp played unofficially a few times.

Comedians such as Ron White and Carrot Top performed there when they were $400 acts. Chris Farley visited when he was on the island trying to lose weight. One night, he came in character as "Saturday Night Live" mainstay Matt Foley.

Wingo's hosted the Hilton Head Jazz Society and its First Sunday Jazz events.

Wingo wrote and performed a song for Josh and Reva's wedding on the "Guiding Light" soap opera, which shot some Venezuela scenes on Hilton Head.

Wingo says he was pulled to the island as much for sailing as music.

"It was kind of like living the life of a Jimmy Buffett character," he said. "Sail to work -- stuff like that."

Now, at 63, he finds himself in horrible pain most of the time.

What happened next turns the spotlight around.

It makes headliners of the local audience, and a community of musicians who are not fully appreciated for the rhythm they bring to the island.

A FUNDRAISER

Wingo had lower-back surgery years ago, but he put it off when new pains needed to be checked.

"I let it go too long because I didn't have good insurance -- or any insurance," he said.

When he got an MRI recently, the problem turned out to be in his neck, not his back.

"You're in trouble," the doctor told him. "You're lucky you're not dead yet."

The word "critical" rang in his ears. So did talk of a severed spinal cord.

He needed immediate surgery to replace five vertebrae with steel. That will take place next Wednesday morning. After that would come lower-back surgery.

Health care is not talked about enough in a resort industry centered on party time.

"Musicians, as a whole, are self-employed," Wingo said.

Without access to relatively inexpensive, employer-backed health insurance, musicians can face a double-whammy. First are problems with proper health care. Then comes the out-of-work part of the problem.

"When you're not working, you're not making any money," Wingo said.

He said he has Obamacare.

But his musician friends knew he would need much more. Insurance will cover most of the $87,000 cost of surgery. But then will come a lot of extra expenses, and perhaps months of lost wages.

Shannon Tanner, one of the new generation of musicians whose names are in lights on Hilton Head, intervened. For more than 25 summers he has entertained at Shelter Cove Harbour with his Oyster Reefer Band. When he got started, he looked up to Wingo.

On Tuesday night, Shannon Tanner and the Oyster Reefer Band will headline a fundraiser for Wingo. Brian Goode has been the organizer. It starts at 6 p.m. at the new Rooftop Bar at Poseidon in Shelter Cove Towne Centre.

HELPING ONE ANOTHER

Wingo finds the experience humbling.

But it is not unusual.

Over the years, he and other musicians have staged fundraisers for one another.

A big one for the late Marilyn Daley comes to mind. She was Hilton Head's version of Janis Joplin, but was stricken by cancer as a young woman and was too ill to attend the fundraiser. Her husband and sons are still fixtures in the music scene, performing as Lowcountry Boil and in other acts.

About 50 musicians staged a concert to raise money to fight Alzheimer's disease after it claimed the life of Dick Mariotte, who wrote thousands of stories about local musicians in the former Hilton Head News.

Musicians staged the "Have a Heart -- Help a Friend" concert to cover health care costs for the late Codtney Ulmer, a bass player from Hardeeville.

The Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, which offers health care to the uninsured and underinsured who live or work on Hilton Head or Daufuskie islands, says 70 percent of its patients are employed.

The health care issue for hospitality workers is so dire that Lee Lucier, general manager of the S.C. Yacht Club at Windmill Harbour, started an organization this spring called HELP -- Hospitality Employees Life Program -- to raise money for VIM. It aims to help treat and prevent health care problems for hospitality workers, and he's looking for corporate sponsors.

"Hospitality workers go out and raise money for tons of charities," he said, "but they never reach out to themselves."

Wingo said he never thought he'd be on the receiving end.

"When people care for you, they really care for you a lot," he said. "I'm just floored. How do you thank them for that?"

Follow columnist and senior editor David Lauderdale at twitter.com/ThatsLauderdale and facebook.com/david.lauderdale.16.

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 7:34 PM with the headline "Lauderdale: Star Hilton Head musician getting by with a little help from his friends."